Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1900-09-07
QUEER PEOPLE.
The Heathen Chinee Believes
in FoOliDg Malevolent Spirits.

L W
appeased or deceived. Apparently
too, they are very stupid spirits, VIII,
can be imposed upon by the mos
triiling impoStures. Most of then
seem to be knaves, and all, withou
exception, fools. The character O
his belief has done not little to ado
to the heavy burden under whicl
the Chinese peasant is groaning.
For instance, IN order to misleaC
the spirits there are few straigh
roads in China How many millions
of years of toll in the aggregate ha.
this effort to turn aside malevolen
spirits added to the poor burden
bearer of Chinal You cannot 90 d
dozen rods without coming to "a sharK
corner. Even the roads through th,
rice fields zigzag back and forth in
a most perplexing corkscrew fashion,
while in the cities one is continually
winding IN and out and out and in
as though the road had been laid out
on the ram's-horn principle. More.
over, the road often goes out of it's
way to climb hill, up which the
broken-b backed coolie with his heavy
load must climb only to make his
way toilsomely down again, when
the road might have been kept on a
Hat and level plain.
BLIND MANS BLUFF IN THE HIGH
WAYS.
The reason for all these turninqs
and windings is simply that the
spirits may be fooled and turned out
of their path, and may not reach
their destination. 1t is well known
IN China that spirits travel in a
straight line and on level ground, so,
II they come to an obstrncting wall
or turn in the road, they simply 90
straight ahead and do not find the
party they are after and whom they
wish to plague in some uncanny way.
Because of this superstition the lot
OF the laborIng man in China, always
hard, is almost doubled in severity.
and the number of useless ..foot
pounds" if we can express it
mathematically, which he raises every
day in absurd Difference to the spirits
must be calculated by the billion.
When you enter the gate of city
there are usually two entrances i'm
adjacent walls, but they are never
one another. In order to
find the second you must turn a
corner. This is in order that the
spirits may lose themselves in getting
in. Often these gates are built of
stones and are highly orna,
mentedand cost large sums of money
but nothing is too costly to deceive
the spirits.
PLAYING AT HANDBALL WITH EVIL
SPIRITS.
In front Of a temple one frequently
sees a great stone screen, which is
built to defect the spirits and turn
them aside from the ancestral hall.
The roofs of the temples and many
Of the houses turn up at the end
Instead of sloping down as roofs do
in civilized countries. This is not
for the picturesqueness of the effect,
as might be supposed, though this
effect is undeniable, but in order
that the spirits may depart into the
upper air when they come to the
curving roof tree, instead of falling
into the courtyard below.
On boat in some parts of China
the cook will be very angry if you
cross your chopsticks on top of
your bowl of rice, for the word in
his language for crossed chopsticks
is the same as for overturning the
boat Neither must you ask him i'm
the Ningpo language, "When do we
arr:ve?" because to arrive is the same
word as "shipwreck." A friend one
day pointed out 20 me rude picture
Of turtle chalked on wall with
some Chinese characters near it, and
told me that the owner of the wall.
in order to preserve his premises from
DETACHMENT, had written, elf you
hurt this wall you are turtle"
which was the heaviest curse that
could be pronounced upon the super
stitious passer-by, who wished to
be anything but turtle in the next
world. Hence his walls were pre-
served intact.
"4ou are cow" says one woman
to another in the height of her un-
controllable anger, and nothing
worse can he said to her neighbor,
for if she is to be COW in the future
state of existence she will have to
drink all the dirty water she has
made in her ablutions in this world.
HooDwINKING THE DEMONS WITH
NAMES.
In the matter of their children,
parents are continually trying to fool
the spirits, They frequently call
them by most opprobriops names in
order that the spirits may not know
how much they love them, as "little
ilave,' "little dog" and "good-for-
brat" OF course if the
spirits hear them called by these
names they will suppose that they
are not worth harming. AS boys are
esteemed much more highly than
girls they are frequently given girls
names so that the spirits may think
they are girls and deem them too
to kill.
The other day l saw upon the
street very hoyish-looking little
siri, OF ten years old or so, with an
earring IN one ear, an anklet on one
ankle and her hair combed in bangs
n front. asked the mother if It'll
vas a little girl, for ! had my sus-
and she responded, ooh, no,
no is boy, but we make him look
ike girl so that the spirits will not
'un off with him."
At the graves mouth these super
,titlOns naturally reach tha oI;n,o