74 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I42 



moon burned spirit money is provided for the deceased ancestors. It 

 is believed that by burning paper spirit money, it is transformed into 

 money that can actually be used in the world inhabited by the spirits 

 of the deceased ancestors. 



The earth is not regarded as flat, for there are too many high and 

 steep mountains in the country of the Ch'uan Miao. All the deceased 

 ancestors live for at least three generations in a paradise called the 

 ancient level land of Ntzi. Below the earth is a land of dwarfs, called 

 broom people because they are about as tall as a Chinese broom, or 

 about 2 feet tall. There is also a land of demons. 



It is believed that people change easily into water buffaloes, cows, 

 tigers, foxes, monkeys, rats, snakes, fish, frogs, crabs, flowers, vines, 

 and banana trees, and from these back into human beings. Most com- 

 monly people change into tigers, and tigers into men. Some change 

 into evil tigers, but deceased fathers sometimes change into good 

 tigers in order to help their sons. There is a witch called bo ntsong 

 who bewitches people and changes them into tigers. 



All inanimate objects are believed to be alive. The sky, earth, sun, 

 moon, stars, mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, thunder, the rainbow, the 

 echo, fields, plains, crops, swords, marriages, beds, the ceremonial 

 drum, the liu sheng — all these and many other things are regarded 

 as living, intelligent creatures. For instance, rocks are male and 

 female, they grow, they can speak, and they have offspring. 



The Ch'uan Miao find it difficult to affirm that inanimate things 

 have souls, but natural and easy to say that they have lives, and that 

 these lives are intelligent and active, and have eyes. They also find 

 it easier to say that living creatures, such as cows, have lives than 

 that they have souls. But the concept of the soul is well known and 

 closely resembles that of the Chinese, from whom they evidently 

 learned it. Dreams are regarded as actual experiences, and in dreams 

 the soul leaves the body. The shadow and the soul are the same, 

 so that it is worse for a mad dog to bite a man's shadow than to 

 bite his leg. 



To the Ch'uan Miao all nature is surcharged with a mysterious, 

 superhuman potency. This is especially present in powerful human 

 beings, in devils, gods, and other superhuman beings, and is manifested 

 in charms, incantations, and religious ceremonies. 



THE LOLOS OR NOSU 



My first contacts with the Lolos began in 1913 when I was sta- 

 tioned at Suifu, now called I-pin, and appointed pastor of the Suifu 



