128 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I42 



demon who wishes to take his life. In an effort to save the child's life, 

 the parents will sometimes invite a traveler who happens to be passing 

 by to come into the home and give the child a new name. The traveler 

 is given a meal and some tea, and he gives the child a new name. The 

 traveler and the parents worship the family gods together. It is be- 

 lieved that giving the child a new name may save its life. 



Demons are supposed to fear blood, and in many ceremonies of 

 exorcism blood is sprinkled to frighten them away. When boatmen 

 are about to begin a journey, they kill a chicken, offer it in worship 

 to Wang Yeh, the boatmen's god, and sprinkle some of the blood on 

 the front of the boat. Blood is also sprinkled when a new business is 

 opened, when a business is reopened after New Year, or when a new 

 house or other building has been finished. All this is to exorcise 

 demons. Other ways to frighten away demons are to throw tsai pao, 

 which are round biscuits, to sprinkle holy water, and to throw un- 

 cooked rice. 



Sometimes when a person has a pain in his head, his chest, or his 

 intestines, he will take a boiled tgg and roll it back and forth on the 

 ailing spot. Then he will take the egg to a specialist who, after looking 

 at it, tells him which demon is causing the trouble and how to get rid 

 of the demon. Some of the methods suggested are to burn spirit 

 money, to pour water and rice on the ground in front of the house, or 

 to call a tuan kttng, who will kill a chicken, burn spirit money, offer 

 wine and pork, speak some good words to the demon, or possibly 

 scold the demon and order him to depart. The tuan kungs, as well as 

 Buddhist and Taoist priests, earn much of their income exorcising 

 demons. 



When a person is insane, acting and speaking in peculiar ways, it 

 is believed that he is possessed by a demon. This is the basis of the 

 statement sometimes made by Chinese and by foreigners that demon- 

 possession exists in China. It is also believed that deceased ancestors 

 sometimes take possession of living descendants and give messages 

 through them to other living descendants. 



The fear of demons in West China can hardly be exaggerated, as is 

 illustrated by the following story : Two American women were on a 

 boat on the Min River between Lo-shan and I-pin. As there was 

 danger of robbers, they stopped for the night in the vicinity of a 

 small town. After a time they heard a band of robbers noisily robbing 

 other boats and gradually approaching their boat. One woman was 

 afraid, but the other said, "Never mind. You leave this to me." Then 

 she took out her false teeth, exposing her few remaining teeth, and 



