The Mysterious Shin Shira | Page 2

or two. I'm partly a fairy myself.
"You see, it's this way," he went on hastily, seeing, I suppose, that I
looked somewhat surprised at this unexpected piece of information.
"Some hundreds of years ago--oh! ever so many--long before the
present Japanese Empire was founded, in fact, there was a man named
Shin Shira Scaramanga Manousa Yama Hawa----"
"Good gracious!" I exclaimed.
"Don't interrupt," said the little Yellow Dwarf, "it's rude, and besides,
you make me forget--I can't even think now what the rest of the
gentleman's name was--but anyhow, he was an ancestor of mine, and
that much of his name belongs to me."
"How much?" I inquired.
"Shin Shira Scaramanga Manousa Yama Hawa," repeated the Yellow
Dwarf; "but you needn't say it all," he added hastily, seeing, I suppose,
that I looked rather distressed, "Shin Shira will do; in fact, that's what I
am always called. Well, to continue. This ancestor of mine, part of
whose name I bear, did something or other to offend his
great-grandmother, who was a very influential sort of a fairy--I could
tell you the whole story, but it's a very long one and I'll have to tell you
that another time--and she was so angry with him that she condemned
him to appear or disappear whenever she liked and at whatever time or
place that she chose, for ever."
"For ever?" I inquired incredulously.
"Why not?" asked Shin Shira. "Fairies, you know, are immortal, and
my ancestor had fairy blood in his veins. Well, to make a long story
short, the spell, or whatever you choose to call it, which his

great-grandmother cast over him, didn't work in him, nor in his son, nor
even in his grandson; but several hundreds of years afterwards I was
born, and then it suddenly took effect, and I have always been afflicted
with the exceedingly uncomfortable misfortune of having to appear or
disappear whenever the old lady likes, and in whatever place she
chooses.
"It's terribly awkward at times, for one minute I may be in China taking
tea with a Mandarin of the Blue Button, and have to disappear suddenly,
turning up a minute later in a first-class carriage on the Underground
Railway, greatly to the surprise and indignation of the passengers,
especially if it happens to be over-crowded without me, as it very often
is.
"Not but what it has its advantages too," he added thoughtfully, "and
this very power of being able to disappear suddenly has just got me out
of a most serious dilemma."
"Won't you tell me about it?" I inquired with considerable curiosity, for
I was beginning to be very interested in this singular little person's
account of himself.
"With pleasure," said Shin Shira; and settling himself more
comfortably in "the Toad," resting his elbows on the arms of the chair,
and placing the tips of his fingers together, he told me the following
story.
"The very last place in which I appeared before turning up here, was in
the grounds of the Palace belonging to the Grand Panjandrum--"
"Where is that situated, if you please?" I ventured to inquire.
Shin Shira gave me a quick glance.
"Do you mean to say that you actually don't even know where the land
of the Grand Panjandrum is?" he asked. "H'm! well," he continued as I
shook my head, "I remarked a short time ago that you didn't look very
clever, but really, I couldn't have believed that you were so ignorant as

all that. You'd better look it up in your atlas when I am gone, I can't
bother to explain where it is now--but to resume my story. I appeared
there, as I said, and in the middle of the kitchen garden all amongst the
cabbages and beans.
"I could at first see nobody about, but at last I heard somebody singing,
and presently came upon a man carrying a basket in which were some
cabbages that he had evidently just gathered.
"Although he was singing so cheerfully, his head was bound up with a
handkerchief, and I could see that his face was badly swollen.
"When he had come a little nearer, I bowed politely and inquired of
him what place it was, for my surroundings were quite strange to me, it
being my first visit to the neighbourhood.
"He told me where I was, and explained that he was the Grand
Panjandrum's Chief Cook, and that he had been to gather cabbages to
make an apple pie with."
I was about to ask how this was possible, when I caught Shin Shira's
eye, and I could see by the light in it that he was expecting me to make
some inquiry; but I was determined that he should not again have the
opportunity of remarking upon my ignorance, so