130 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I42 



temple, worship the god at his shrine, beseech the god to give a son, 

 and promise that if the son is given the suppliant will make a gift to 

 the god or to the temple. If the son is born, the vow is fulfilled. 



In some Buddhist temples there is an image of a sleeping Buddha. 

 The image is reclining on a bed or couch, clothed and covered with 

 quilts. One who desires a son "steals" a garment or a quilt of the 

 god and takes it home, where the woman who wants a son sleeps under 

 it at night. This is supposed to cause her to conceive and to bear a 

 son. After a son is born, the property is returned to the god. 



On the sides of clififs or overhanging rocks in West China are oc- 

 casionally seen small, round natural holes in the rock, from i to 2 feet 

 in diameter. Some of these are called ta-er-o, or strike-son holes. 

 When men who want sons to be born in their families pass by one 

 of these holes, they throw stones at the hole. It is believed that if a 

 man throws a stone into one of these holes, a son will be born to his 

 wife. There is such a hole at the Taoist temple Tao-ssu-kuan, be- 

 tween I-pin and Lo-shan on the Min River, one near P'in-shan on 

 the Yangtse River west of I-pin, and one near Sha-ho-i, south of 

 I-pin. 



Sometimes during a marriage procession people place biscuits or 

 small cakes in the sedan chair of the bride. When she arrives at her 

 new home, they are placed on her bed. Other women pilfer them and 

 eat them, which is supposed to enable them to give birth to sons. 



On one of the high hills above I-pin a small temple was built in 

 1925, called the Yu-hsien-miao, or Meet Immortal Temple. Some 

 Chinese men were walking near this spot and saw a beggar lying on 

 the ground. It was raining and the ground was wet. Later the beggar 

 had disappeared, and the ground where he had been lying was dry. 

 This was regarded as evidence that the beggar was an immortal. The 

 men therefore caused the new temple to be built near the spot where 

 the beggar had been lying. Besides the goddess who heals measles 

 and smallpox, nearly all the other gods who were placed in the temple 

 had to do with the giving or the birth of sons. These included the 

 Sung-tzu-kuan-yin, the Sung-tzu-niang-niang, the Ts'uai-shen-niang- 

 niang, the Chi'i-lin-sung-tzu or the Kirin who gives sons, the t'u-ti- 

 sung-tzu, and the Sung-tzu-lung-wang or the Dragon King who gives 

 sons. People come at the time of the annual festival, which is in Janu- 

 ary, and ask the gods for sons. If sons are born during the coming 

 year, at the next festival they bring eggs that are painted or dyed red 

 to give to the gods. Other people who desire sons come to the festi- 

 val, and on the way to the temple or from the shrines in front of the 



