Page:Leaves from my Chinese Scrapbook - Balfour, 1887.djvu/164

 of its own, and dates back as far as 2900 years before the Christian era. Hedgehogs, too, have a faint aroma of sanctity about them, though we never heard that porcupines were similarly favoured; while even rats and mice are regarded with more reverence than they deserve by a few misguided polytheists. We confess to some feeling of surprise at having been assured that the members of that most respectable sect of native teetotallers, the Tsai-li Hui, or Fellowship of Reason, are addicted to these foolish forms of worship. There is no doubt that the Fellowship has decidedly degenerated during the last few years, both in ethical purity and reputation; but it is to be hoped that a veneration for vermin is not reckoned among the signs of its decadence. Perhaps the most dreaded of the brute-deities in China is the fox, which has the power of transforming itself into the likeness of a beautiful woman, and so deceiving the unwary. This superstition is probably universal, and was made use of in the Peking Gazette about a year ago in order to screen some faithless eunuchs suspected of complicity in stealing certain objects of value from the imperial palace. Fox-myths, in fact, are to be found well-nigh the whole world over, and nowhere are they so deeply rooted in the minds of the people as in China and Japan. It is the favourite plea of some gay Lothario who has not come home over-night, and presents himself haggard and pale the following day to his anxious family, that he was unlucky enough on his way home the previous evening to meet and be deluded by a "fox."