in the dream

i visit two old chinese women in their small apartment. we are friends. they show me pictures. we drink wine, eat small dainties. talk of obscure things. in one of the pictures, one of the women present is holding up her small shoe and smoke is puffing out.. what's this i say.. so she leads me into another room where an incense brazier is burning and takes off her shoe and holds it for a long time over the stream of smoke. then suddenly she strikes the sole of the shoe with the palm of her hand and a big mushroom of lavender smoke puffs out. you can make two stones out of one bird she says, and i notice the floor of the room is covered in a thick carpet of small flat stones, and the incense brazier is in the shape of a cawing crow, but wearing raised taotie epaulet designs..