The New Orleans Democrat. (New Orleans, La.) 1875-1876, 1876-05-14
CHINESE GHOSTS.

From the Hong Kong tChina) Review

Matcria1tzed Animals.
From the Hong Kong tChina) Rcviewl
One popularity about Chinese ghosts
IL that they do not always rnaterialize,
but are frequently seen in incomplete
form, the herd first becoming visible,
then the feet, then the body. and SO on.
Another quaint belief is that ghosts
mi mo ha-pa you've no chin is
equivalent to saying you're u ghost. :"
Like English ghosts, they appear dur
ing the hours Of darkness, and are COM
PEELED to vanish at cock-crow but the
conventional white clothing Is absent
from the Chinese idea. A ghost In China
ALWAYS appears In the dress he common
Iy wore during life, and his advent Is
announced by candles burning not blue
but green the Greeks call supernatural
terror green fear.
Animals also have their ghosts. A
resident at Canton, named Ling, had q
very intelligent monkey, which having
been severely whipped for some mis-.
chief. became sulky. refused food, and
died. Shortly after the monkeys ghost
began to haunt the house. Food placed
on the tables mysteriously Disappeared,
and strange annoyances took pale. At
length fire broke out in the house I'M
accountably, and Mr.. Ling shifted his
residence. But the monkeys ghost
still followed and prosecuted him, until,
as a last resource, he took a room in the
Temple OF the Five Hundred Worthless !,
the monkey ghost did not dare to face
the gods, and left him in peace. Mr..
Ling was still resi- ling In the Temple
last year.
Ghost stories OF the ordinary kind are
numerous. A mandarin met his death
In the late collision between the Chinese
steamer Fusing and the British steamer
Ocean. The Fusing was sunk and over
sixty drowned. The mandarin's ghost
appeared to his wife, who was living In
Soochow, streaming with water from
head to foot. He told her he had been
drowned, and that he had sent by q Ger
tain friend some money for her use be.
fore he took passage In the Fusing, and
that the friend would arrive shortly:
Two days after the friend named arrived
with the money, and SHORTLY after came
the intelligence OF the Fusing's disaster.
The commander Of Chinese man OF.
war belonging to the Foochow Arsenal !
fleet, was suddenly taken i'll, and died
ut a trends house. After his death,
the friend frequently saw his ghost, and
ono night addressed il, saying: You
should not lament: 1t was your fate ;
YOU should be satisfied with it There
upon the ghost disappeared, and never
showed itself again to the same party,
| but continued often to appear To the
men on board the ship he had been
commanding, being frequently seen to
pace up and down the deck as he was
went during his lifetime at night, and
| would sometimes place himself in the
attitude OF drilling the men. =,
| Here is parallel to the celebrated
Berkely Square story. Thrust be noted
1 that the ghosts of suicides are distin-
guished 6v wearing red silk handker-
chiefs. ''Outside the north gate OF
Hang chow there was a house haunted
nv evil ghosts, where no human being
dared reside, OF which the doors were
ever barred and locked. A scholar
named Ts'ai bought the house; people
all told him he was doing dangerous
thing, but he did not heed them. None
OF his family would enter the house, so
Ts'ai went by himself. opened the
doors, lit candle and sat down. In the
middle OF the night a woman slowly
approached, with d red silk handkerchief
hanging to her neck, and having salut.
ed him, fastened a rope to the beam OF
the ceiling, and put her neck In the
moose. Ts'ai did not In the least change
countenance. The woman again fast
ened u rope and called on Ts'ai to do rs
she had done, but he only lifted his leg
and put his foot In the moose. The
woman said, You're wrong. Ts'al
laughed and answered, On the contrary
1t was YOU who were wrong u long time
ago, or else You would not have come &c
this pass. The ghost cried bitterly,
and having bowed to Ts'ai, departed
aud from that time the house was nc
longer haunted. This Tsai was after
ward a very distinguished scholar
known as the Provincial Chancellor.
The writer remembers having read
some time similar curfons story OF 9
police cell, in which woman had com
mitted suicide by hanging herself, after
which inmate after inmate continued &c
attempt to do the same, Till at last a CIR
declared that fiendish little woman
appeared in the cell at night and com
manded her to hang herself, which she
felt herself irresistibly impelled to at
tempt doing. The cell, it is said, hac
~ 4 Il h, II