[224] De Groot, _op. cit._ vol. iii. p. 848. [225] De Groot, _loc. cit._ p. 849. [226] De Groot, _loc. cit._ p. 854. The punishment under the Penal Code for opening a grave and exposing the corpse is strangulation (subject to confirmation). [227] See p. 222. [228] See Grant Allen's _Evolution of the Idea of God_ (pp. 265-7); Tylor's _Primitive Culture_ (4th ed.), vol. i. pp. 108-11; W. G. Black's _Folk-Medicine_, p. 29; and Dennys's _Folk-lore of China_, p. 22. The superstition sometimes takes the form of a belief that the rescued man will some day do some terrible injury to his rescuer--perhaps at the instigation of the evil spirit who was balked of his prey. It is quite erroneous to suppose that this superstitious objection to saving the drowning is prevalent throughout all China. De Groot (_op. cit._ vol. v. p. 526) states that he never found a trace of it in the province of Fuhkien; "while, moreover, all the Chinese we interrogated on this head protested against their humanity being thus called in question." [229] For the headman in question and his _pien_, see illustration. [230] For an account of the popular belief with regard to old coffin-wood and nails, see De Groot, _op. cit._ vol. i, pp. 328-9. See also Doolittle's _Social Life of the Chinese_, p. 561; and Dennys's _Folk-lore of China_ (p. 48), where it is said that "a nail that has been used in fastening up a coffin is a sovereign charm. This is sometimes beaten out into a rod or wire and, encased in silver, worn as a ring round the ankles or wrists." It is very curious that even in this matter of coffin-nails we can trace a close connection between Chinese and Western European folk-lore. In the Shetland Islands (which seem to possess many remarkable parallels with Chinese folk-lore) it is said that toothache can be cured by picking the tooth "with the nail of an old coffin." (_Folk-lore Journal_, vol. iii. p. 380.) In parts of Yorkshire it was once the custom to take some coffin-lead or other coffin-metal from a churchyard and have it made into a ring; it then became a cure for cramp. (_County Folk-lore_, vol. ii. [North Riding of Yorkshire] p. 171.) Similar beliefs existed elsewhere in England--in Devonshire, for example. (See W. G. Black's _Folk-Medicine_, p. 175.) It may be noted here that a thoroughly "orthodox" coffin in China is supposed to have no nails at all, or as few as possible. The various planks are fitted into grooves and notches with the deliberate intention of avoiding the necessity of nails. This doctrine is well understood at Weihaiwei and followed there as far as practicable. The explanation of the nailless coffin given by De Groot is that it dates from a period in extreme antiquity _when iron was unknown_. The form of coffin that was adopted in a primitive age from necessity is used in modern times from a spirit of conservatism, or from reverence for a custom that time has sanctified. (_See_ De Groot, _op. cit._ vol. i. pp.