796 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



CHINESE SUPERSTITIONS. 



By AD£LK M. FIELDE. 



THE superstitious beliefs and observances of the Chinese are num- 

 berless, and they occupy more or less the time and mind of every 

 individual in the nation. Those here recorded are common among the 

 people near Swatow. I am unable to say how many of them are pure- 

 ly local. 



When a child is just one month old, the mother, carrying it in a 

 scarf on her back, induces it to look down into a well. This is sup- 

 posed to have a mentally invigorating effect, producing courage, and 

 deepening the understanding. 



A mother feeds her young infant from a cup rather than from a 

 bowl or plate, because a bowl, being capacious, has an occult influence 

 in making the child a large eater ; while a plate, being shallow, causes 

 him to throw up his food on slight provocation. The cup, being small 

 and deep, insures his taking but little food, and keeping it for assimi- 

 lation. 



When a child becomes ill, the mother gathers thorns from twelve 

 species of plants and makes an infusion in which she washes the child, 

 hoping to wash the disease, with the demon that produces it, into the 

 water. She then carries the water to an open space where many peo- 

 ple go to and fro, and there throws it u|)on the ground. As she goes 

 from her own house, the inhabitants of the streets she traverses shut 

 their doors, to prevent the disease from entering their abodes. A 

 woman of my acquaintance recently told me that, having no fear of 

 demons, she did not shut her door when a neighbor })assed her house 

 carrying water in which a child having fever and ague had just been 

 washed, and the very next day she herself had chills I 



If a child falls from a high place to the ground, s])irit-money is im- 

 mediately burned upon the spot by the mother, to propitiate the demon 

 who is trying to pull the child down to destruction. 



When a child has fallen, there is danger that he may have left his 

 twelve wits in the earth on which he fell, so the mother at once makes 

 with her empty hand the motion of dipjiing from the ground to the 

 child's chest. Thus she replaces in the child what might otherwise be 

 permanently lost in the soil. If a man falls into a cesspool or well, a 

 long-handled dipper is used to dip out and restore to his bosom his 

 scattered senses ; then three sheets of spirit-money are thrown burning 

 into the well, and a heavy stone is cast after it. 



It is unlucky to leave much hair on a boy's head when he is old 

 enough to wear a queue ; therefore the head should be shaved so as to 

 leave but a small patch on the crown. Abundant hair is symbolic of 

 a burden on the bead, and a heavy queue may soon bring the care of 

 the family upon the boy through the death of his father. 



