At a village called Tungchiang in this district the people went to the Taoist prist, and enquired of him why the plague was still unabated. He replied that at the village school there' was a flag raising ceremony every day, and that this was unpropitious and attracted the plague. The villagers then requested the schoolmaster not to fly the flag. He complied, and the flag was not flown. Special worship was held at the temple, and the priest took a good share of the offerings, but still people were dying of plague, and the priest had to find another reason for it.
This time he said that although the plague boat had left the district for short time, the god had sent it back again, and he was considering once more how to deal with him. Report says that 80 people have died in this llage either from plague or from measles, The infection is spread im' many ways. In the Sienyu area a man who died of plague was known to have been buried in specially valuable clothes. Some morphia addicts knowing of this went and dug into the grave at night, opened the coffin, and robbed the corpse of its clothes. Retribution quickly followed them, for within a few days three of the men had died of plague Meanwhile the South Fukien Plague Prevention Bureau has made the two counties of Putien and nyu into sub-d let for dealing with the plague. The project extends over a period bf five years, and deals with plans for reducing the rats which are the source of the disease. A beginning has been made with a band of men acting as fumigators, who go out and disinfect hou: where cases plague.have been reported. They also show the people different kinds of rat traps, and. explain how they should be used. They give teaching too on the necessity for inoculation Dragon Boat Remedy A popular remedy against plague is the dragon boat, which is believed to have the power of chasing off the epidemic. One village recently met with misfortune on account of this superstition, The men had borrowed a dragon boat, and were paddling up and down the river in it when a young pedlar saw them, and flinging down his baskets, called out that he wanted to join them in the boat, Friends tried to stop him, but he isted that he wished to go in the dragon boat to seek for peace, He waded into the water, and climbed aboárd at the stern. At that time the tide was high, and a strong current was running.
Before long the cox was in dim fu ities with his long oar-like rudder, and in trying to keep the boat to it course suddenly knocked four of he men into the water. All except the pedlar were able to swim and save themselves. The pedlar could not swim, and all efforts to save him were unavailing. In the evening the the dragon boat was returned to own village, but when the owners heard that a man had been drowned from it, they immediately smashed their boat, saying that now it wa an unlucky dragon and could not be used again lest evil should come upon them.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.