Clearwater Republican. [volume] (Orofino, Idaho) 1912-1922, 1915-11-12
HOLD SNAKES SACRED
CHINESE HAVE DEEP REVERENCE
FOR THE REPTILES.
Spirit Of the Dragon King, Which 10
Worshlped, Supposed to Reside
Within Their Bodies-Rat
10 Also Honored.

It 10 not always safe to kill = snake
in China It doesn't matter much
whether the snake is of the water
species or of the land variety, for
within this reptiles body is supposed
to reside the spirit Of what the yellow
man worships as the dragon king.
This latter Is believed by the average
superstitious John" to have the pow
er OF ruling over floods. This dragon
king represents one symbol in the
ritual of worship of the Chinese reli-
gion called Taoism.
China practically possessed three
different forms of religion until the
advent Of the Christian missionaries.
The first Of these religions was in the
form of a philosophy. This still ex-
lists to some extent and is known as
Confucianism. The second form has
been recognized as Buddhism, which
still exists throughout China as SYM
bolized in the worship of idols. As
you travel through the country, here
and there you will frequently run
across idols of Buddha located on the
hillsides or other quiet and seques'
tered spots conducive to reverential
| reflection. Plenty of worshipers yet
pay their homage to these Buddhist
idols, and you can see them conscien'
tiously observing the formal ceremo'
MES of their worship. But this form
of religion is steadily dying natural
death since the advent of Christianity.
The third variety Of religious OBJ
servance among the Celestials Is that
Of Taoism. This was started by an
old patriarch named Lao-tgu, who had
surrounding him a group OF Eight
immortals" as his disciples. One OF
these latter was given the RESPONSE
bility of representing the God of Bar
bers. The Taoist worshipers have
temples erected in each native town
In these temples are pictures portray
ing the horrors of the future life
When the souls of the dead are buried
across the river Styx the artist hat
painted a gruesome thought. Men ant
women are depicted as climbing tow
ering mountains of ice, only to fal
back into gaping abyss as they near
ly reach the top. AS they fall theil
/ | DOO10b aT0 TcVcdlcu DIS UCluS CduSh
upon spears and tossed backward ant
forward by deft executioners. Thes'
gruesome pictures show the sufferer
to be finally ground up between mill
stones. Some of them show sharl
, swords slashing to pieces the bodies
which have escaped the millston
process, and little dogs are pictured a
! running after the sufferers, tapping Vi
I the blood. On certain occasions afte
a death the family will proceed in
q body to these temples and will hol
. public wall.
. On the drum tower of the Taois
temple at Tientsin 1t has been CON
= mon to see richly dressed native mel
z chants kneeling to an iron pot cor
tanning incense burned in honor of hi
9 excellency the rat. Other similar dii
gusting procedures could be observed
q 1t is hard to conceive that human b.
v ings can be so superstitious as to d.
liberately endure such empty pra'
d tees of hallowed mockery. Yet thi
O is one phase of China, the China OF tt
day. The few modernized Monaghan
surely have their hands full in effe'
!, lively combating this awful elemer
N of ignorance and bigoted superstitio
and in holding their newly organize
4 republic to the main highway {
progress.