1960-01-06 — Page 6

Pase a

THE CHINA MAIL, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6, 1960.

LAND OF LEGENDS

The

new territories

story

THE New Territories are well known to most residents in Hongkong today as a scene of sunlit busy farms, dotted here and there with large and modern factories, gleaming white beaches for summer pleasure, and small vigorous towns hustling with the commerce of farm produce

But there is also another picture of this ancient land, seen by a very

fow

A visitor to the summit of the hill known as "Lo Fu Shan" (Tiger's Hill) in the eerie first light before dawn, will see a scene with all the mystic and beautiful quality of an ancient Chinese brush painting.

that is

A thick soft blanket of aro mist Iping on water disturbed only in pluers by the ripple of fish, rivera med of the land and core, wisps abour ancient

of

Then

suddenly grandma the great-great-grandson

realised the new-born boy was Tang Fu-barch, founder of the

and clan in the New Territories, still steeping in the cradle.

A.D. Tangs, since 960 Than The

they migrated south- wood-sankce rize when

farm-houses, wardy, have been the biggest and the blue-grey mountain clan in the N.T.-and are even Tower high above the

مردم

sleeping ralley..........

Ntilt-

so today.

Years passed, and the Tartars Prince away. tiven

the

Wire

14

This mylie HAN like ti- New Territories, we all know, is a fitting writing angsite f which is many legends have been passed down from genera, tion to generation,

Amah's rock

aboul

is the

Heng Wong ascended throne a Emperor Kao Treng of the Sung Dynasty,

He recognised his daughter's mariage, and bestowed on her husband a title, and on her in- 1w A large dowry, tax-

rights, and collecting nopoly on all the ferries the Tung Kung District.

A

When she died, the Princess was buried in Sai Tse Shan the (Lom's Mountain)

Shek

Tren near Shek Lung.

F

To begin with, there

fabi famous Amab's Rock - A rock resembling a woman carrying baby on her back atop a in this very valley in Shatin..

10 The The story dates back 13th century

woman when a to Shafin with her placing came newlywed husband-a member maticy) of the Emperor's bodyguard

Scarcely had the couple

the

Some 300 years later, Tangs had a streak of bad luck, slan of the wise men thought the ill-fortune was con- the nected in some way with

Shuf-Geo ("Fung of the Princess' guve, They consulted a young "Fung Shu diviner, So, who decided was the crave.

settled down thon a war broke it best to alter the position of

The defent,

out. Te young man ordered away to Canton. royal force suffered a much to the anxiety of the walting young wife.

had the meantime the In bore him a son, and to keep her child. herself and her mother-in-law alive, she gathered Brewood on the hill- nide to sell at market.

And as she roamed the hills day after day she sang:

"I scale the mountains dally In a sad frame of mind, The country lads who pass

by watch Inse From behind.

My heart is firm as a rock

by the riverside, But Oh my Bonny, you are

atil beyond the tide." She would then climb the laf and from its summit scan horizon for her husband. lasted for many years,

One

Royalty

the

This

'Fung Shui'

But when the tombstone was removed, the workmen fell back in shock-they had unearthed a brass tablet hidden in a recess,

They hurriedly summoned So, who examined and found faded inscription carved op its face. Reading the characters, So his felt a hill Tremble down

pine. It stated:

years

"Three hundred hener, an ignaran! young man called So, who knows nothing of Fung Shul' will decide to alter the vile, of my grave.

he dors so- not only win ill-fortune continue with the

but

Tube, befall So..... Needless tu atir that the hurriedly restored

calamity will

Krave was and left alone.

Sterped in folklore. The Tangs, N.T's royal clan, have many a weird story to tell.

they had me husband interview

listening with bated breath

In

to

PART TWO

She hurried in rushed out with the baby in her arms, and red.

With a deafening band, the coins suddenly dropped on the ground all covered with mud unch soil.

"If you are indeed my grand

clean son's coins, wou should

*

Innant, the astonished on- -lookers rebuked the nagging

old woman,

came

Then they heard the tinkling

The coins sound again, back! On reaching the house, they dropped бозел, clean

yourselves up before coming like new! here," scolded the meticulous grandnia. "How can I pick you up like that?**

The coins started rolling themselves round and round on the ground and in no time, took to the air and How away.

