Crossword-Solution: THAO 4 letters, 1 clue 🏆 scrabble score: 7

Chapter 8 A little disparate to the poem, Thao Nok Kaba Phuak, he dreamt he was a black version of a nightjar cradled by the Laotian queen whose pigment was as light as a northern Chinese woman.

But, saving the whispering of her name, what the trees say cannot be understood; and they alone remember the years of Sië-Thao.

Something concerning her you may also find in the book entitled "Kin-Kou-Ki-Koan," which signifies in our tongue: "The Marvellous Happenings of Ancient and of Recent Times." And perhaps of all things therein written, the most marvellous is this memory of Sië-Thao:-- Five hundred years ago, in the reign of the Emperor Houng-Wou, whose dynasty was _Ming_, there lived in the City of Genii, the city of Kwang-tchau-fu, a man celebrated for his learning and for his piety, named Tien-Pelou.

And when he dwelt in the land of Chou, was not his favorite the beautiful wanton Sië,--Sië-Thao, unmatched for grace among all the women of her day? It was he who made her a gift of those manuscripts of song; it was he who gave her those objects of rare art.

Never could he forget Sië-Thao; and yet it is said that he never spoke of her,--not even when his children begged him to tell them the story of two beautiful objects that always lay upon his writing-table: a lion of yellow jade, and a brush-case of carven agate.