perfect peace of mind. We felt it was His voice to us, showing how He could deliver us even where passport and foreign help was useless. The road further down the river has been visited by others better able to speak of it, I therefore trespass no further on your space. I enclose a list of places and distances on the route, in case they may serve any in our Master's work. The whole journey is about six thousand three hundred li (about 2,000 miles).

FROM WU-CHANG-FU TO KWEI-YANG-FU.

Distance to next mentioned place. 1,120 (Brought forward)

Distance to next mentioned place.

武昌府 60 li, Jan. 2nd, 1877. 金口 45

3rd,

魚子洞 5li, Jan. 22nd, 1877. 明月菴 5

牌州 30

FROM WU-CHANG-FU TO KWEI-YANG-FU (CONTINUED).

Distance to next mentioned place. Distance to next mentioned place.

FROM KWEI-YANG-FU TO WU-CHANG-FU. CONTINUED.

Distance to next mentioned place.

Distance to next mentioned place. 1,060 (Brought forward)

30 li, March 20th, 1877.

WHILE

SUPERSTITIONS OF MANCHURIA.

BY REV. JOHN Ross.

HILE staying for some time at a delightful spot by the sea-side west of Kaichow, my hostess, an excellent Chinese speaker, pointed out to me a star-like speck of light on one of the low peaks of the mountain chain terminating in Tower hill, to the south of us. The sun had just gone down, and it was scarcely dusk enough for the pallid light of the new moon to make itself visible. My hostess then explained the purpose of that light.

Though sufficient rain had fallen in almost every other part of Manchuria, the neighbourhood of Newchwang, Kaichow, and for some distance south and west of the latter city, was afflicted with droughf han. This drought is accounted for in the following manner.

Somewhere in the vicinity of the droughty district there is a recently made grave, in which is the dead body of a man, who died on an unlucky day, i. e. on a day on which, according to the laws ot divination, he should not have died. The consequence is, that the body is ill at ease. ◄ It cannot rest. It cannot rot. But it can grow an enormous quantity of hair, and is so unquenchably thirsty, that all the clouds which rise above the horizon are insufficient to slake that thirst. It attracts all the moisture of these clouds as they arise, and is naturally drenched with profuse perspiration, a very Gideon's wool, while not a drop falls on the parched earth, withering grass and languishing corn. This body is the han-ba, the cause of the drought.

When the drought has continued long, and all applications to Loong-wang, with beat of drum and wreaths of willow, have failed, some stalks of the tall millet are smeared over with oil, carried to a neighbouring height and set on fire. This was the light we saw. It seems to be set on fire at sun-down, for it is always visible as soon as the shades become dark enough to enable us to see it. It is seen now on this, now on that hill. Sometimes a second is lit before the first is extinct. This light appears to be kept burning till midnight. It is called the hwo-ba, "Torch;" and is said to "to light up-or search out-the Han-ba."

jao han-ba,

The han-ba is doubtless most ready to be discovered, in order that the necessary steps may be taken to give it rest. As soon therefore as the hill next the grave of the unfortunate is illuminated by the hwo-ba, the han-ba responds from the grave by displaying a light of its own. And thus is discovered the source of the drought.

On applying to a priest for information, he replied to my queries with evident reluctance and the qualifying clause, that "as to its truth or falsehood he could not say, he had never seen a han-ba.” He informd me that the peasants saw, or believed they had seen, a respondent light for some days, but I thought this belief somewhat questionable; for notwithstanding the great need of rain, the grave had not been opened; and indeed they were to delay its opening for some time, in order to secure absolute certainty.

When the grave is unmistakeably discovered, the nearest district magistrate (in the present instance it would have been he of Kaichow, or Kaipinghien) is invited to the spot. He orders the grave to be opened, the body exhumed, the most lavish honours paid to it, and the necessary rites performed for it, in order to undo the evils consequent

on its dying on a horoscopically improper day. It is then re-interred and the clouds permitted to do their proper work, not a drop more being absorbed by the now satisfied defunct.

Rain has however fallen in great abundance without the intervention of the magistrate. This however scarcely affects the peasant creed, or deters them from similar conduct in future.

Had they decided to have a grave opened, it would have been rather awkward for the magistrate, who happens to be a Mahommedan of an earnest type, who preaches in the "mosque ". every Tuesday and Friday, and is everywhere praised as a most exemplary and faithful magistrate.

It is well known that the body of deceased Chinese is "laid out" for three days, during which the mourners wail and the hired band play their dead marches. According to the trustworthy evidence of popular on-dits and tradition, many a time have dead bodies been known to start up off the bench or form on which they rested in their best garments, and leap outside, running straight ahead till overtaking some unfortunate man who is embraced and squeezed to death; when the body contentedly returns, lies down and makes no more disturbance. Those who have good eyes and nimble feet easily elude the deadly embrace; for the revived body, though moving rapidly, hops frog-wise, in an undeviating straight line, its motionless, staring eyes jutting out of its head; it is therefore easily recognised and one step out of its straight course saves the threatened one. It is just as easily deceived; for if a log of wood is presented to it, by one with more presence of mind than his neighbours, it hugs the log as affectionately as if it were a man and returns satisfied. The cause of this phenomenon is that, like the preceding, the body died on an "unlucky" day, or that, when dying, a black cat was on the roof of the house or a black dog in the sick man's room.

Though thousands have heard of cases of re-vivification from those who had seen them, I have not yet got a man who could say that he had himself seen such an incident.

It is possible the above instances of superstition are to be met with elsewhere, but the following is local.

In addition to the shun, the exalted spirits of the great and the good, and the gwei, the punished spirits of the rest of departed mankind, are the muco, translated by Williams, malignant spirits or demons, but explained by the Chinese to mean the spirits of dead beasts, as the tiger, fox, wolf, &c. The worship of the ancestor of the fox family under the name of hien-zun or genius, is universal over China; and his buttoned skull-cap, showing the rank he holds as custodier of the imperial treasury can be seen everywhere. The tiger, the