18-27. 



194 VOYAGE TO TFIE 



mory was further honoured hy a temple heing erected 

 to him in Loo Choo, in 16()3, by the Manshur Tartar, 

 Emperor Kang-hi. Confucius is now honoured and 

 revered by all classes in Loo Choo. The sect Taou, 

 which is equally corrupt with that of Foo, has but few 

 advocates among- the better classes of society. 



Like the Chinese, the Loo Chooans are extremely 

 superstitious, and invoke their deities upon every oc- 

 casion, sometimes praying to the good spirit, and at 

 others to the evil. Near the beach to the northward 

 of Potsoong, upon the shore which faces the coast of 

 China, there were several square stones with pieces of 

 paper attached to them. The natives gave us to un- 

 derstand they were the prayers of individuals ; but we 

 could not exactly understand the nature of them. A 

 label similarly placed to those upon the beach was car- 

 ried away by Captain Hall, and found to contain a 

 prayer for the safe voyage of a friend who had gone 

 from Loo Choo to China ; it is very probable, there- 

 fore, that those which we saw were for similar pur- 

 poses. At the Jos House at Potsoong I have men- 

 tioned pieces of paper being suspended between the 

 panels, and have also suggested the probability of their 

 being supplications of a similar nature. Lideed one 

 of these also was taken to Macao by Lieutenant Clif- 

 ford, and found to be an invocation of the devil.* 



In a natural cave near Abbey Point, I found a 

 rudely carved image, about three feet in height, of 

 the goddess Kwan-yin (pronounced Kwan-yong by 

 the Loo Chooans). In front of the deity there were 

 several square stone vessels for offerings, and upon 

 one of them some short pieces of polished wood were 



* Hall's Loo Choo, 4to. p. 203. 



