St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1901-02-06
Some Superstitions of China.

;ze what Noah's food OF it submerges
that race. Let us select house in a
heauti uI city that know on the Grand
canal. Let us look at it inside and out
IN order to grasp an inkling, tiny frac
ron OF this superstition-a whisper of it.
BEFORE the front door is a Tong shut, or
evil spirit barrier. 1t is only pile of
bricks five feet high and one foot thick,
Int it is as efficacious in keeping away
demons as If 1t were a wall of Harvey
ized steel surrounding the house. 1t
serves, because, ages ago, it was discov-
cred that evil spirits cannot turn cor
,7er They are built like locomotive en-
oines, apparently. They must 60 right
at a door in order to get through it.
When they come to fong shut in front
of a door they crowd up against it. l
imagine them banking up there like
snow that piles itself up in mound or
drift against whatever opposes it. On
the front of this house is a little box,
open at the top. 1t is a receptacle tor
sacred words and good luck words,
which may be upon bits Of written or
printed paper thrown out by thought
less persons 1t is the pride and duty of
hits OF paper and put them in the near.
est box-just as the Turks save every
scrap of paper which may have thename
ofAIlah upon it, This house stands be-
side the canal or at the head of and fac
ing a street. Therefore, its root must be
fortified against evil spirits. A close
and mastery study OF the ways of evil
spirits has demonstrated that they
move along currents of air. Therefore,
any house that fronts an open space or
is beside curve in a river or canal is es-
pecially exposed to the visits of these
nefarious influences. which may be said
to blow along the wind currents like bits
of thistledown. A roof is, in itself, no
protection against Them. Forts
toothed with cannon, have to be built
upon the roofs, and make believe forts
are found to be just as effiCacious as real
ones-such stupid fools are all the evil
spirits. A little breastwork OF cement
two or three feet long and three or four
inches high, with beer bottles stuck in it,
muzzles outward, is all that is required.
The devils come blowing along, and are
Just about to alight on a root, when they
see one of these mock forts. "Hi.yah !"
they scream I'VE shall be blown TO bits
il we touch that house" So off they go
on the same air GU rent that brought
them there. You have SEE that they do
not know enough to turn a corner, and
now you know that they can be fooled
with beer bottle cannon; but you shall
vet learn that they are bigger Ounces
than even these things suggest. Their
h.,
travel in China with very cheap and
easy way of ingratiating themselves
with the natives. They need only to
carry a lot OF wine and beer bottles, in
the glass boat" in which they voyage
along the waterways, and TO give them
to the people wherever they stop Such
gifts are appreciated, because bottles are
in great demand and fetch comparat lively
steep prices over there. Now, let us
look inside the house-the women's
house. preferably. it the dwelling is a
nice one, because mo. proper" home
in China is made up of three houses
those of the man, the women and the
servants. They are all separated and in.
closed within a wall The wife, her
baby boy, the No. 2 vile land perhaps
the No 3 wile) and the servant women
are all together, gossiping like equals,
eating little cooked nuts and sewing or
cmbroidering. The No and No wives
are no wives at al-mere concubines.
They are boughten chatttls, and wait
upon the true wife, who is very proud OF
having them, and says to her less fortu
nate friends, Your man does not take
proper care of you. Ny man has two
No 2 wives, whom | order about"
Should she tail to bear a son, and should
one OF the concubneS bear one, 1t goes
hard with the true wife, who then-and
only then-loses face and sees the
boys mother held in the esteem which
she longed to keep. This is because girl
babies do not count. You can get them
for next to nothing in famine times in
the North, and even in Central China,
where the people are prosperous and
where girls can earn money IN the silk
mills, girl babies fetched only s4 when
was there. 1t is quite right that this
should be so, from the native point OF
view, because after a man dies he has no
place in heaven unless there is son on
earth to worship him and provide him
with spiritual occupation and a reason
for continuing to exist. Girls are only
care and an expense AS the women
sit about, exchanging scandal and telling
stories and sewing, the true wife says to
one OF the servants, Better take the
little Stop Basin and wash it and put 1t
to bed" Or she says, II think the Little
Pig is hungry. Give it the breast
because of a notion introduced by the
Manchu women, very nice Chinese women
bandage their breasts so as to have none
these appeudages being vulgar and OF use
only for mental work, which wet nurses
can do as we'll The servant who is bid
den to wash the Stop Basin or to suckle
the little pig at once picks up the baby
and performs these offices for it
Strange, you think, for a mother to cal
her little son such unpleasant names. Ii
is not strange. You would consider il
very wise and proper if you were Chinese
and knew not at what moment an evil
spirit might be hiding under your very
chair, waiting to seize your baby ano
give it fatal illness or cross its eyes OF
poison its little heart with wickedness
Therefore, the FIRST one of the several
names Chinaman bears in the course OF
his lite-for he has baby name, a school
boy name and an adult name--iS always
an opprobrious nickname or the name OF
something inanlmate to be called out SO
as to deceive the evil spirits. Thus it has
happened millions upon millions of times
in China that demon has been all ready
to spring upon baby when it has heard
I,a ot,;IJ ooIlaJ n Duct pan ne SOMA