2nd April, 'TuovcH wi' ches flourish throughout China, and exert a powerful, howbeit baneful, influence, not less than the nuns' themselves, there has very little been written about them, either in available native books or European brochures. We have looked in vain through alarge number of English books, which have been written during the last forty years, and have failed to find any references. We know, however, that witches flourished in China, during'the Tang dynasty, because of a curious and somewhat dramatic story which scholars tell. The god ofthe Yellow River (even then it appeared to have been China's Sorrow) demanded, the story rune, a young bride once a year, Ashe was fastidions, only the most beautiful damsel was chosen by the witches, whose duty it was to superintend this holocaust. When the choice was made, no earthly power could redeem' her life, for no Perseus ever came to the Chinese Andromeda to rescue her from her awful doom. But there came into the district, as fa local mandarin, one Sai Mun-ray, who was a strong man, and moreover, one who hated the cruelty to which one of the most beautiful hie subjects was subjected therefore, issued proclamations prohibiting the But the witches ignored his edicts and made all preparations for the immolation of the yearly victim. When Sai saw what was transpiring, he let them continue their arrangements, On the day of the sacrifice, however, he appeared with his soldiers. He commanded that the witches be arrested, and bound. He then addressed them in the following sarcastic words:—"You say the River God needs a bride every year, Then let him have his choice this year, and nob yours. Surely araong you all he will fied one who can satisfactorily serve him. Go, therefore, to him the crowd of you." Thereupon her ordered that, bound as they, were they should all be flung into the iver. The order was obeyed and they were all drowned. From that time forward the yearly sacrifice of the victim was abandoned.
Tt would indeed be surprising were China withend witches, for they have flourished in other countries, though efforts have been made to suppress them. We know from the words of the famous Witch of Endor to the suppliant king, that Saul had tried to uproot the witchery of his day. The difference ig that, whilst among other nations that make any claim to civilisation the belief in witches is dead, China, among the masses, i powerful as ever. No per: and sustained effort has been made by the ruling powers in China, be they ecclesiastical or li tical, to suppress witchcraft and destroy the witch. Western history has many pages written in the blood of inn>cent women who have been the victims of a mad and superstitious dread. This is no place to relate the cruel actions of our fathers, but we know that even among the Protestants in England in 1716 Mrs. Hicks and her daughter were hanged as witches, whilst records tell us that in Catholic Mexico, as Into as 1877, five women were burnt alive on the charge, Nothing of the same kind has ever stained the hands of Chinese rulers, or blurred the pages of Chinese history. Witches have been allowed to go their way, deceive the people, and enrich themselves.
Witches in China have arrogated spirits and demons, by which they to themselves an authority over
claim to be able to cil them at their beck, and expel them at their will. This claim, which seems to be allowed by a large number of silly Chinese women, gives them a most powerful weapon, with which they can bend their suppliants to their will. As nuns d to be able to control the devils who rule the destinies of the dead, so witches control the destinies of the living. claim power over the demons who
Of the two the latter are the more feared.
Witches are divided into several classes, Some are called in to assist at idol worship, when the female worshippers pray for sons, hen they seek deliverance from sickness for the members of their families, or when they seek to lift the hidden veil of the future and discover what destiny has in store for them, We may, however, divide them roughily into two classes. The firet are those who work themselves, either by art or long practice, into tate of frenzy, and then announce the demon has taken possession of them, and will spank through them. They first of all lapse into a state of contemplation and abstraction; then they rouse themselves into a condition of ecstasy. They laugh and babble, and then announc> that they can answer questions pub to them by the suppliants—if they are paid for it. A cise was brought to our notice not long ago. A woman had a slave girl who contracted plague in Hongkong, and whom she ab once carried off to Canton where the girl died. The roughest of funerals was arranged and the mistress returned to Hongkong.
Some time after the woman was in distress, and seemed to be confused in mind. She babbled references to bad treatment which she herself had received, and the cheap way in which she has been buried. A witch was called in who ab once grasped the situation and explaine! the cause of the strange phenomena, Demons can converse with demons, The spirit of the badly-treated slave girl had re. turned, and bad dominated the mind of her mistress, and so made known her wrongs. Only the expenditure of w large sum of money in offerings could quiet the unhappy spirit, and fre> the woman from the incubus under which she trembled.
The second class cul back the souls of the dying, who are on their way to the Chinese purgatory. Anyone who keeps his eyes open may frequently ace a witch engaged in attempting to r.call the soul of un insensible person, or one who has recently died. 'A valued corres. pondent describes one such incident, which came under his notice whilst travelling in the country. "It wes lovely spring evening," he writer, all nature seemed quietly pre. paring for repose I was reading in my houseboat, which was anchored to the bank for the night, when I heard some sobs, Looking out I saw a weird sight. A large carthenware of was placed in the pathway, which was filled with burning paper. Around this was arranged a circle of smoking incense sticks, and outside this another circle of guttering red candless: ruggling to keep theynsel vos alight. Outside the circle of candles was a woman, evidently a mother,
circle stood a parchment-skinned mooping and sobbing. Within the old witch, who held in her hand the garment of a youth. This garment she waved to and fio over the flaming paper, and muttered her incantations in a strange monotonous voice. It was presently discovered that the youth Iny dying in his home near by, and was already insensible, The mother in an agony of soul, had called in the witches, who professed to be able to call back the departing spirit of the lad."
This brief sketch will evidence the unique power of witches in China, and, us may be imagined, their influence will be great in the aggregate. No amount of denouncing, apparently, can uproot this baneful growth from the minds of the people. A native editor reporting a case of the kind some time since, concluded with some pertinent remarks, and affirmed, what all observers believe to be eminently true, "that only a NE
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.