The Fulfilment of a Dream of Pastor Hsi's: The Story of the Work in HwochowCable, Mildred
Religion
The Fulfilment of a Dream of Pastor Hsi's: The Story of the Work in Hwochow
Cable, Mildred
Missions -- China -- Huo-hsien (Shansi Province)
Frequently, after supplication to the gods, the clothes of the patient
are carefully weighed; a procession is then formed in which one of the
sorcerers holds a mirror directed backwards, others, wearing scarlet
aprons, carry brooms and with slow and mystic movements sweep widely on
either side with the intent of gathering up the wandering soul.
Meanwhile crackers are fired to the weird sound of a minor, falsetto
lilting. After a considerable journey over the countryside they return
to prove the success of their venture. For this the clothes of the sick
man must be reweighed to see whether the weight of the spirit has been
added to that of the patient's garments. Should the smallest discrepancy
be detected all is well, and after feasting and opium the _mo-han_
pockets his fee and departs, frequently leaving a prescription behind
him, the results of which may be more or less harmful. Whatever the
result, nothing will shake the faith of the people in these degraded
villains, for they can, by threatening to call in the intervention of
the gods on their behalf strike terror to the heart of any man, and once
having sought aid of the sorcerer, the family is pitiable indeed.
In a case which came under my personal observation, the spirit of a
young woman from a village at some distance from the one in which I was
staying, who had recently died in childbirth, was said to have returned,
having found herself in difficulties in the spirit world for lack of
means to defray the necessary expenses. Illness became so prevalent that
necromancers were called in and agreed that a medium must be employed.
The spirit made its requirements known, and by promising the sacrifices
ordained, the family passed under a bondage from which none dared to
emancipate himself by omitting the prescribed rites. Night after night,
at the medium's command a table was spread at the cross-roads, on which
were laid the fantastic foods suitable to the requirements of the
departed spirit. Gold and silver paper money was plentifully burned,
crackers were fired, and following the medium, a party of men left to
place earthen bowls containing grains at various corners of the roads.
Nothing but the deliverance of Christianity, or a daring known to few,
can set free those who have been entangled in such practices.
I saw this medium whilst under spirit control. Before a table
elaborately decorated on which incense burned, she threw herself into
extraordinary contortions, quivering and shaking, her finger and thumb
forming a circle, whilst the little finger vibrated continuously. She
sustained a perpetual chant in the peculiar spirit voice, the minor
strains of which I find it impossible to describe. A relative of the
deceased acted as questioner, and she dictated the terms by the
fulfilment of which the spirit consented to a reconciliation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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