efits of this kind." The people have no idea of a religion whose aim is to free from sin and make men pure.

Though the Chinese are good scholars and have many books, they are as superstitious as the lowest savages. They believe in ghosts and evil spirits, and one of their singular notions is that these evil spirits go in straight lines, and hence they make their streets crooked so as to confuse and keep off the bad spirits. They also believe in an oracle by which they

can foretell their fate. The picture above represents a person consulting this oracle before a priest. While incense is burning and crackers are fired off, to keep the god awake and attentive, the inquirer shakes a cup in which are placed strips of wood with some written words upon them, and from the strips that fall upon the ground he learns his fate.

Another singular notion of the Chinese is that they can convey to any spirit, whether human or divine, whatever they may please, by simply burning the article, or an image of it, in the flames. Hence as they think that a friend, after his spirit leaves the body, will need just what he needed here, they burn paper images of these objects, and so fancy that they reach the departed soul. A missionary describes a paper house which he once saw built for a person who had died. "It was about ten feet high and twelve deep. It contained a sleeping room, library, reception room, hall, and

treasury. It was furnished with paper chairs and tables. Boxes of paper money were carried in. There was a sedan-chair, with bearers, and also a boat and boatman, for the use of the deceased in the unseen world. A table spread with food was placed in front of the house." This whole paper establishment was suddenly set fire to, and in the midst of a fusilade of crackers it quickly vanished in the flames. What a pitiable notion this is as to what human souls will need in the future!

This idea that whatever is burned in the sacred flame is thus conveyed to unseen spirits, is applied to prayers. The Chinaman always writes his prayers and then burns them. So he fancies they go up to the god or spirit he would address. The practice of writing prayers explains the picture above. The priests behind the bar are filling up blank prayers,

according to the wishes of their customers who come with their various wants. People come to buy prayers for themselves and for others, and having had them filled out, they go away to burn them.

Among other singular customs of the Chinese are those connected with the death and burial of people. When any man is supposed to be dying he is taken into the hall of his house and washed and dressed in his best clothes. Of course such treatment often hastens death. When he is fairly dead a priest is called who exhorts the spirit to leave the body. Coins of gold or silver are put in the dead man's mouth. With these, it is supposed, he can pay his way in the other world. The coffin is usually all ready, since most Chinese make this provision for themselves long before they die. It is said that children often present their fathers and mothers with a coffin as a suitable birth-day gift when they have completed their sixty-first year. After the body has been closely sealed in the coffin, it is kept in the house

for fifty days of mourning. During each of these days, the family go into the street, and kneeling in front of the house they wail bitterly. All the relatives send offerings of food and money to be placed before the coffin

CHINESE FUNERAL PROCESSION.

for the use of the spirit which remains in the body. They imagine that each person has three souls, and on the twenty-first day of mourning they raise huge paper birds on long poles, and these birds are supposed to carry away one of the souls to heaven.

HOW THEY BURY THE DEAD.

Chinese carry it so far that they seek a lucky spot for a grave, and a lucky day and hour for the funeral. This often takes a long while, and a burial has been known to be delayed many months till a really lucky time could be pitched upon. When the day comes the people gather at the beating of gongs, and the priest calls upon the remaining spirit to accompany the coffin to the tomb. The procession is then formed, of which we have an engraving on the preceding page, taken from a native picture. The cere monies are almost endless, quite too many to describe here. Usually a band of musicians, or gong-beaters, goes first, then men with banners on which are inscribed the names and titles of the deceased and his ancestors. In the sedan chair which follows is placed the man's portrait. Then follow more gong-beaters, and near them a person who scatters on the ground paper money, representing gold and silver coins. This mock-money is supposed to be for the hungry ghosts who are wandering through the air, and will annoy the departed soul unless they receive toll. Then comes the coffin, and after that the relatives all clad in white, the mourning color in China.

On the arrival of the procession at the burial-place, a person who is supposed to be able to drive away evil spirits strikes each corner of the grave with a spear, and the priest calls upon the soul of the dead man to remain with his body in the tomb.

CRUELTIES TO CHILDREN.

Is not all this a sad story of superstition? And the Chinese in some directions are as cruel as they are superstitious. If they are kind to their parents, they are inhuman to their children. The girls suffer most. Their feet are tightly bound to keep them small, in a way to give them constant pain. The wail of the poor feet-bound girls is heard far and wide in China. And in some provinces parents kill their daughters and nothing is thought of it. It is said that in the great city of Foochow, more than half of the families have destroyed one or more of their daughters.

What can save such a people but the gospel of Jesus? It is pleasant to close this sad story of wickedness and superstition by telling how the light is beginning to shine in the midst of the darkness. Thirty-five years ago no Protestant missionary was permitted to live within the bounds of China. Now twenty-six missionary societies are maintaining laborers, and 312 churches have been organized, with 13,035 members. Between forty and fifty thousand people have left their idol worship, and are hearing the gospel of Jesus. Will not some of the young people who have read this story of China ask God to fit them to go to that land with the blessed Word of Life?

THE question asked above brings to mind the following letter recently received at the Missionary Rooms:

"This year Margaret and I have saved fifty cents each for foreign missions. I am very glad that the Herald has a department for children, though mamma always reads the other part to us, and we both hope to be missionaries.