[123] The following remarks in Dennys's _Folk-lore of China_ (pp. 56 _seq._) will be of interest to those who are wise enough to regard this subject with unorthodox seriousness: "Divination is in China as popular as, and probably more respectable than, it was amongst the Israelites in the days of the witch of Endor, and it is not perhaps going too far to say that there is not a single means resorted to in the West by way of lifting the impenetrable veil which hides the future from curious mankind which is not known to and practised by the Chinese. From 'Pinking the Bible' to using the Planchette, from tossing for odd and even to invoking spirits to actually speak through crafty media, the whole range of Western superstition in this regard is as familiar to the average Chinaman as to the most enthusiastic spiritualist at home. The coincidences of practice and belief are indeed so startling that many will doubtless see in them a sort of evidence either for their truthfulness, or for a common origin of evil.... It is when we come to the consulting of media, the use of a forked stick, writing on sand, and similar matters that the Chinese practice becomes singular in its resemblance to superstitions openly avowed at home. I would here remark that I am no spiritualist. But how, without any apparent connection with each other, such beliefs should at once be found in full force in the farthest East and the extreme West is puzzling. Is our Western spiritualism derived from China?" It may be added that Japanese "occultism"--to use a disagreeable but useful word--is very similar to Chinese, and offers equally striking analogies with that of Europe. (See Percival Lowell's _Occult Japan_.) [124] It is not so well known that almost equally disgusting medicines used to be prescribed in England. One writer says of some old Lincolnshire remedies for ague that they "were so horribly filthy that I am inclined to think most people must have preferred the ague, or the race could hardly have survived." One of these remedies consisted of nine worms taken from a churchyard sod and chopped up small. (See _County Folk-lore_, vol. v, p. 117.) [125] Tylor, _Primitive Culture_ (4th ed.), vol. i. p. 84. On this subject see also Dennys's _Folk-lore of China_, pp. 51-2. [126] "If the first person who enters a house on New Year's morning brings bad news, it is a sign of ill-luck for the whole of the year."--_County Folk-lore: Lincolnshire_, p. 168. [127] The knots or joints of the hemp-stalk are supposed to represent successive stages of advancement. [128] _Ying ch'un._ The ceremonies differ from place to place in minor details. Those here described are observed (with variations) at the district cities nearest to Weihaiwei-namely Wên-têng, Jung ch'êng and Ning-hai. [129] _Ch'un Niu._