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all enjoyed in spite of fate. The story seems to have been written for the express purpose of counteracting the general belief in the decrees of immutable destiny, and lessening the credit of astrologers.

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The general proneness of the Chinese to superstitious practices (most of which pertain to the Taou sect) could not be more completely proved than by an account of the charms, talismans, and felicitous appendages hung up in houses, or worn about the person, specimens of which were sent home to the Royal Asiatic Society by Mr. J. Morrison, a son of the late Doctor.* It will be sufficient if we describe a few of these. Among the principal are money-swords," as they are called, consisting of a number of ancient copper coins, each with a square hole in the middle, fastened together over a piece of iron shaped like a sword with a cross hilt. These are suspended at the heads of sleeping-couches and beds, that the supposed guardianship of the sovereigns in whose reigns the coin was issued may keep away ghosts and evil spirits. They are chiefly used in houses or rooms where persons have committed suicide, or suffered a violent death; and sick people sometimes resort to them in the hope of hastening their recovery. Their efficacy is no doubt fully equal to that of a horseshoe nailed over a door, or any of those infallible devices formerly adopted in England against witches and ghosts. The Chinese have commonly a firm belief in, and consequently a great dread of, the wandering spirits of persons who have come to an unfortunate end, and which they denominate kuei. When Europeans first arrived in the country, their red or yellow hair, and high noses, were strongly opposed to the prevailing standard of Chinese comeliness. Mothers and nurses pointed them out as ogres and devils to their chil

* Royal Asiatic Transactions, vol. iii. p. 285.

dren, and hence the present term for any Europeans, fân-kuei, "foreign ghost, spirit, or devil," with some allusion, perhaps, to their wandering so far from their homes.

In illustration of the Chinese belief in ghosts, and what may be styled "demoniacal possession," may be adduced an occurrence which took place at Canton in 1817. The wife of an officer of government had occasioned the death of two female domestic slaves, from some jealous suspicions, it was supposed, of her husband's conduct towards the girls; and in order to screen herself from the consequences, she suspended the bodies by the neck, with a view to its being construed into an act of suicide. As the parents of the girls appealed to the magistrate for satisfaction, bribes were offered, and with success, to stop the progress of inquiry; but the conscience of the woman tormented her to such a degree that she became insane, and at times personated the victims of her cruelty, or, as the Chinese supposed, the spirits of the murdered girls possessed her, and employed her mouth to declare her own guilt. In her ravings, she tore her clothes and beat her own person with all the fury of madness; after which she would recover her senses for a time, when it was supposed that the demons quitted her; but only to return with greater fury, which took place a short time previous to her death.

In her last fit she became worse than ever, and was confined to a room with an old woman-servant. But the avenging demons (according to the Chinese), being incensed at this attempt to conceal guilt, possessed the old woman also, who, either from terror or sympathy, had become affected like her mistress. The latter died, and the affrighted husband endeavoured to quiet the distracted nurse, by telling her she should be maintained in

one of the Budhist nunneries, where she would become at length absorbed into the divine nature of Fo. She consented to this, on condition that he would worship her, which he forthwith pretended to do. The demon (say the Chinese), speaking by the old woman's mouth, further insisted that the two daughters, who had assisted the mother in maltreating the girls, should also come and worship, which was accordingly done; and on the arrival of the woman at the place of her retirement the souls of the murdered females, having been appeased by the foregoing occurrences, left her in possession of her perfect senses. It may be reasonably supposed that a train of circumstances like the preceding, in themselves sufficiently explicable on natural grounds, were magnified by ignorance and superstition into something preternatural.*

A common Chinese talisman † is the "hundred families' lock," to procure which a father goes round among his friends, and, having obtained from a hundred different parties a few of the copper coins of the country, he himself adds the balance, to purchase an ornament or appendage fashioned like a lock, which he hangs on his child's neck, for the purpose of locking him figuratively to life, and making the hundred persons concerned in his attaining old age. Another charm worn by children is a figure of the Ky-lin, a fabulous animal supposed to have appeared at the birth of Confucius, and therefore ominous of promotion and good fortune to the young. On the 5th day of the 5th moon, sprigs and cuttings of the Acorus calamus, and a plant called by the Chinese gae, are placed at the doors of houses to prevent all manner of evil from entering. The "peach charm" consists of a

* Chinese Gleaner, p. 144.

+ Royal Asiatic Transactions, ut supra.

sprig of that tree covered with blossoms, which, at the new year, is placed at doorways for the same purpose as the foregoing. The pa-kua, or eight mystical diagrams of Fo-hy, cut in stone or metal, are often worn as charms; and the bottle-gourd, a curious species of the genus cucurbitus closely resembling a bottle, is represented in ornaments as an emblem of longevity. We have before stated that the dried gourd itself, hung round the waists of children living in boats, frequently saves their lives by floating them until picked up after they have tumbled overboard.

One might be led to conclude that the Chinese were generally a very happy people, could this only be inferred from the value which they set on long life. The thing may be partly explained, however, by the great reverence with which age is always treated, and by the fact that old persons commonly enjoy an unusually great share of comparative ease and exemption from toil, by the services which both opinion and law impose on their juniors. The greatest favour and distinction that the emperor can bestow on one of his ministers is the word show, long life," written in a peculiar manner with his own hand, and supposed, no doubt, to be one of the best promoters of longevity. Persons of the lowest class, who have attained to an unusual age, have not unfrequently been distinguished by the emperor; and Kien-loong, when himself a very old man, gave a solemn feast to all his subjects, of every rank, who had passed the usual term of human life! No doubt this solid foundation of their social and political system, on the patriarchal basis, has contributed to its steady duration.

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The written spells which the Chinese sometimes use consist of mystical compounds of various characters, or words, in which astrology is generally introduced, with

VOL. II.

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the eight diagrams of Fo-hy, the twenty-eight lunar mansions, the five planets, &c. Some of these spells are kept about the person, others are pasted on the walls of rooms. "Occasionally," observes Mr. Morrison," they are used as cures for sick persons, by being either written on leaves which are then infused in some liquid, or inscribed on paper, burned, and the ashes thrown into drink, which the patient has to swallow." This is not much worse, however, than the aurum potabile of the old materia medica among ourselves. For some reason or other, bats (which the Chinese call fei-shoo, "flying mice") are looked upon as good omens, and constantly depicted as an emblem of felicity on various objects of use or ornament. Even in this, perhaps, there is as much reason as in the Roman notion of learning the secret of fate from the pecking of chickens, or in that zoological list of ill omens which Horace, either in jest or earnest, imprecates against the wicked :

"Impios parræ recinentis omen

Ducat, et prægnans canis, aut ab agro
Rava decurrens lupa Lanuvino,
Fetaque vulpes; " &c.

The Chinese look upon rooks as unlucky birds, whose visits prognosticate visits still more unpleasant from the mandarins. There is, however, a species of white-necked crow for which they have a high veneration, as was proved in the last embassy. A gentleman of the party had carried a gun with him, in one of those long walks which we were accustomed to take at the frequent points of sojourn. The unusual appearance of this crow, with a white cravat, led to its being for once considered as fair game, and the bird was shot. The occurrence was reported to the emperor's legate, who conducted the embassy, and from him an earnest request was conveyed to the ambassador that

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