On being picked up. villagers found exceptionally large coins bearing two characters "Shing Kwong the name of the new born child!

Another gend la a similar vein told of the Tang Clan was in Shul al to have occurred Mei Truen in 1906.

ON THE

'All right, men.

Stop feeling

sorry for

yourselves.

Action stations!

FOURTH DAY Prepare to dive!'

The year is 1962 and Australia is the last foothold of mankind in the aftermath of nuclear war. The rest of the world's population has either been vaporised in hydrogen bomb blasts or killed by radiation sickness as the fatal fall-out drifted on the winds. My name in Julian Osborn and as a scientist I predict that Australia, spared until now by treak weather conditions, will be enveloped in the radiosetive polson within a few months. While we wait for IT, we seek distraction in virions WAY). For me, it is Unkering with a sports car. For Dwight Towers. commander of the American submarine Sawfish which managed to escape to Melbourne, it is beautiful Moira Davidson. Then suddenly our hopes are awakened as sinister radio calls lu Morse Code, gibberish apparently tapped out by a madman, are picked up. They come 'from California, Towers takes Bawish to invesilgate. I go along, too, to check radiation hazards.

ALL that day, and all

through the next

night, the Sawfish press-

by Leonard Mosley

By DAVID LAN

misty

fir Anch

A Thing rye-witness, MT to the steep slope of the Tang Lock-chi, now 67, Bild: "I Castle Peak, clad in tids Hong near that house, eucalyptus trets, That afternoon the occupant, Oner. It was said, Pooi To an old woman, left to play wanted to cross a river. The cards with her cousin In a bontman, sizing up his rags, neighbouring house.

doubtra lils ability to pay and refused to ferry him,

A crash

"At about 3 pm, I heard n baug and a crash as if a house was collapsing. We all rushed to the scene, and saw the roof of the old lady's house broken up.

"A stream of silver coins wan dying out of the gap,

"The cloud uf coins moved away in a northwest direction and eventually disappeared in- to the distance.

in

"Entering the woman's house, we found that the openlag the cool Was immediately above 1 dry well in her kitchen ooг.

filled out with

Pool To tossed his big wooden cup on the trater and floated across i 423

And this was how

peopln have come to call Castle Peak also by the name of Pool To Shan (Pool To meaning "Cup Ferry").

These are ser a few relectri erdimples from

of thousands Irgends which shroud our New Territories with a new farcina- tion. Sper diten not allow me to relate mare,

After I had written this article, an expert on N.T. folk- lore told me he thought these tales-most of which are <wn- cerned with sudden riches. remanco reflecled a secret yearning by the hard-pressed peasant for all the good things. lnmous

in life-wealth, love, covered with dag-

and security,

And considering their

up. leaving a handicapped environment,

"The well, earth and stone, was also ripped open, the flagstones broken apart and the earth thrown yawning cave underground"

Many villagers in Kam Tin the theory sounds pretty

having

this plausible claimed happen. They also called 12 "Ngan Tau Laan."

Evra more

the made war

first tegend of Poal To, the abbot of A centuries-old clinging monastery (425 A.D.)

SATURDAY

Our Farmers

BEACH

Sundstrom put on a radiation suit. "just stay one hour," said Towers

The shower lu the escape hatch. Ten

junior radio

CAN YOU REAT THAT. WE operator

ACROSS fuil ainutes. And bring back Ewung round on his seat, face CAME HALFWAY

want to see alight.

THE WORLD JUST TO FIND no souvenir. All

A COLA BOTTLE HITTING A come back through this hatch is

MORSE TAPPER EVERY you-naked as a baby. Under-

ed South towards San and plugged in the loudspeaker, lights for the HOT part of the stand?" Diego.

