Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/73

Rh A poor boy came along and read it. "I will go," said he, and he went at sunset. He found all he wanted and went to work to cook his supper. Just as he was ready to eat it he heard a voice from the top of the chimney. He looked up and saw a leg. The leg said, "I am going to drop." "I don't keer," said the boy, "jes' so 's you don' drap in my soup."

The leg jumped down on a chair, and another leg came and said, "I am going to drop." "I don't keer," said the boy, "so you don' drap in my soup." One after another, all the members of a man came down in this way.

The little boy said, Will you have some supper? Will you have some supper?" They gave him no answer. "Oh," said the little boy, "I save my supper and manners, too." He ate his supper and made up his bed. "Will you have some bedroom? Will you have some bedroom?" said the little boy. No answer. " Oh," said the little boy, "I save my bedroom and my manners, too," and he went to bed.

Soon after he went to bed the legs pulled him under the house and showed him a chest of money. The little boy grew rich and married.

—In the Journal of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xxviii., 1898, Rev. G. W. Clarke gives an account of the Yü-li, or Precious Records, from which an extract has already been given. Below are cited examples of rewards and punishments for the reverent or irreverent treatment of these works (pp. 256, 257). "Mr. P‘au, M. A., of Kwie-Tong hsien, in 1750, disfigured the Yü-li by crossing out the sentences he disliked and by introducing his strictures on the pages. One evening the Goddess of Mercy visited his neighborhood. At night-time P‘au opened the front door to go out into the street, but he fell, and could not raise himself. He ordered his son to bring out the Yü-li and give it to a neighbor to take to the Tong Yu Miao. His son entered the room and found it to be filled with fire, and perished in the room. Mrs. P‘au fled in her night-dress to save her life, and in her flight stumbled over her husband. P‘au confessed to his neighbors how he had disfigured the Yü-li, and soon afterwards he died from his burns, and dogs came and ate his flesh. Mrs. P‘au was ashamed to return to her neighbors in her night attire. She met a beggar and married him; what became of her after- wards is not known."

On this Mr. Clarke remarks: "Every city has its Tong Yu Miao, or Ch‘en Hwang Miao. The God of Hades, who governs a corresponding district in the spirit world, is supposed to reside in the temple. These temples are often used as the court of appeal by mandarins, literati, and people. For instance, when a man is to be executed, he has his name and his crime written upon a small flag. As soon as decapitation has taken place, a gun is fired to notify the governor, and a yamen employee hastens to the Ch‘en Hwang temple to inform the idol that So-and-so has been beheaded, and bid him take care of the spirit. If a robbery or murder takes place, the mandarin or an employee will go with an offering to the idol