"And coming, findeth it empty, swept and adorned. Then goeth it and taketh along with itself other spirits more wicked than itself--seven, and entering it, findeth its dwelling there; and the last state of that man becometh worse than the first."--The Gospel according to Luke. CHAPTER XII THE POWERS OF DARKNESS BEING A RECORD OF SOME OBSERVATIONS IN DEMONOLOGY THE Chinaman, though perhaps the most materialistic of Easterners, is no exception to his neighbours in the large place which the occult takes in his outlook. For him, the physical world is peopled with spirits good and evil, capable of exercising the most far-reaching influences on the fortunes of men. These spiritual beings are bound up in the forces of nature, and combine to constitute that geomantic system known by the Chinese as _Feng-shui_ (wind and water), by reference to which, matters of human life, inasmuch as they are designed to court the good influences and avoid those which are inauspicious to the man, the time, and the place, are decided. The Chinaman can never experience the feeling of complete solitude which the Westerner knows in wild and lonely places; for him the hillside, the ravine, and the mountain gorge are peopled with presences best described as fairies, though in nothing resembling the light-hearted beings which this description generally conveys to the Western mind. To him they present the appearance of aged, venerable beings, short of stature, with white beards. Country, town, and human habitations are alike haunted by psychic beings whose condition cannot be exactly expressed by the word _spirit_, neither form of Chinese belief admitting of the conception of a pure spirit without matter. These beings may be grouped into three classes. _Gwei_ is the term most constantly used by the common people to indicate the being whose influence is feared by all, and who receives from every family some measure of propitiatory sacrifice. We read in the _li chao chuan_,[6] or _Divine Panorama_, that "every living being, no matter whether it be a man or an animal, a bird or a quadruped, a gnat or a midge, a worm or an insect, having legs or not, few or many, all are called _gwei_ after death."