CHINESE SUPERSTITION.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1618, 28 April 1879, Page 3

CHINESE SUPERSTITION.

The life of a Chinaman is a constant warfare against malign influences, and perhaps he thus learns by experience the best means of dealing with evil spirits. A reporter of the “ San Francisco Chronicle ” has lately made a study of the precautions in this respect, taken by the Chinese residents of that city. He has discovered that the two colors red and yellow are in themselves the most efficacious guards against demoniacal spite. Marking the punctuation of a book with red ink will keep evil spirits from the reader; and as a protection for children against demons it is a good plan to stitch red cloth in their pockets, and braid their undeveloped pigtails with red silk. Nothing tends more to confuse fiends than mixing the ashes of burned yellow paper with tea or hot coffee before drinking these infusions. Ancient coins or the small end of an old iron ploughshare placed under beds will often scare away spirits. Iron nails extracted from old coffins are also not amiss for this purpose if carried in the pocket, or they may bo beaten into a ring and worn on the finger until the age of sixteen years, after which ago persons are or ought to have become less liable to the evil practices of hobgoblins. Thus far the defensive policy prevails; but there are also provisions whereby an offensive warfare may bo carried on. When a man lies sick in bed, if he will but lay about him lustily with a hempen whip, and soundly belabour the bed and bedstead, the evil spirits will be glad to make a speedy exit. A picture of a fly ing tiger makes them extremely uncomfortable. They also dislike a lion grasping a sword; but two lions coming down a hill with a sun and moon between them is much better. A cat made of lime and burned clay, looking at some apparently distant object, has a dispiriting effect on goblins, but a plaster lion causes them to tear their shadowy hair. Old fish-nets cut into strips and worn about the waist are good also; fiends attacking the wearer become entangled in them and suffer disorganisation in getting out again. The shell of a gourd may with advantage bo suspended at the bed of children who have not had the small-pox, bocauee the god of measles, who is a Chinese divinity, will empty the small-pox into the shells, if placed convenient to his hand. Still better is it to place an ugly mask on a child’s face as a preventive of small-pox, as the fiends consider it useless to waste small-pox upon a homely person. A mirror serves admirably to keep the devil away ; for, seeing his own ugliness, he invariably runs off in a fright and hides in a deep cavern until he recovers from the shock.