50 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 8o 



mountain and burn so many sticks of incense and so much paper 

 money. If healed, the supplicant fulfills his vows. 



In the country districts south of Suif u one often sees in the wayside 

 shrines straw images of human hands or human feet that have been 

 placed before the idols in fulfillment of vows. A person having a 

 sore hand will beseech the god to heal the hand, promising that if he 

 will the supplicant will present a hand to the god. The same course 

 may be taken in case of sore feet. 



The following is the writer's own translation of a prayer to the 

 Kitchen God, which is sealed in an envelope like a letter and burnt on 

 the twenty-third day of the twelfth moon, when the Kitchen God 

 ascends to heaven. Similar letters are often sent to the deities by 

 burning, for they consider that burning them is equivalent to delivering 

 them to the gods : 



I, So-and-So, representing the whole family, reverently and sincerely come 

 and beseech you to hear us. You have great merit in saving the world and 

 nourishing all people. You protect us with virtue and mercy. You control 

 and judge the good and evil deeds of our family. In our cooking, and in our 

 eating and drinking we depend on your mercy. Through all the year you care 

 for us. But we are uncleanly in our habits, and think unclean thoughts, and 

 trouble you. We write you this letter, hoping that you will forgive our sins, 

 and not report them to the Pearly Emperor, thus causing the whole family 

 to be grateful to you. 

 Date. 



We have seen that the prayer often includes the vow, and is a sort 

 of a bargain. The prayers of the people of Szechuan are very prac- 

 tical. They generally express desires for things considered of use in 

 their everyday lives — food, protection, healing, or prosperity — in other 

 words, they are expressions of the universal desire for a happy or 

 satisfying life. 



6. RELIGIOUS OFFERINGS 



Food and other necessities are otifered to the deceased ancestors, 

 who are supposed to need nourishment and money after death precisely 

 as they did while living. The other world is a counterpart of this 

 world, but more shadowy. 



The deities also need food and money. Sometimes a whole pig is 

 taken to the temple and offered to the gods. The money is generally 

 paper cash, paper ingots of gold or silver, or paper dollars. These 

 are burnt, and thus made available in the spirit land. 



Very little of value is burnt or destroyed. After being ofifered to the 

 gods, the food is consumed by the ]iricsts or by the givers themselves. 



