the poetry of a frog chorus...

"wang zisun once told me this story.

he was in the capital when he saw a man putting on a performance in the marketplace, with a wooden box divided into twelve sections, each of which contained a crouching frog. whenever he tapped one of the frogs on the head with his little baton, it began to croak. if he was given money, he would start tapping the frog's heads in earnest one after the other, producing an orchestral sound like a set of gong-chimes, every note perfectly pitched and clearly audible."

pu songling (1640 - 1715), strange tales from a chinese studio