II.— ON A METHOD OF DIVINATION 

 PRACTISED AT FOOCHOW. 



H. L. HARDING. 



The rites described in the following pages were witnessed 

 at Foochow in December, 1912. The writer has not, un- 

 fortunately, sufficient technical knowledge to enable him to 

 use the correct English words in describing much of what 

 he saw ; nor does he venture to pronounce as to the condition 

 of the medium at the time of vaticination, whether it was 

 one of hypnotism or not. 



The method of divination in question is locally known 

 as p'a tong, in mandarin ta Vung (ffM), and is performed 

 by two persons, the "T'ung-t'ou," who is always a "tao- 

 shih," (that is, sorcerer or mesmerizer, not a Taoist priest) 

 and the "t'ung-tzu" or medium, of whose body the spirit 

 invoked takes possession, and from whose lips the divine 

 advice or information is given. In the instance which came 

 under my observation the t'ung-t'ou was a man of about 

 45 years of age, of rather striking features which suggested 

 a certain strength of will; he was clearly, however, an opium 

 smoker. The t'ung-tzu was a thin, nervy fellow of about 

 25. 



To begin with, a tablet in the room was arranged as an 

 altar; candles, incense bowls, a plate of dried fruits re- 

 presenting offerings, three cups of tea and three cups of 

 wine were arranged about a piece of yellow paper on which 

 was written the name of the deity to be invoked : M- lli S 

 MS ± m -E ffl ft {i.e. m 3c ^C m or M Wk or m £). The 

 T'ung-t'ou also wrote a number of magic diagrams (It #) 

 on yellow paper, these being similar to many of those re- 

 produced in the Siccawei publication Superstitions en 

 Chine. The t'ung-tzu carefully washed his face and hands 

 and donned a pair of red trousers, fastened by a red belt; 

 his upper garments he also took off, but left them over his 

 shoulders for warmth until they fell off owing to his move- 

 ments when "possessed." 



The first thing done to invoke the deity was the burning 

 of incense by the t'ung-t'ou, while repeating an incantation; 

 he then gave a long low whistle, followed by a loud clap of 



