Page:Primitive Culture Vol 1.djvu/165

Rh in the name of some great statesman, moralist, or philosopher of the past, the theory has been adopted by spiritualists that foolish or lying spirits are apt to personate those of higher degree, and give messages in their names.

Spirit-writing is of two kinds, according as it is done with or without a material instrument. The first kind is in full practice in China, where, like other rites of divination, it is probably ancient. It is called 'descending of the pencil,' and is especially used by the literary classes. When a Chinese wishes to consult a god in this way, he sends for a professional medium. Before the image of the god are set candles and incense, and an offering of tea or mock money. In front of this, on another table, is placed an oblong tray of dry sand. The writing instrument is a V-shaped wooden handle, two or three feet long, with a wooden tooth fixed at its point. Two persons hold this instrument, each grasping one leg of it, and the point resting in the sand. Proper prayers and charms induce the god to manifest his presence by a movement of the point in the sand, and thus the response is written, and there only remains the somewhat difficult and doubtful task of deciphering it. To what state of opinion the rite belongs may be judged from this: when the sacred apricot-tree is to be robbed of a branch to make the spirit-pen an apologetic inscription is scratched upon the trunk. Notwithstanding theological differences between China and England, the art of spirit-writing is much the same in the two countries. A kind of 'planchette' seems to have been known in Europe in the seventeenth century. The instrument, which may now be bought at the toy-shops, is a heart-shaped board some seven inches long, resting on three supports, of which the two at the wide end are castors, and the third at the pointed end is a pencil thrust through

1 Doolittle, 'Chinese,' vol. ii. p. 112; Bastian, 'Oestl. Asien,' vol. iii. p. 252; 'Psychologie,' p. 159.

2 Toehla, 'Aurifontina Chymica,' cited by K. R. H. Mackenzie, in 'Spiritualist,' Mar. 15, 1870.