Page:Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills.djvu/187

 (端陽節), tuan yang chieh

This feast is held on the fifth of the fifth moon, this being the time when the sun is believed to be overhead, and the dragon festival is observed. The story of Ch‘ü yuan is well known: he was a statesman of Ch‘u, accused to and cast off by his prince, he saw his country ruined, sat down and wrote the poem Li sao then went and committed suicide by drowning. The people oughtforsought for [sic] his body and afterwards started the dragon boat festival on this date to commemorate his merits. The dragon boat is long and narrow with a dragon's head and tail; it is well manned and simply flies over the water. In the centre of the boat is a drum, with a man to beat time to the rowers, a clown rises up and down making fierce grimaces, and armed men stand on the prow of the boat brandishing their weapons to frighten the demons so that they may give up Ch‘ü Yüan. This festival has, however, become degraded by the influence of Sui Yang Ti (隋煬帝, A.D. 605), and is chiefly composed of and managed by the inconstant and vagabond set, who amuse themselves by throwing plums at the women of the crowd.

One of the ideals of this feast is to take a bath, hsi tsao. People wander round the country to find special herbs and different kinds of grasses, yu pai ping (遊百病), which are taken home and boiled and the concoction used for the healing of disease, or they are mashed into a salve for boils called pai ts‘ao kao (膏). Others bathe in the water in which the herbs and grass have been boiled. Even prescriptions prepared on this day are believed to be more efficacious than those prepared on other days.

A small bag is carried near the breast in which incense, camphor, and other medicines are put to draw away disease; the shapes of these bags are varied, being like frogs, monkeys, tigers, and cats, or like a red pepper-corn.

Frequently the bodies of children are smeared all over with hartall wine, hsiung huang chiu, as it is believed it will protect from snake-bites.