The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-12-19
The NlQht OF the
Wandering Spirits
n COMPLETE STORY.

1t was the festival of The Wandering
Spirits in Annoy. Usually the day is warm
and balmy. The breeze from the great
Formosa channel fakes the lower bay with
silver dashes and flaunts every flag upon
the numerous junks which lie in the water
edge of that populous city. But this year
1t was different. Gray clouds hung over
the universe and a cold and cherries wind
from the north made fire positively agree
able despite the fact that the place lies
almost within the tropics.
The festival is an old and popular one
in this part of China and was observed as
1t always is with amending ceremony and
form. 1t is the day and night when spirits
are permitted to wander wheresoever they
will; good spirits upon errands of mercy
or kindness or upon visits to living relatives
scattered over the Empire; evil spirits up
on missions of malevolence and cruelty
or on trips to those wicked human be-
ngs who delight in wrong doing; baby
spirits looking for their earthly parents
and the spirits of disease and death IN
search of victims
The old astrologer who does business on
the Lin Tow road remarked early in the
morning, This is a yer. bad day for
human beings: the winds and waters are
favoring the influences of evil rather than
those Of good The few people who heard
MIN went home and lit fresh joss sticks
to exercise any unwelcome invisible guest
and hung talsmans over the doors to keep
away the supernatural powers OF wrong
In a small house near Banyan villa lived
a poor Chinese family. The father, Tan
Sin, was away at the time in the tea
90 Ea Of ho
year to earn the little money that supported
his household. The mother, All HQ, a
brlght-eyed and pretty woman, was at
home nursing the baby. 1t had been very
sick for several days. so sick that the
ordinary medicines had produced no result
All Ho had been compelled to call in an
aged and distinguished physician from
Annoy.
The wise man had examined the infant
shaken his head given some mysterious
drugs, again shaken his head and gone off
in his chair carried by four stout coolies
Before ne went he said to Tai, the old
family servant: That is a very sick child,
and l am afraid it will not live until to-
morrow
After he had gone All Ho cooked the
drugs into tea and administered it in the
patient and mechanical manner which is
so characteristic Of the people in the East.
AS the afternoon wore on the baby grew
pnched the eyes closed as if tired with
the weight of the eyelids and the feeble
pulse beat more slowly and slowly. Tai
got ready the simple evening meal, but All
Ho could not eat. 1t her only child
and this was the first time that she had
ever been face to face with the great mys-
terry we call death. The old servant lit
the lamps and tn IN remembering it was
the night of the Wandering Spirits lit a
handful of joss sticks and placed them in
groups of three upon the mantel-piece in
the sick room, in the ancient bronze vase
before the ancestral tablets and in the
Wainscoting of the door opening into the
quadrangular yard AS she did the'last she
looked up and noticed that the sacred tails
man which had been fastened to the wall
early in the morning had either dropped
off or been blown away. When she noticed
the fact she trembled and began to weep.
1t was her duty to have seen that the tails
man remained where it was. The moment
it fell the house became open to any evil
spirit that might be passing and this was
the day and the night of the Wandering
Spirits.
She looked about the quadrangle and
finally found the yellow cardboard in
scribed with the curved characters of a
language that died seven thousand years
ago, when a greater and wiser race had
ruled in the far-off districts of Quin Lun
She picked it up and with her palsied fin
gers re-affiXed it to the wall. She looked
sideways in through the doorway ana saw
All Ho sitting there grooming love song
over the sick child, and saw the child's
face thinner and paler than before.
There came a terrible fright over Tai's
mind. 1t might be that through her care
lessness some wicked spirit had entered
the house and was about to carry away
the soul of the little one.
The old woman wrung her hands and
mumbled a prayer to Buddha. Then she
= n
upon her breast and tried to think. The
medicine had done no good The great
doctor had done no good. The joss sticks
and the talisman had been of no avail.
There was doubt that the little boy
in the room beyond must cross the sacred
river. Then she remembered the great
English doctor who lived in Kulangsu. He
was an eminent man, who made more
money in a day than a Chinese mechanic
could make in a year. He lived in a pal
ace and had a retinue of servants in beau
tiful uniforms who said that he knew
more than all the Chinese doctors in Annoy
together.
Once long before she was sick nigh unto
death he had taken pity upon her and had
visited her miserable abode He had given
her costly medicine and shown her strange
instruments and she had recovered. This
was the only man who could be of any
benefit to her little master. But could he
be induced to come? All Ho had neither
money nor jewels and as for herself, her
sole possessions were the clothes she wore
and another suit which hung near her
bedside
Would he come? He must come! She
would bring him. She did not know how
she could do it, but inspired by love she
felt that if she could but him and talk
to him moment that he would come to
the house and bring with him that which
would make the child strong and we'll once
more.
1t had grown dark by this time and the
clouds had become heavier and heavier.
Grasping her old walking stick she start
ed out into the night in search of the Eng
lish surgeon.
The sick child had grown heavier as the
hours rolled by. All Ho had fallen into a
doze, seeing nothing but the babys face
in her arms. Of a sudden she started.
looked at the child and broke into a pas
sionate scream The feeble pulse no
longer seemed to beat and the hands were
turning cold. Then she remembered it
was the Night of the Wandering Spirits
and fell upon her knees with her face to-
ward the little Buddhist altar in the cor
ner of the room. She began her PRAYER
as she had been taught when a little girl
by her mother, but the words sounded flat
and hollow as they were uttered. She
burst into a frenZed appeal to Buddha
and all the good spirits, her voice broken
with sobs and her eyes blinded with tears.
AS she prayed, the wind, which had in
creased in volume as the evening wore on,
seemed to change into a confused mass
of sounds and the sounds to separate into
voices. Some were whispers whose ac-