[4] "The ostensible purpose for which numbers enrolled themselves was the worship of the idols, and more especially of the Goddess of Mercy. The real object, however, was a political one. The agitated state of the country seemed to Hai-Shan (a conspicuous member of the White Lily sect) a sufficient reason why the standard of rebellion should be raised. At a great meeting of the initiated he declared that the goddess was about to come to the earth in human form to deliver them from their oppressors, and that now was the time to declare themselves against the Mongols. This proposition was received with the utmost enthusiasm. A white horse and a black cow were sacrificed to Heaven in order to secure its intervention on their behalf, and having adopted a red scarf to be worn round their heads as their distinctive mark, they broke out in rebellion against the Government" (MacGowan's "Imperial History of China"). [5] Each Boxer carried about his mascot or talisman, a piece of yellow paper on which was printed in red ink a figure of Buddha without feet but with four halos. On this paper were ideographs which were to be repeated at intervals as a charm. It is said that the late Empress-Dowager repeated this incantation seventy times a day, and at each repetition the chief eunuch shouted, "There goes another foreign devil!" {278} CHAPTER XIX THE ABDICATION EDICT HANKOW, HUPEH, CHINA, February 13, 1912. Half an hour ago I was handed a facsimile of the greatest Edict that has ever been issued in the Chinese Empire. It will become known as the Abdication Edict. The following is a full text of the Edict which has become known as the Abdication Edict. As intimated in recent dispatches concerning the terms agreed upon, it became apparent that there was to be no complete abdication. The Emperor was simply to relinquish all political power, a new provisional Government was to take charge, which in turn was to be succeeded by a regular Government to be named by a National Convention. The Edict reads:--