136 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



her in time a happy mother. 

 The idea is based on a 

 strange superstition, or rather 

 on a curious and interesting 

 conception of the relation 

 between the spirit-world and 

 the earthly life. The train of 

 thought is explained thus: 

 The woman is represented by 

 a tree in the unseen world. 

 Whether she will have children 

 or not, and Avhat their number 

 and sex will be, is indicated 

 by the condition of the tree, 

 whether it has flowers or not; 

 and if it has flowers, what is 

 their number and colour. If 

 the tree has red flowers, she 

 will have girls; if white 

 flowers, she will have boys. 

 If the flowers be of different 

 colours, some white and some 

 red, she will have boys and 

 girls; if no flowers at all, 

 the poor woman will be 

 childless. But as in this 

 world men graft on one tree 

 a shoot from another, and 

 thus have the desired fruit, so the Chinese adopt a child into a childless family, in the hope 

 that there will be flowers on the flowerless tree in the spirit-land that represents the barren 

 wife. This custom is consequently known as "grafting." 



There is a goddess of children, commonly called " Mother." Every year, between the llth 

 and 15th of the first and of the eighth months, several of the most popular temples of this 

 goddess are visited by childless women, who burn incense and candles before her image, vowing 

 to offer a thanksgiving if the goddess will grant their desire. 



As the time approaches for a woman to give birth to a child, a custom is observed in 

 somo families for the purpose of propitiating two female demons believed to be present with 

 the intention of .killing the woman. A table is spread with plates of food, incense, flowers, 

 and false money. A priest makes suitable recitations. At the end of this ceremony various 

 evil spirits are invited to come" and receive the worship of the woman and her husband. 

 When a woman suffers much pain in child-birth, or if the child be not born after long 

 waiting, and her life appears to be in danger, friends or relations produce a kind of puppet- 

 show, in which is a puppet representing "Mother." These puppets are made to dance near 

 the door of the sick-room; in some cases the particular puppet of the goddess is made to 

 walk and dance on the body of the woman herself. This treatment is supposed to relieve 

 pain and hasten the birth. 



In China three different religions are upheld and favoured by those in authority; these 

 are Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. But besides these religious systems there is the 

 worship of ancestors, which plays so important a part in the life of the people, from the 

 highest to the lowest. Two features distinguish Chinese religions from those of other 

 countries. In the first place, there are no human sacrifices; and, secondly, vice is not 

 personified or deified. No Aphrodite or Venus is found in the list of goddesses, and it cannot 



Photo by Mr. Afong] 



[HoiKj-kong. 



A CHINESE FORTUNE-TELLER. 



