Page:Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills.djvu/208

 When the cock goes crowing to bed or a hen crows in the yard both are reckoned unlucky. A crowing hen is a sign of misfortune, or the female taking the place of the male as head of the family. Many date the beginning of China's troubles to the time when the late Empress Dowager usurped the authority of the empire.

The repeated changing of houses is very much deprecated, as it disturbs the ancestral altar and poverty comes to those who do this. Towards the end of the year in the cold weather no one will change house for fear he will not have a suitable place to worship his ancestors at New Year time.

If the kitchen pot rings or the kitchen fire puffs and blows it is very unlucky; it is generally believed to betoken the death or sickness of some of the young women of the family. The farmer is very particular not to enter his fields on the spring equinox lest birds should make havoc among the growing grain; neither will he thatch his house on that date lest the birds destroy his thatch. Many of the farmer class will not eat beef; they say that the ox who has borne the yoke ought not to be killed; others say the cow is an unclean animal; others that she is unlucky, and still others are afraid of another ox coming to gore them. Farm labourers and coolies are very much afraid of rain falling on their hair, the fear being that each drop becomes transformed into a louse.

The following things are avoided according to the rotation of the sexagenary cycle. The ten stems are taken first and are as follows:—

甲 Do not open granaries; fear of poverty. 乙 Do not sow or plant; seed rots. 丙 Do not build; fear of fire or workmen ceasing work. 丁 Do not use the barber; fear of boils. 戊 Do not manage the sale of property. 己 Do not touch the graves of ancestors. 庚 Do not weave cloth or make ropes. 辛 Do not manufacture condiments. 壬 Do not change irrigating sluices. 癸 Refrain from litigation.