Page:Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills.djvu/215

 out demons. These screens are called ch‘a p‘ing (插屏), stuck-in screen. When a house is troubled with sickness the neighbours often ask whose dirty demon has come hither to give trouble.

When a person has a hatred for another and is bent upon secret revenge, a straw effigy of the enemy is made and pricked in the eyes and nose with a needle, cursed and burned; it is believed that this will inflict sickness or even death upon the enemy and is spoken of as shê yin chien (財射 [sic]陰箭), shooting a secret arrow. Another way is to go to the temple of the city god, and accuse the person at the idol shrine; the indictment is written out and presented with candles and: incense, after which it is burned to ashes. This is called kao yin chuang (告陰狀), making an indictment to Hades. When a dead child has been carried out of the house, the doorstep is sawn or hacked to indicate that the debt of some ancestor has now been paid in full.

Sometimes over the door of the house will be found written the two characters i shan, one good deed; being an abbreviation of the saying, "one good deed will cover a thousand bad ones." This is to deceive the demons and keep them out of the house.

Some haunted houses have a mirror hung up over the door, so that when the demon comes and sees his own face he will take fright and depart. Some parents use for their children what are known as tigers' pillows so as to frighten the demons.

On the eighth of the fourth moon there is a custom known as chia mao ch‘ung, or marrying out the caterpillar. The idea is that caterpillars are females and in marrying them out they will leave this part of the country alone. A small red rosette is put up in the chief room of the house as an evidence. 佛生四月八, 毛蟲今日嫁, 嫁在深山去, 永遠不歸家. On the eighth of the fourth moon was Buddha's birth. On that day caterpillars are married out. Married far into the mountain recesses never more to return.

At the spring equinox there is a custom known as ching chüeh wang, to reverence the king of birds. Rice loaves are