now they lament with good reason the superabundant answer given to their prayer. Han P'a appears to be a demon of the worst kind—no less, indeed, than the discontented and malevolent spirit of a dead Chinaman who, by turning his face upwards to the skies, selfishly absorbs through his capacious mouth and nostrils, all the moisture that may happen to be in the atmosphere in warm weather. He thus cheats the ground of its due, very wrong thing to do,—and at the But he really appears to need all the moisture he can get, for he is said to exist in a place of fire (lino ti,) and if this is so, one feels inclined to make large allowance for his selfishness. _So far the natives hereabouts have only discovered one method of dealing satisfactorily with him, and that is by firing guns in rapid and bewildering succession over the face of the ground. This is done with the view of either hitting him, or of frightening him back to his warm abode. They confess to having no certain knowledge of the Demon
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.