The Portland daily press., 1863-06-29
Manners and Customs Of the ..Cele.tiaIs.',


When DIR. Mcgowan delivered bis lectures
in this city on Japan, he spoke of the effect Of
the doctrine ofmetempsychosis, or transmigra-
ton of souls, upon that people and their Chi
nese neighbors, and stated that under the
influence of this deluson, men could be hired
for a moderate sum of money to become sub
stitutes for those condemned to death. About
$50 was the sum named by the Doctor as the
average amount requisite to hire Chinaman
to suffer death. He did not attribute this APP
parent cheapness Of life in the estimation of
the Chinese, to any innate indifference to exis-
tence, but rather to their religious belief that
death causes no extinction of being, but only
allows the soul to pass into another body and
to exist under another form a lower and less
desirable form possibly, but possibly also under
o higher and more exalted form. The China
men of low degree will take the chanc es
between more desirable existence and an
existence of lower order, for the sum de-
manded for becoming substitute.
The following extract from the Shanghai cor
respondence of the New York Evening Post,
refers to the singular and unnatural custom
spoken of by DIR. Mcgowan.
There is to be an execution to-day; let us
go along the Yang King-Pang creek, and look
into this proposed decapitation of five poor
Cinnamon; only five among people of 40O-
100000. Life is very cheap in China. Here
comes the procession - first the knife-rnan,
who does the bloody work, swinging the in
strument as he goes along; then the Mandarin,
who is to superintend this pleasant Sunday
pastime. He is borne in his chair or palan-
quin. robed in furs and smoking his little
opium pipe with perfect abandon; on each
side are his body guard, while closing the
rear are the five proposed victims strictly
guarded. One of them has a mild, gentle
tace-can he be q criminal? Let us ask: the
dollar here, as everywhere, will open close
mouths. The fact is this the one who was to
have been beheaded offered a bonus to any
one who would lose his neck instead, and this
poor fellow, who at the best can only earn a
few cash per day. Ia cash is the one-thousandth
part of a centD has taken the money and
loses his head for the sake of his family. This
is one of the Chinese fashions. II we went
to the "bloody ground probably we would
see the victims disemboweled, their hearts
torn out, and slices cut from them all while
yet alive.
The Posts correspondent describes one OF
which, while it may sicken the heart Of the
reader, will afford an index to the grossness of
paganism, and by contrast with the orphan
asyums and kindred institutions of christian
lands, show to what extent the world is in
debted for the light of christian truth, and
what il has done TO cmancipate the human
mind from inhumanty aud degradation. Pass
ing from the execution above described he
says:
We viii visit the "baby tower" Nominally
this is intended as place for the poor Chinese
to throw in their children, if too poor TO bury
them. The distance is considerable, and you
have to go through the China City, which is
walled in and entirely distinct from the Eng
lish, French aud American concession. The
streets are so narrow that one could lean out
OF any OF the projecting windows and kiss his
sweetheart on the other side, without any very
great exertion of the muscles. In every street
and lane the coolies throng with their heavy
loads and their ugly notes, and all kinds filth
salute your nostrils as you pass. On our way
we pass many black boxes containing the
dead, which viii be left outside the limits and
allowed TO be consumed by dogs. Here is the
''baby tower" but few feet high, with steps
leading to IL and a fearful stencil all about 1t.
Let us look in. DO you think all the little
babes placed here are dead? BY no means.
Population is so dense, and female children es-
pecially are so undesirable among so many,
that it becomes CONVENIENT thus to dispose of
them; so the mother, il she has any feeling,
chokes it down and the innocents go. These
institutions may be found all over China.
Chinese philosophers may defend the avowed
object of them on humanitarian grounds, but
they are terribly perverted. Before | left
r.. q Al a
looking through rotten Aperture | saw a
faint movement of tiny limb and heard hol-
low moan; in moment all was still, while in
the distance was seen poor wretch sneaking
away, evidently the mother who had just de-
stroyed her child, the limbs being broken in
the fall-another China fashion equally horr-
BILE with the decapitation.