332 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



he is possessed of devils. Chills are the most common form of 

 possession. "What makes a man shake if he is not in the power 

 of a devil ? So the people believe, and a priest is called instead 

 of a doctor, and prayers take the place of pills. Epileptic fits or 

 convulsions are the devil in a malignant form ; and if a man is 

 taken thus in a crowded building, that building is rapidly de- 

 serted. 



A good doctor could go among the Chinese and, by curing the 

 sick, attending his physic by incantations, enthrone himself as 

 a deity in the belief of that deluded people. When a man is 

 dying, no money would induce a Chinaman to remain near him. 

 I first met this fact on a Pacific steamer bound from San Francisco 

 to Hong-Kong. I was walking on the deck with the ship's sur- 

 geon, when a stream of Chinamen came rushing on deck from the 

 lower decks like a colony of ants when disturbed. I asked what 

 had caused such a stampede. The doctor replied that a China- 

 man was dying. He hurried below, and found a man gasping his 

 last breath, with consumption. I discovered later, when pursuing 

 my studies of Chinese religions, the secret of this strange stam- 

 pede. The devil was after the soul of that poor consumptive, and 

 the rest were not going to take any chances by remaining near 

 him in the final struggle. 



Not every wise-looking magpie or crow, which alights upon 

 the bough of a tree to rest, is the innocent creature it appears to 

 be ; but a devil in disguise spying out the lay of the land. Nor 

 do the frightened people seek relief by killing the bird of evil 

 omen, but they call a priest to look into the matter. He generally 

 advises that the tree be cut down in the night and removed. 



Thus, when the devil, alias a magpie, returns to his perch, he 

 is fooled, and thus thrown off the track. 



The ceremonies so often observed on occasions of death all 

 have their origin in the demonology of the Taouists. Paper suits, 

 paper palaces, paper pipes and money are burned when a man 

 dies, to provide the soul of the dead with means of bribing its 

 way through the devil's kingdom to its rest, and the suits burned 

 are often patterned after high officials' gowns, in order to im- 

 press more favorably the spirits encountered on the mysterious 

 journey. 



Taouist priests are called to consult the soul of the departed 

 to ascertain its wishes. They discover the locality for burial, and 

 indicate all details of this last service to the dead. 



The Shanghai Railroad met its doom from this source. The 

 priests informed the people that the rumbling noise of the cars 

 and the steam-engine were distasteful to the dead who filled the 

 numerous mounds along its course. To appease the wrath of the 

 dead, Chinese capitalists bought the road with its equipments, 



