NO. 2 FOLK RELIGION IN SOUTHWEST CHINA — GRAHAM 7I 



and sometimes causes hail. When a hailstorm occurs, the people fire 

 off guns to frighten the warty toad, believing that this will stop the 

 hail from falling. 



In some homes there is a family god representing the ancestors. It 

 consists of a string of spirit money, hung up by the tuan kung or 

 sorcerer in the center of the rear of the front room, on which he 

 has sprinkled some chicken blood. It is an imitation of, and a sub- 

 stitute for, the Chinese house god on which is written the words, 

 "The throne of heaven, earth, rulers, relatives, and scholars." The 

 main door of a house is worshiped as a god. Behind closed doors 

 and in secrecy a pig is killed, and offered to the door in worship. In 

 this ceremony, if a single word of Chinese is uttered, the whole cere- 

 mony must be repeated. 



A dragon king, who lives in a palace under a lake, causes rain. He 

 also has a daughter whom he sometimes marries to a poor man to 

 help the man prosper. Certain evergreen trees such as the nan mil 

 that grow on hills or mountains are worshiped as gods, but never a 

 fir or a pine. It is beheved that this worship causes the crops and the 

 domestic animals to prosper and sometimes heals diseases. 



There are three great demons or devils. One is glang gii, who 

 causes people to drown. A second, glang-da-lo, is so large that he 

 can step from one mountaintop to another, or from the earth to the 

 sky. He can strike a person dead with one blow of his thumb. 

 Glang-do or glang-ndo is a sky demon. In his worship a sow is 

 killed and offered, after which the demon is expected to disappear. 



The Ch'uan Miao believe that all diseases and other calamities are 

 caused by demons. Therefore the exorcising of demons, either driv- 

 ing them away or controlling them, is a very important matter, and 

 this task is assigned to a special person — a geomancer. He is called 

 in Chinese a tuan kung and in Ch'uan Miao do nun. I have witnessed 

 his ceremonies and taken motion pictures. 



At times during these ceremonies the tuan kung beats a brass 

 gong and repeats incantations. Occasionally he says "pfit" and spurts 

 water out of his mouth. He burns spirit money as an offering to the 

 demons and sits on a stool saying "duv, duv, duv, duv" for some 

 time as he imitates the sound of the hoofs of the horse on which he 

 rides down into hell. He uses an assistant who is called in Chinese a 

 ma chilch or horse's hoof because of his speed and vigor. This man is 

 put under a spell, after which he leaps about with a hatchet in each 

 hand, striking in all directions. If he kills an angleworm or a mouse or 

 some other creature, this creature is regarded as a demon. After a 



