596 CHINESE FOLKLORE AND SOME WESTERN ANALOGIES. 



Nights Entertiiininoiits. Jinns can ])ocoine small or lariL:(\ \isi])le 

 or invisible, Vwo in air, water, or earth, without l)reathin«i' oi- eating-, 

 assume any shape, and conti'ol any number of assistants. Taoists 

 ascribe to them immortality, and consider them as the hiyhest order of 

 intelligent beings, but there seems to be some uncertainty as to the 

 distinction ])etween genii and shen or spirits, a lower ordiM- of imma- 

 terial ])eings recognized in their m^'thology. They form an indispen- 

 sable element in tales of all sorts, being regarded for the most part 

 as rather helpful and gracious powers, though often extremely dan- 

 gerous to deal with. In the romance entitled The Thunder Peak 

 Pagoda, recenth' paraphrased in Julian Ralph's charming little volume 

 Alone in China, the heroine is a snake jinn, who transforms herself 

 into a beautiful woman and wins the love of an honorable man. She 

 procures money by the simple proceiss of sending her serpent attend- 

 ant to lilch it from any and every part of the emjjire. Yet, though 

 she biings troul)le and disgrace upon her husband, she begets a son 

 who makes the family famous, and eventually obtains forgiveness and 

 reunion in the spirit world with the man who loved her. 



xVnother romantic exi)erience of a similar, though ha])pi(>r, kind is 

 related in the story of tin* Enchanted Peonies, wherein a gentleman 

 living in a monastery among the hills becomes enamoured of one of 

 two flow(M' fays. After som(> months of ])leasant companionship she 

 disappears, because her peony hush is uprooted. The disconsolate 

 lover at length learns through her companion spirit that the god of 

 the spirit world, in commisseration for their woes, has consented to 

 restore her to a Hower in the monastei-y. She presently reappears, 

 and at the end of a long life togethei' l>oth lovei- and mistress are 

 united in the form of tiowei' fays. 



Diseml»odied spirits, in Chinese folk-lore, are endowed with strange 

 powers when they return to earth, and are occasionally permitted to 

 employ them in (^arning freedom from r«»p(»ated births, then^by ])ecom- 

 ing at onc(> angels in a state of supreme t)eatitude. One of thes(\ in 

 the guise of a beautiful girl, meets and engages the affections of a 

 young man. In the coui'se of their acipiaintance she wains him 

 against the machinations of a sister spirit, who is a murderess and 

 trying to entrap him, and insures his safet)' by giving him a charm. 

 Presently an exoi-i-ist comes to the house in scnirch of the little coterie 

 to ^vhom these stygian sprites belong, and succeeds in getting them 

 tightly corked in his bottles. The lover, however, upon entreaty from 

 his charmer, releases her and she escapes. Ten years afterwards she 

 reappears, but, when urged to remain, savs that her conduct during this 

 term of probation having been pronounced satisfactory she is entitled 

 to her celestial reward. Out of gratitude she tells her admirer when 

 he is to die and join her in a state of perennial bliss. ^ 



^Giles's version of "Miss Quarta Hu," in Strange Stories, p. 152. 



