8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 8o 



the remote regions, the quaint old towns, and the secluded villages of some 

 distant province.^ 



The second sentence of this statement may be seriously questioned. 

 The fact that a Chinese wears foreign clothing, smokes foreign 

 cigarettes, plays foreign hogch (poker), and drinks foreign liquor, 

 does not prove that he has been raised above his fellow countrymen in 

 a distant village. The first and third sentences are true, and Szechuan, 

 situated far from the seacoast, with only one treaty port and no 

 foreign concessions, ofifers an unique opportunity to study the Chinese 

 religion as it has been handed down through the past ages. 



One day in Shanghai the writer heard a brass band in the street 

 below. Looking out of the window, he saw a great Buddhist funeral 

 procession. In front were two gigantic deities pushed along in carts 

 constructed for the purpose. The deities were to clear the road of 

 demons. Then followed six bands, three using Chinese musical instru- 

 ments and three foreign. For tunes the latter were using Christian 

 hymns. The mourners were riding in foreign cabs. Such a f oreignized 

 religious ceremony is at present never seen in West China. The 

 student of religion has in Szechuan Province an excellent opportunit}^ 

 to study the religion of the Chinese people, not to mention the nu- 

 merous tribes of aborigines about which comparatively little is known. 



6. THE writer's PREPARATION * 



The religious and social life of the Chinese people in Szechuan is 

 exceedingly complex, and one might well despair of becoming a master 

 of the Chinese language or of the Chinese religion, even in a lifetime. 

 The writer has had fair success with the Chinese language, and has 

 had 13 years of contact with the Szechuanese people. Most of this 

 contact has been very friendly, and has included all classes, from the 

 child and the coolie to the high official, the scholar and the priest. He 

 has spent weeks in Chinese villages where foreigners are seldom seen, 

 and, as zoological collector for the Smithsonian Institution, has 

 travelled beyond Tatsienlu in Tibet and as far north as Songpan. He 

 has spent several summers on Mt. Omei, and has visited Washan. 

 He has had contacts with the I.olo, the Chuan Miao and other abo- 

 rigines, and has crossed overland from Suifu to Yunnanfu and 



^ Dore, Henry S. D., Researches Into Chinese Superstitions, Vol. I, 1915, 

 Int., pp. i-ii. 



^ The written sources on the religion of Szechuan Province are so meager, 

 and some of them are of such questionable value, that it has been necessary 

 to secure most of the material for this paper at first hand in Szechuan Province. 



