Page:Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills.djvu/51

Rh The tablet used is 三十二天帝中央一𠀘梵天帝君 san shih êrh tʽien shang ti chung yang i chʽi fan tʽien ti chün; or a Buddhist priest uses 二十四諸天菩薩無量世尊 êrh shih ssŭ chu tʽien pʽu sa wu liang shih tsun.

Note that there is one incense stick and one candle for each spirit worshipped.

Another ceremony is the worshipping or thanking Earth kung ti 供地 or hsieh tʽu 謝土.

This is deemed necessary when a house has been repaired, the dragon having possibly been disturbed; or when a new house is first occupied, or when 土府不安 tʽu fu pu an, the place does not agree with the resident. This is indicated perhaps by his digging up some unlucky thing, such as tʽu lung tan 土龍蛋 dragon's eggs, which are black, soft balls with contents like blood: in such cases there is need to worship Earth. Or it may be necessary because a geomancer states that the resident is at variance with the five capital evils 五皇煞 wu huang sha, or with those of the current year sui 歲 sha, or with that of the yellow flag huang fan 黄幡 sha or that of the leopard's tail pao wei 豹尾 sha; when Earth is worshipped these disturbing spirits are worshipped.

This ceremony also is managed by a married Taoist sorcerer. A table is set outside the house and candles and incense lighted on it. On the ground the four points of the compass are marked by lines of dry lime, a candle being stuck in the earth at each extremity of the lines and in the centre. Sometimes, especially when the fault is with the house itself, the ceremony is performed in the chief room.

Five tablets are set up to the five dragons of the five points wu lung shên 五龍神, inscribed with 東方青帝青龍神君 tung fang chʽing ti chʽing lung shên chün, the eastern green dragon spirit, and similarly for the other four, which are the southern red, the western white, the northern black, and the central yellow dragon spirits. Along with these tablets there are others to the gods of the five planets; in the east the wood-virtue god (Jupiter), while south, west, north and middle are the gods of fire-virtue (Mars), metal-virtue (Venus), water-virtue (Mercury), and earth-virtue (Saturn) respectively. The inscriptions are 東方木德星君 tung fang mu tê hsing chün, etc.