The Red Cloud chief., 1880-04-29
CHINESE MYTHS AND STORIES.

SAAAS1cb AMI SIVfk1kSs
Sasall1rsfy Between Chinese Myehs
- sserses and Thess u WesGsrn
<arope.
A very remarkable fact concerning
Chinese folklore Is the strange simi-
larity between Chinese myths and
stories and those of Western Europe.
Here is a tale the analogue Of which is
found almost everywhere in Western
folklore. The Seven Sleepers of
Ephesus, the medieval romance of
Ogier lie Danois, and the old Gaelic L.
gend On which hat romance is based,
Ut Oisin's ~sojourn in the land Of youth,
are a few of the many forms which it
takes in the West. The Chinese story
is As follows: 1.-TWO friends wander
among the mountains culling simples.
At a fairy bridge, the azure bridge, they
find on guard two maidens of more than
earthly beauty. Come across the
bridge cry the maidens. This done.
the friends are fed on huma (hemp, the
Chinese ~hasheesh), and falling deeply
in love with their h~ostesses, spend with
them in the Jasper City what seems the
short though blissfud period of a few
days. At length they are seized with
a desire to visit their earthly home, and
on getting back they find that seven
generations have passed, and they have
become mo than centenarians." The
story is given in the Lao chat chin vi,
with the date A. ID. 60 to 20, and the
names Of the two friends!
Another equally circumstantial tale
records how Wang Chin, one of the
EatriarchAQf the Taouist sect, was one
day gathering fire-wood in the noun
tains of Ku Chow, when he entered a
grotto where some old men were deep
in a game of chess. He laid down his
AK and watched them; whereupon one
of the old men handed him what looked
like a date-stone. telling him to put it
in his mouth. No sooner had he tasted
it than he ceased to feel hunger and
thirst. By-and-by n of the players
said, cit is long since you came here;
you should go home now" Wang
Chih went TO take up his AK, and found
the handle had moldered into dust.
Undismayed, however, he went home,
but found that centuries had passed
since he went out wood-cutting. No
vestige of his kmsfolk remained. The
end Of this tale is certainly un-Euro-
pean; for Wang Chih retreats to a cell
in the meuntains, and d~evoting himself
to RELIGIOUS exercise, finally attains i'm
mortality.
Sometimes the mischievous fairy is
almost identified with one of the mon
key tribe. Thus a man with a very
pretty wife, travelling near Chang-tih,
was warned that hard by lived a shen
who was given to demonstrating. He
hid his wife in an inner room; but in
tile fourth watch of the second night
she was carried off. He sought her
high and low, his romantic and perilous
adventures being described in 1.-The
History of the White Monkey" by
Kung Using. At last he came to a
stone door in the face of a mountain.
Some women, who were passing in and
out, told him his wife was there. "Gei
us" said they, "ten dogs, two barrels
Of spirits and a quantity of hempen
rope, and we viii try to deliver her fol
you. After all these things had been
provided the shen came in, and drank
the spirits and ate the dogs, and while
he was gorged and helpless the women
bound him to the bed. They called in
the husband, who found that he was ar
enormous monkey. He straightway
killed him, and set free, not his owl
wife only, but many other women who
were held in captivity. Talking Of
monkeys, we may remark that they, a
well as men, are supposed to have
Uhocfe A mon IN Canton ponoo1 4 spD
had had q yuan monkey in his family
forty years. This species is supposed
to grow to q very large size If it is al
lowed to drink plenty of water; and a:
Ling preferred . small monkey, his pc,
was kept on short water allowance
One day the monkey snatched q cur
out of the hand of Ling's youngest sol
and drained it of. The father gave
him . good whipping, ~whereupon the
monkey sulked, refused food, and dice
in a few days. Soon after his ghos
began to haunt the house; strangt
noises were heard, food unaccountably
disappeared, and at last q fire broke
out. Ling moved into another house
but the ghost moved, too; and At las
he was compelled to take refuge in thu
temple of the five hundred worthless
Here the ghost did not dare to fellev
: him; and. not many years ago the family
might be seen housed in the temple
everybody in the quarter knew for wha
reason.
Ghosts whom nobody owns. spirits o
poor men who have died at street cor
ners, and such like, are, not unnatur
ally, malevolent. They cause epidem
ics.s and have TO be driven off by firin.
crackers; or. if people prefer appeas
ing them, they set cut plates full O
cakes, with invitations to "the honor
able homeless ghosts" The ghosts o
suicides are particularly difficult to b
appeased; their sole aim in life 70
rather in death) seems to be to induc'
Others 10 do rs they have done. If yo'
sleep in the room where any one hange,
himself or herself. you are sure to re
ceive during the night q pressing invi
tation to commit jeio de &c. At Hang
chow, by the north gate. vas ahous
so haunted by demons that it was to b
/. had at bargain. A scholar names
Tssai bought It, and since one of hi
family would 60 with him, went +
sleep there alone. He lighted . candle
and kept watch. At midnight awoma,
came slowly in with Q red silk handkef
chief round her neck. saluted him, tied
rona n = hoam and uux bov mack IN n