Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 5 1887.djvu/231

Rh the rooms, chanting at the same time certain liturgies. This ceremony is known as The Purification. He further takes some onions, garlic, celery, pig's gall, a steelyard, some leaves of the juniper-tree, and a hundred cash, all of which are put into a basin containing the water with which the child is to be washed. The cash, which are termed "wash the boy money," are then strung on to the leaves or small twigs of the tree, and given to the friends of the family. The onions (ts’ung) are to make the child (ts’ung ming) clever, the garlic (sün) to make him a good reckoner on the (sün p’un) abacus, the celery (k’ar) that he may be (k’an lik) industrious, the gall (t'aàm) that he may be (t'am) courageous, the steelyard to prevent demons running away with him, the juniper-leaves that he may have as long a life as is possessed by that tree. Presents are also made at this time in the shape of bracelets, shoes, &c., but these are of trifling value, the proper time being the last day of the first month of the babe's life. These ceremonies concluded, the next step is to have the child's fortune told in order to ascertain the particular idol or tree to which he belongs. The belief is entertained that in the spirit-world a tree is planted to represent the life in the world below, and that the child is as much the fruit of the tree as it is that of the womb. The idea of fruit is sometimes replaced by that of flowers, in which case a male is represented by a white flower, a female by a red. The fruit is supposed by some to be weighed previous to the birth of a child and to be increased or diminished according as it is too little or too great, thus accounting for the birth of children having an extra finger or a hare-lip. The adoption of a girl in cases where there is no family is occasioned by the hope that it may have the effect of a graft upon the tree in the spirit-world, and thus render it productive. A couple who have been married for ten years and have had no children will engage a Taoist priest to water the garden in the unseen land, or a sorceress may be hired to proceed thither in order to change the earth round the tree or plant which it is desired should bear fruit. In other cases Kam Ha, the Lucina of the Chinese in some parts, as the Fa Wong Fu Mo, or parental king of the garden, is to some extent in others, is invoked, and a shoe is borrowed from her temple and taken home, there to have incense burnt before it on her shrine. If the device prove successful, a pair of shoes, exactly