174 THE HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS OF KWEICHOW 



Those dootypoussas are placed in a large box fixed against 

 the wall of a house and with a shrine enclosing them, and 

 more than one family may join at this shrine and worship 

 there. At their funerals they burn buffalo horns, cows' 

 bones, etc., on a sort of altar they make in the fields; but 

 I was unable to learn how the souls were caught and put in 

 the bamboo cases. 



The witch doctor has a great hold over them, and trades 

 on their superstition shamelessly, getting wine, tobacco or 

 coin by means of what is called his "daemon," without 

 apparently stealing them himself. The witch doctor uses 

 snake poison to injure or kill people, and only he can make 

 them well again ! He also induces madness, so that the 

 madman may fling off his clothes, which the doctor then 

 picks up and carries off ! A curious story was told by an 

 eyewitness about the building of a house in the country by 

 two stone masons. They began quarrelling, and one left the 

 work unfinished: the other remarked, "I shall get him back 

 before evening, " but the onlookers refused to believe it. The 

 eyewitness saw him go off to the hillside and collect a bundle 

 o-f grass and straw, which he fashioned into a man's figure 

 and then cast spells on it, after which he returned to his job. 

 Before he ended his day's work the other man returned in 

 great haste, dripping with perspiration, to apologise and 

 continue his work. He explained that after he left in the 

 morning, he became so ill and suffered such agonies of pain 

 that he felt sure he would die if he didn't come back at once. 



It is a matter of common belief that the witch doctor 

 never has any children, and that this is a divine punishment. 



Miss Welzel was asked to go to a. woman who had 

 poisoned herself by taking opium. On enquiring into the 

 case she was told that there was no quarrel or any other 

 reason for the suicide, but that the woman said she had 

 seen daemons come into the house who told her to< take 

 two ounces of opium in brandy, which she immediately did, 

 and then told her family : it was too late to save her life, 

 she died a few minutes after Miss Welzel's arrival. There 

 is a universal belief in evil spirits and in witchcraft. 



The I-chia are a tribe of great antiquity, and show virile- 

 and intellectual qualities that promise well for future de- 

 velopment, should they leave their old isolation and get 

 drawn into the stream of present-day Chinese progress. 

 They are tall and well-built and quite unlike the Chinese in 

 appearance and carriage. Naturally the open air life of all 

 the tribesmen gives them a freer gait, and the absence of 

 etiquette and formality shows itself in all their movements : 

 the poise of the head among all these aborigines struck me 



