Page:Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills.djvu/72

 After a man takes to begging it is difficult to get him to leave it, but it is also difficult to find one who has been born a beggar, nearly everyone having come to this state through gambling or opium.

When these beggars die they get a free coffin. When put in the coffin a basin is put under each hand and foot, and a broom under the buttocks. The basins are said to be like the hoofs of a horse, and the broom like the tail of a horse. The idea is that in this life they have done little and got much from the country, and in the next they are willing to become horses to carry government despatches.

To collect printed paper, shou tzŭ-chih 收字紙, and burn it in places built for the purpose is to accumulate merit. It is merit to collect this paper, merit to deal in it, and also to buy and burn it. A receptacle for it is hung up in almost every house and school. Men go round the streets collecting the paper from these baskets. It is reckoned very bad taste to put a book in an unclean place or dispose of waste paper in a careless fashion, because writing has been handed down from the sages. The sentence "be careful of paper with characters" is written up everywhere.

To gather up the dry bones dug out in the public graveyard and deposit them in the dry-bone tower; to put earth on neglected graves—a coolie being engaged to put a load or two of earth on each grave; to give away books and tracts, exhorting people to good deeds and to attend to their idolatry:—such books as the kan ying p‘ien 感應篇 or book of rewards and punishments are freely given; to invite a man to preach the Sacred Edict at the front door of the house for the benefit of the public; to burn paper clothing and paper money to the orphan spirits in the graveyard; to light lanterns at the New Year and other times to guide the spirits home; these are all works of merit.

To go on a pilgrimage for the worship of Buddha, chao shan pai Fo 潮汕拜佛, is merit. These pilgrimages are nearly all to sacred mountains, and occupy weeks, months or years. Some pilgrims go three steps then kneel down and worship, some five steps and make a bow, others crawl