NO. 2 FOLK RELIGION IN SOUTHWEST CHINA — GRAHAM I43 



Still another, 



The sky is bright, the earth is bright. 

 Our family has a crybaby. 

 If passersby read this three times, 

 He'll sleep until the sun comes out. 



Another of a different kind says, 



My nose is stopped up, swollen large. 



I have a cold. 



If anyone looks at this, he will carry the cold 



Into his own home. 



Another is to change an unlucky dream into a lucky omen : 



At night I had an unlucky dream, 

 I paste this on the east wall. 

 When the sun shines on it. 

 It will be changed into a lucky omen. 



Another charm says, 



My night dream is unlucky. 



I write this (or paste it up) beside the road. 



When the sun shines upon it, 



It will be transformed to lucky and prosperous. 



Another says, 



My eye winks in an unlucky way. 

 I paste this on the east wall. 

 When the sun shines upon it. 

 It will be changed into lucky. 



By far the largest number of charms in West China are written or 

 printed on paper, generally yellow in imitation of the official proclama- 

 tion, and generally but not always containing seals of gods in imitation 

 of official seals. In these charms there are used strange and fanciful 

 ways of writing characters or parts of characters, making them diffi- 

 cult for an ordinary sinologist to read and to understand. Dore has 

 explained some of these in volume 2 of "Chinese Superstitions" 

 (Dore, 1914-1931, vol. 2, pp. viii-xxii). 



Written and printed charms vary in respect to size, inscriptions, and 

 usage. Of those that are written with pen and ink, I have seen some 

 that are little more than blotches, while others are works of art in 

 penmanship and drawing. For those that are printed, the charms are 

 first written or printed on hard wood, then the wood is carved, and 

 the carved wood is used to print many charms. More rarely the seals 

 or charms are made of metal, usually iron. The charms vary in size 



