MR. WANG also told me that there was a man at Ch'ang-an who made his living by exhibiting performing mice. He had a pouch on his back in which he kept some ten of these little animals; and whenever he got among a number of people he would fix a little frame on his back, exactly resembling a stage. Then beating a drum he would sing some old theatrical melody, at the first sounds of which the mice would issue forth from the pouch, and then, with masks on their faces, and arrayed in various costumes, they would climb up his back on to the stage, where standing on their hind-legs they would go through a performance portraying the various emotions of joy and anger, exactly like human actors of either sex.
鼠戲
一人在長安市上賣鼠戲,背負一囊,中蓄小鼠十余頭。每于稠人中,出小木架置肩上,儼如戲樓狀。乃拍鼓板,唱古雜劇。歌聲甫動,則有鼠自囊中出,蒙假面,被小裝服,自背登樓,人立而舞。男女悲歡,悉合劇中關目。
鼠戲
一人在長安市上賣鼠戲,背負一囊,中蓄小鼠十余頭。每于稠人中,出小木架置肩上,儼如戲樓狀。乃拍鼓板,唱古雜劇。歌聲甫動,則有鼠自囊中出,蒙假面,被小裝服,自背登樓,人立而舞。男女悲歡,悉合劇中關目。
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