Page:Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills.djvu/24

12 some infectious disease. This barrier is avoided in the following fashion. The parents take the child out for a walk, and accost the first person they meet, pedlar, beggar, or what not. They salute him and tell him the matter, asking him to become surety for the child. If he consents he will give the child a new name and become his kan tieh 乾爹 informal adoptive father (or kan ma 乾媽 adoptive mother). The person is then invited to the house and food put before him, and the same evening the necessary ceremony, much the same as in sorcery, is performed in the house.

The danger may be that the child must pass the lei-kung kuan Thunder-god barrier, or be killed, as the Chinese say, by thunder. Such death is regarded as evidence of the special displeasure of Heaven.

Another crisis is the ch‘ü-ming kuan 取命關 or taking-life barrier. There is danger of the child's life being taken by a demon. In this case a butcher is asked to become surety or adoptive father, because he carries a knife and can thus frighten away the slaying demon. Much the same ceremony is performed as in the "knock-door crisis."

It may be threatened that some heavy or sharp article shall fall on the child and kill it; this is a tao-chên kuan 刀砧關 or knife and anvil crisis. A butcher with his knife or a blacksmith with his sledgehammer is sought as kan tieh.

The danger may be that of drowning, lo-shui kuan 落水關. Any willing person may be made kan tieh in this case.

The p‘ei-ma kuan 披麻關 or donning-sackcloth barrier, means that there is danger the child may be left an orphan, or that he will fall sick if he sees anyone in mourning.

The crisis to be dreaded may be that the child will one day fall through a hole in some bridge and be drowned. This is the tuan-ch‘iao kuan 斷橋關 or broken-bridge crisis.

The child may be liable to the chiang-chün kuan 將軍關; that is, he may be accidentally shot. To avert this calamity, or to get past this barrier he must worship at the tomb of some military general 將軍, or at some memorial stone. Such a lad will most likely carry through life the nickname pei 碑 or tablet, because he worshipped at the stone slab.