in the opposite direction. I followed, trying to keep him within view, but as fast as I walked I could not catch up. At times I lost sight of him altogether and amidst the crowds thought I would never find him again, but, just when I least expected, he would reappear at some distance from me. I would see him playing with a child or talking with a stranger.
I watched as lovers walked hand in hand and gazed upwards at rockets which streaked the sky and filled it with a thousand stars. Old and young, all were nodding and smiling, and the huge milky moon shone down upon them from the distant mountains.
At length I came to a stall which was built like a small theatrical stage. Above was a sign in elaborate gold lettering which read ‘Lovely Flutes’ and beneath this, sitting on a low chair on top of the slightly raised platform, was a young Japanese girl.
The girl's face was tilted to one side and was clown-white with huge green fish eyes. Her top half was clothed in layers of silk which were pulled up over her knees to expose her legs and the small opening of her sex. I could see her white stockings and then the skin of her thighs and the small triangle of rich dark hair.
She leant back with her hands on the floor behind her and relaxed her legs, and it was as if a flower had unfolded for she had been tattooed in that region with the shape ofa full-blown rose. I could see the two perfect pink folds of skin like bruised petals at the centre.
Before her stood a line of men and again I saw the man I had been following. I did not approach him but rather moved to one side to view the scene.
The first man in the queue stood directly before her and then picked up from the table a very fat, long hollow bamboo shoot amongst an array of differently sized ones. He put one end of the tube to his mouth whilst positioning the other as close as possible to the girl's open sex without quite touching it. The man then bent his legs slightly and blew and the girl began to sway her hips from side to side as though following the tickle of the breath being blown down the flute. I could see her thigh muscles move and I wanted to put my hands on them and feel each muscle as it pulled and contracted. I wanted to feel the pulse of her blood and of her body. The man blew harder and the girl's entire body swayed around the stream of air like a snake might sway to the sound of a flute. I could see that the opening of her sex was moist with desire and seemed to grow larger with each breath of air. She looked so warm inside. The man controlled her with the tip of the flute and the warmth of his breath and eventually the girl began to giggle at the tickle of this breath. The man's cock was hard and taut, his erection bulging from beneath his trousers, but once the girl had laughed he immediately passed the flute to the next in line and disappeared inside a small red tent which stood to one side of the stage.
In all, I watched eleven men choose a flute and attempt to make the girl laugh in this manner. Three succeeded and each of them passed into the red tent beyond, while the rest disappeared into the crowd. Then I felt someone tapping on my shoulder and when I turned around an old woman stood behind me.
‘You want to go inside?’
‘Yes,’ I said and she took me by the hand and led me to the back of the tent and drew me in.
A long line of girls were kneeling on the floor and a screen with round holes of differing size, each at waist level, stood before them. The girls were licking and sucking at cocks passed through the holes, some of which were fat and stubby and some of which were long and thin.
‘The girls all have their preferences,’ the woman said. ‘I measure them when they enter.’ She pulled out a long tape from her pocket. ‘And you?’ she asked.
I motioned with my hands the size I desired and she led me to a hole about three-quarters of the way up the screen where I knelt down in the dirt to wait. Eventually I watched as the