NO. 2 FOLK RELIGION IN SOUTHWEST CHINA — GRAHAM 21 



The uses of cotton cloth are many. Most of the clothing of the 

 Chinese and of some non-Chinese is made of cotton cloth, even their 

 shoes, sometimes including the soles. Cotton is also used to make 

 thread, bed coverings, curtains, and boat sails. 



Bamboo of many species and in great quantities is raised in 

 Szechwan, Kwcichow, Yunnan, and in eastern Sikang. The young and 

 tender shoots are cooked and eaten with relish. The small twigs and 

 the leaves are used for fuel. The large nan (locally pronounced lan)- 

 chu is used to make rafts and long tubes or pipes for irrigation and for 

 the transfer of salt water to central places where the water is evapo- 

 rated to make salt. Bamboo is made into pens, pen holders, chopsticks, 

 cups, dippers, sifters, boxes, vases, money containers, mats, hats, 

 chairs, couches, tables, sedan chairs, cables, the supports of straw 

 roofs, and partitions and walls of houses with or without whitewashed 

 coverings of clay. Even this long list is far from complete. 



The silk industry originated in China. What are almost certainly 

 silk fibers and cocoons have been found in archeological remains of 

 the 14th century B. C. In Szechwan silk production flourishes all 

 over the province up to an altitude of 3,000 feet. The silk produced 

 in 1903 in Szechwan was estimated by Hosie to be worth 15 million 

 taels (Couling, 1917, pp. 515-516). 



In Szechwan the silkworms are hatched out in small, shallow bam- 

 boo baskets called po-chi. They are fed on mulberry leaves until they 

 spin their cocoons, when they are thrown into boiling water, which 

 kills the pupas. While still in the water the silk is wound onto large 

 spools. Later it is dried, rewound, and then woven into cloth. The 

 dead pupas are eaten as food. The mulberry trees are grown by 

 farmers, the tops being cut off so that the trees will not grow too high. 

 The cloth is generally dyed and made into clothing, pillow slips, 

 bed covers, curtains, and embroideries. Very beautiful embroideries 

 are made in Szechwan. In recent decades steam filiatures and rereel- 

 ing houses have been established, and schools opened in the main 

 centers to teach and encourage the improvement of sericulture (ibid., 

 p. 516). 



Tobacco is raised in almost every province of China. It is used as 

 snuff in Tibet and to a slight extent among the Chinese. Smoking is 

 common among both men and women, Chinese and non-Chinese. One 

 method of treatment is to remove the veins, treat the leaves with 

 ground-nut oil and molasses, press the leaves into packs, cut them into 

 squares, then into fine shreds. Another is to hang the leaves by their 

 stems until they are dry, then roll them into cigars. There are two 



