Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrait341879roya).pdf/19

 "CHINESE SECRET SOCIETIES." PART II.

Read at a Meeting of the Society held on the 9th June 1879.

Having in the first number of this Journal, given an account of the origin and establishment of the "Hung League" or Thien-Te-Hui, I will now describe an initiatory ceremony, as actually witnessed by myself and others, in the best disciplined Lodge in Singapore, and which lasted from 10 P. M. to 3 A, M., during which period some seventy new Members were admitted into the Society.

As I have neither the time to re-translate in full, nor the ability to improve on M. Schlegel's version of the ritual, I shall describe the ceremonies and furniture of a Lodge, as I myself have seen them in Singapore; merely translating such portions as may seem necessary for my purpose, and, at times, taking the liberty of quoting from the "Hung (or Ang ) League."

Any reader wishing to become more minutely acquainted with the Thien-Te-Hui, should procure M. Schlegel's book, in which he will find a graphic description of the working, rules, and ceremonies of the Society, as (from all I hear) it now exists in China, and in semi-civilised Countries, where Chinese Colonists are compelled to combine against the unscrupulous and capricious tyranny of Native rulers.

In the Straits Settlements, the secret Societies are in fact, but large Friendly Societies, without political objects; dangerous no doubt, to a certain extent, but only for the reason that, owing to the nature of our Chinese population, each Hoey contains a large proportion of lawless and unprincipled characters.