Page:Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills.djvu/50

38 If the family worships a tʽan shên 壇神 or altar of lemuria or shades, then that spirit looks after the animals; otherwise the duty falls on this tutelary god and the kitchen god. Often when a child falls sick or the pig gets the measles, an offering is made to this god. He has two slaves, chao tʽsai 招財 and chin pao 進寶. These names are often given to dogs; hence a saying 來狗主富 lai kou chu fu, when a dog comes he rules the riches.

Tʽan shên is the altar of the lemuria or ghosts. The spirit is believed to be a man named Chao, 趙 formerly prefect in Nan Yang. The altar is in the left-hand corner of the chief room. Some are fixed shrines, others are moveable and are often a hollow stone in which incense is burned. It is mostly used by the superstitious wealthy.

Every three or five years there is a 'tranquillizing' ceremony: see under Sorcery and particularly under the heading ching tʽan.

When a family changes its abode or when anything unlucky has happened in the house the family altar has to be pacified 安神 an shên. This is the work of the huo chü tao 火居道, married Taoist Sorcerer.

The same class of priest is used for the worship of heaven 供天 kung tʽien. During this ceremony the family altar is covered with a chart or tablet. A table is placed outside the door under the open sky and an offering of incense and candles is made.

The ceremony is most commonly performed when the paying back of a vow is required. A son may, for example, vow to offer to heaven so many sets of candles and incense sticks if a parent is healed of a sickness, or gains a lawsuit, or has a safe journey. A set means 32 of each kind, but if a Buddhist priest officiates (which is seldom, except at a funeral), the set is only 24.

What would appear to have been originally an exceptionally pure act of worship is now often a pretext for gratifying the lowest passions. For instance a man may vow an offering to heaven if a certain enemy dies or has his line of succession cut off, and the like.