Sundstrom

blinked

Wait-and pray

and

It was still there! The message sign were blazing! All otus of hope still sounded!

knew what that meant.. Some- where in that installation, a nodded behind his glass helmet. "But it still doesn't make any machine WIS still running,

Sundstrom. sense," said

"It's making clectric power -- power still just gibberish."

Heddled with his calipers On 2 map and then swung Commander Towers, calculations are right, should be just opposite the Installation

Not that we knew, ex- cept from the chrono- meters, whether it was day or night. We were moving at slow speed to round to conserve the energy in "It my before Tang Three nights

our nuclear batteries, about Shing-kwong was born in Kam

In the Ching Dynasty of and we were crawling now."

Bres in along the bottom. reared red and green

clay her returned and rushed up the hill

So excited was this tale to greet her, the poor woman that she fainted and died in his arms.

which Tin At once the rock on

mid-18th her

she had slood walch for

husband took on the form of a

eentury,

woman. Today in rain or shine, the northwestern sky.

she stands there watching and walling

faithfully

husband.

This is but

for

her

romantie onc legend the New Territories

descent

'Sycee'

there

zp-

The morning after the birin

of the boy on the site of Nan

ing the minimum of

radio-

At that depth, we were suck-

into our purifiers. active air Thai meant would live longer.

.

we

we

and the

What If the cignals had ceased by the time we reached periscope depth again?

But it also meant that have handed down to us about a Teng, south of Kat Hing Wal, could no longer. hear the woman.

moated and walled village in mystery radio signals - the Once upon a time, a woman of royal

lent rezat Kam Tin, people were startled signals that, marant so much, so splendour to a local clan in the by tinkling noises far away in much hope, for us

world. a mere the heavens. Territories by New touch of fate during the Suur Dynasty.

As the legend goes, wave of fierce Tariars from the north turn of overran China at the

Century, capturing the th almost all of the Sung's Royal Family.

princess, daughter of But

Wong,

acom Prince Hong panied by her palace maids, ded southwards and escaped,

ing

through

Nex!, they saw a cloud, of mysterious objects, güttering black and white like a flock of herois, dying towards them.

The cloud, coming overhead, circled round and round above the boy's house.

could

Gibberish

explain, we

The stutter very loud now.

of Morse

was

"Aft right." Towers barked out the order. "Up periscope. Let's have a look what we can sec out there,"

:

Electrified

His voice was dead level, but a nerve was jumping under his temple. He pulled down the flaps and put his eyes to the

in his breath, He turned to glass. Then I heard him suck

Ine,

"Take a look, Jullan,"

was

to light the sign, power to work a radio....provided there someone there to put his fingers to the Morse key.

The crew had put the boat in the escape chamber, and Sund- strom come back from his

MOIRA, THE GIRL, WAITING FOR TOWERS BACK IN MELBOURNE,

cabin, He was encased

of

It was a United States naval I looked in the faces installation, and its huge trans-

Towers and crew. They were all thinking mitters poked their way

the misty blue sky-the kind

And now the people see that the cloud consisted of Blying "gyece," the silver coins Commander which were legal tender then.

The crowd broke out

his

time we get

was an

sir! "I Sundstram,

IIe's found the radiot lie's sending TIME a message about "

THE WIND BLEW. AIN'T THAT THE END OF THE WORLD.

I looked at Towers and saw bim swallow. Then he said, He stopped then, and there culmly: "All right.

crewman Keep was silence unti

"Ain't that the end of calm. Take it down, and let said:

the world! It sure is, brother, me see it."

it sure is"

the

Towers went on: "There's no

We walled

ફ again, point in your taking a watch, You'd just have to ditch that operator listened and scribbled on his pad. It was sheer agony too. We'll give you a biost every

now, We bent our heads down When you quarter of an hour. hear the third quarter-it. I and found 11 hard to breathe, don't care if you've found

And then at last, with a slow tribe of beautiful girls with four legs apleco drop it and gesture, as if he were peeling come back home, before you're the last leaf of the last tree in

radioactive

taken the world, the o ubourd." We watched In turns Towers the mea

too

to be

a

through the periope US Sundstrom rowed ashore. We saw him took in the small cafe. We saw him

up a disappear road towards the power plant.

