242 SHOOTING IN CHINA 



will bring harm to both the giver and 

 receiver and to counteract the evil it is 

 necessary to return a present of salt. 



Without hesitation a Chinese will believe 

 in things of the most inconsistent and con- 

 tradictory character. Here is a Buddhist 

 priest, who represents the religion in which 

 a majority of the Chinese believe, and who 

 officiates at funerals and says mass for 

 the dead, yet, the priest is not always held 

 in esteem. Often the people laugh at his 

 mummeries, despise his laziness, and will 

 attribute to him almost every vice. At 

 Soochow this contradictory belief is founded 

 upon the fact that it is bad luck if, on 

 leaving home in the morning, the first 

 person met with is a Buddhist priest. 

 The fear is that it will bring calamity, but 

 the ingenuity of the Chinese has invented a 

 way out of the trouble, and when one so 

 meets a priest he has only to raise his hand 

 above his head when all calamities and bad 

 influences vanish. 



While passing along the streets of a 

 Chinese city there may frequently be seen 

 walls erected in front of the doors of 

 residences. The size of these screen like 

 walls measure according to the financial 



