1837.] 



Chinese Feast to Disembodied Spirits. 



263; 



present. The chief priest was on these occasions attired in dun 

 coloured robes; the two others in purple, and carrying small bronze 

 bells. These feasts terminated like that at the temple by a general 

 conflagration of the images, paper, &c. for the use of the spirits. The 

 Lo-chu and Taokis for the next year were then chosen in the following 

 manner. The Lo-chu of the past year proceeded towards the painting 

 of the Penates at the end of the room, and lighted several sticks of 

 incense ; steadfastly regarding the picture, he cast the divining bam- 

 boos, one from each hand, on the carpet, and pronounced at the same 

 time the name of one of the candidates. Should the keaou pec turn 

 up successfully twice, he is chosen — if not, the Lo-chu proceeds to 

 cast them in the name of the next aspirant. 



On the last day of the month, the feast to the spirits of orphan 

 children took place at the temple with great display. The sweet- 

 meat, fruits, &c. On the table were cut into a variety of fantastic forms * 

 scorpions, rats, dogs and centipedes. In place of the hideous Tye-su t 

 god of disembodied spirits, the image of a fair and beautiful 

 female, the tutelary goddess of children, having a halo around her head ? 

 presides. Two children are represented standing before her. She, 

 however, is doomed to the fire, and takes charge of the paper, houses 

 &c. for the benefit of the infant spirits in the other world. The 

 offerings were so numerous as to form a splendid funeral pyre ; and 

 at midnight the goddess sank into the curling flames, amid the clash 

 of cymbals, the noise of gongs and bells, and the chanting of the 

 prayers of the priests. 



In the houses of Chinese drug-venders J found the pictures of Quantai, &c. replaced 

 by those of a venerable sage holding a pencil in his hand. With this pencil, which re- 

 sembles that used by the Chinese for the common purposes of writing, he is said to have 

 effected the most miraculous cures. The druggist did not scruple to tell me a story of 

 the celestial dragon himself, leaving his starry mansion for the purpose of consulting this 

 Chinese Esculapius, on account of a disorder in his eyes, occasioned most probably by a 

 whisk from the tail of a comet. In the foreground of these paintings, I observed one of 

 the sage's disciples busily employed in extracting a bone from the throat of a tiger, who 

 had been a little too precipitate in the process of deglutition. 



