Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/411

 and the victims be thrown into a deep sleep. This soporific, or 'soul confuser,' as it is otherwise called, makes people feel tired and sleepy ; they are recovered by means of a charm and a draught of cold water. The promised heirs and the interviews with deceased hus- bands are all supposed to be brought about during the period of trance for which scandalous impostures the heads of these villains hung up in the streets were scarcely a sufficient punishment. However, reflecting that it would be a great grievance to the people were any of them to find themselves mixed up in such a case just after a bad harvest, and also that among the large number who had become affiliated to this society there would be found many old and respectable families, I determined on a plan which would put an end to the affair without any troublesome esclandre. I burnt all the depositions in which names were given, and took no further steps against the persons named. I ordered the goddess and her paramour to receive their full complement of blows (viz., one hundred), and to be punished with the heavy cangue ; and, placing them at the yamen gate, I let the people rail and curse at them, tear their flesh and break their heads, until they passed together into their boasted Paradise. The husband and some ten others of the gang were placed in the cangue, bambooed, or punished in some way ; and as for the rest, they were allowed to escape with this one more chance to turn over a new leaf. I confiscated the build- ing, destroyed its disgraceful hiding-places, changed the whole appearance of the place, and made it into a literary institution to be dedicated to five famous heroes of literature. I cleansed and purified it from all taint, and on the ist and I5th of each moon I would, when at

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