48 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 80 



favorable. If one round and one flat side turn up, it is neutral, and 

 may be considered tolerably good. 



In many of the temples are also what look like chopsticks in a 

 round tube. In all there are one hundred of these sticks. After 

 bowing to the god, the person interested shakes the tube containing 

 the sticks until one of the sticks falls out. These sticks are numbered 

 from one to one hundred. Nearby in a convenient place are also 

 one hundred sheets of paper with numbers from one to one hundred. 

 After the stick has fallen out of the tube, the paper with the corres- 

 ponding number is found. The inscription on this paper tells the 

 fortune of the enquirer. 



Sometimes a Taoist priest goes into a trance and while apparently 

 unconscious utters incoherent words. They are supposed to be com- 

 munications from the spirit world. Others interpret his words. 



2. LUCKY AND UNLUCKY DAYS 



Lucky and unlucky days are of primary importance, and can easily 

 be determined. It would be disastrous to have weddings or funerals, 

 to make sales or purchases, or to begin an important journey or other 

 undertaking on an unlucky day. 



There are two ways of explaining lucky or unlucky days. One is 

 described by Mr. Grainger : 



There are minor deities that rule the sixty years of the cycle, the month.s 

 of the year, the days of the year, and the twelve Chinese hours of the day. 

 Certain gods are credited with being better rulers than others, and when one 

 of these gods is in office the occasion is auspicious for commencing any under- 

 taking, such as starting on a journey, beginning to build a house, burying the 

 dead, opening a new shop, or going to school. These lucky days are all fixed 

 by the compilers of the National Almanac, a copy of which is to be found 

 in almost every house. The days are classed according to the cycle and the 

 five elements, and what works may be done, and what may not be done are 

 fully indicated. 



Fortune-tellers are often asked to select specially fortunate days for weddings, 

 and geomancers choose good days for funerals, and for commencing building 

 operations.^ 



The explanation that has been given the present writer by both the 

 Chinese and the Chuan Miao aborigines is that there are J2 creatures, 

 the rat, the water-buffalo, the tiger, the hare, the dragon, the snake, 

 the sheep, the monkey, the chicken, the dog, the horse and the pig that 

 in turn dominate the days. Certain creatures are lucky and others are 

 unlucky. The days doininated by the unlucky animals are tuipropitious, 



^Grainger, Adam, Studies in Chinese Life, 1921, p. 76. 



