She was the daughter of a man who, with his sons, was engaged on the ocean in the pursuit of a living. He was born during the Sung dynasty, and lived in the Hing Hua prefecture of the province of Fuh-kien. One day, while she was engaged in the employment of weaving in her mother’s house she fell asleep through excessive weariness, her head resting upon her loom. She dreamed that she saw her father and two brothers on their separate junks in a terrific storm. She exerted herself to rescue them from danger. She immediately seized upon the junk which contained her father, with her mouth, while with her hands she caught a firm hold upon the two junks which contained her two brothers. She was dragging them all toward the shore when, alas! she heard the voice of her mother calling to her, and, as she was an obedient girl, forgetting that she held her father’s junk in her mouth, she hastily opened it to answer her mother. She awoke in great distress and, lo! it was a dream, but not all a dream, for in a few days the news arrived that the fleet of junks had encountered a dreadful storm, and that the one in which her father was had been wrecked, and he had perished, while those in which her brothers were had been signally rescued. The girl knew that she had been the means of the salvation of her brothers, and that opening her mouth to answer her mother’s call was the occasion of her failure to rescue her father’s vessel. This girl became, as the result of her dream, one of the most popular objects of worship in the empire. The emperors of China have, at different times since her death, conferred various high-sounding titles upon her, some of which seem blasphemous. She is called “_Queen of Heaven_” and “_The Holy Mother in the heavens above_.” One is often reminded by the titles given her and the worship and honors paid her, of the titles which are given to the mother of Jesus by the authority of the Pope of Rome. Sailors often take with them some embers or ashes which they obtain from the censer before some popular image of the goddess. These ashes they carry about their person in a small red bag, or they suspend them about the junk in convenient places, or they put them in the censer before the image of that which they worship. When there is a violent storm, and there seems but little hope that the junk will outride it, the sailors all kneel down near the bow with incense in their hands, and call out in doleful and bitter tones upon _Ma-Chu_ to send deliverance. In case they reach the port without shipwreck, they are bound to offer her an especial thanksgiving of food, with or without theatrical plays in her honor, according to their vow.