Vor handed

Explanation

And then?

We waited, every man ulone with himself, ualli Sundstrom came back. Then Towers spoke up.

"All right, men. Stop feeling toury for yourselves. Everyone, sellon

stutionst Prepare · dive!"

10

The alarm bells sounded. The periscope came down with- I couldn't bear it any longer, out any one of us wanting to "For God's aske, Dwight," i said "read it aloud!"

And then all we could do was wall. All we could do was stare at that red neon sign and

"All right. He held up the listen to the gibberish stutter- sheet and his hand was trem- ing through the loudspeaker bling. This is it, men,"

and pray.

And then he began to read:

ΤΟ

HEARD

take a last look this time—and then the Bawfish plunged down below the sea again.

"Where do we со Dwight?" I asked Towers,

"Melbourne. Whero

now,

elset"

"Fifteen minutes, captain,"

THIS 18 SUNDSTROM. be said. HAVE EXAMINED PLANT, Towers nodded to the crew- FOUND IT STILL FUELLED There was half a smile on his man and pressed a button, and UP AND RUNNING TROUGH face, and I think there must the siren sounded out. Then ALL PERSONNEL DEAD. have been on mine, too. For 1 in his we settled down to walt again, PROCEEDED

RADIO was thinking of what was wait- protective clothing, with a huge no one spalding, no one looking ROOM.

RADIO ing for me in Melbournoy with the same thing: "Pray God it transmitters that could carry head. There

glass panes helmet over his at each other; Ell of us feeling: STILL OPERATING As I lovely new sports car, barndahed oxygen like drowning men in sight of AFFEQACHED DOOR. bright, And Dwiglit? Ho was One day while wearily steal the cry, "Ngan Tau Laam Naan will still be sending out a message all the way across the

tank strapped to his buck.

allfebelt.

ENTERED RADIO ROOM obviously thinking of Moirs. Tarlar-infested Tau Lannt" ("The silver coins message by the

globe.

EX ECTING TO FIND welcome sight fly home! The silver coins fly there." land, she saw

"Okay,” Towers spoke briskt- "Thirty minutes, captain," OPERATOR AT KEYBOARD. But what else waited for us But I suddenly realised thint

understand whak You

ITH NO BOAP. solitary Sung dag guttering home?">

It Was military

down this was not what had made ly. just before The aged grandmother of the

The diren sounded again. And FOUL' UF. in the breeze over a

We put you

QUY you've got to do. o takil when Towers gave the crder Towers drawn-breath. in for house at once laid out

BADIO ·BEFORE with almost as its wall died away WORKED camp

out of the escape watch the Sawah began ber in the open air set with the

coming HE ashare, the tuttering nota

DIED WAS DRINKING protection.

both ascent to periscope It was something else. It was the boat and you row

the loudspeaker SOFT DRINK, BOTTLE It was the force of Tang cups of tea and some joss stick.

kowtowed to the dying depth. Sundstrom, the radio u moall cafe on the edge of a: You stay pahore for the hour, through district officer of and Yuen-liang,

One hour. No changed.

ROLLED OVER AND FELL thecer, put on hla earphones quay, a few hundred yards Remember that.

AGAINST MORSE TAPPER.. Kung Yuen, in what is now cloud, belleving that was

from where we lay,

more...... known as the Kinngsi Province. way to bring the silver down,

However, even after rounds

Towers patrod and then read' With him, she moved further south until they came to Kam of kowtowing by the fly

hli valce now:--- Tin in 1127 AD. Ther she members, the dying silver was alề meried Tang's son, Tre-ming, still airborne.

went She

Thi

Vihtion

the

It was no longer gibberish "Thank you row back, slow the coming over. It was Morse,

· The cafe bad a sign on transt intersted frein the United for its my HOT DOGH. It boat, click the suit and oxygen rest honest-to-goodness Morse on, and, there was tim kunt on the devil by was a nesh sign. And the pươn lạnh. Everything. You take a Code

ALLA there?”-

mnalion in

TOMORROW:

The Climax

-fLondon Exprem Serulus),