DOGS OF CHINA AND JAPAN 



Archdeacon Gray * describes the Taoist ceremony per- 

 formed for the expulsion of spirits inducing suicide. " After 

 the priest has made a great many signs and performed the 

 kow-tow, he receives from the inmates a small black dog, 

 together with a chopper and a block ; and when he has severed 

 its tail from its body with a sharp blow, the wretched animal, 

 with a cord round its neck, is led, or rather dragged, piteously 

 howling, by the head of the family into every nook and corner 

 of the house. It is then taken to the front door and kicked 

 into the open street. The bleeding and yelping cur is sup- 

 posed to frighten away the evil spirits, and to pursue them in 

 their flight through the streets. By way of purifying the 

 house, the priest then walks through it with a brass pan 

 containing a burning mixture made of sulphur, saltpetre, and 

 other inflammable ingredients." This custom may be com- 

 pared for barbarity with the old German and Scandinavian 

 custom of hanging dogs with criminals as a symbolical mark 

 of disgrace and as an aggravation of the punishment .f 



The following is quoted as an instance of the fantastic 

 shapes into which the professors of Feng Shui are willing to 

 distort their crude theories in the name of science : 



" The influences J of the Five Elements attack and impair 

 each other, and bloodthirsty animals conquer and overpower 

 each other ; how are these phenomena to be explained ? The 



ways, with white, black, and red stripes. They are active in seizing boars, wild oxen 

 and asses, bears, stags, roebucks, and other beasts that are objects of the sport. It 

 is an admirable sight, when the lion is let loose, in pursuit of the animal, to observe 

 the savage eagerness and speed in which he overtakes it. His Majesty has them con- 

 veyed for this purpose in cages placed upon cars ; and along with them is confined a 

 little dog, with which they become familiarized." Marsden " Travels of Marco 

 Polo," 1818, p. 338. 



* Notes arid Queries, 2nd Series, xii., p. 510. 



f "China," J. H. Gray, vol. i., p. 336, Macmillan, 1878. 



j Groot, " The Religious Systems of China," vol. iii., p. 988, from " Discussions 

 and Criticism from the Chinese ' Lun Heng ' of the Han Dynasty," chap. iii. 



Wood, wind, fire, water, and earth. 



42 



