Page:Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills.djvu/116

 feet bound is to be the guardian door god, pa mên shên (把門神).

To bend one leg at the knee and bind it in that position with one arm stretched over the head and the other straight out, and then to tie the hair to a beam overhead is hanging up the military god of wealth, tiao wu ts‘ai shên (吊武財神). Hanging up by the armpits and flogging represents the civil god of wealth (交財神).

In all there are said to be seventy-two kinds of these punishments, the inventions of a degraded humanity. Many of these cannot be learned by enquiry, while others are unfit for publication. Ta Ch‘ing chou hsien kung shih (大靑州縣公事)

A new appointment is announced in the Provincial Treasurer's Yamen by a notice hung up. A notification on red paper is sent to the present official, giving his successor's name and other particulars; this is also posted in the yamen.

Those managing public business in the yamens collect money for the new magistrate's outfit—a thousand or perhaps several thousand taels, ti hsü chih (遞須知). If the money is accepted these men will afterwards attend to affairs according to their own wills; otherwise the magistrate will be more free.

On the proper day men and horses are sent off to bring the new official. On arrival at the city gates he enters a pavilion put up for the purpose where a pig's head, feet and tail, san shêng (三牲), are prepared with candles and incense already burning, and he kneels and worships the city gates. Some officials are very superstitious as to the point at which they enter the city.

One of his first duties is to inspect the city walls, yüeh ch‘êng (閱城), and he also worships in the Confucian temple. Both old and new incumbents worship the seals of office when these change hands. There is also a ceremony of kneeling and bowing toward Peking.