CONSULTING SOOTHSAYERS IN CHINA.
By E. Faber
The Chinese do not undertake anything of importance without first consulting the decisions of fate in the matter contemplated. In the more important affairs they go to a temple, in domestic concerns to the ancestral hall to divine by lot. For this purpose they have bamboo tablets in a receptacle which, after sacrifice and prayer, is shaken until one drops out. The number on this tablet refers the suppliant to a sentence or verse in plain writing containing the answer to his petition. Inasmuch, however, as the connection between the writing and the petition is usually vague, numberless soothsayers have tables and booths in the temples and on the streets, in which the poor dupes turn for assistance in deciphering their fate. In minor affairs they go to the soothsayer direct, who draws upon all ages and sexes for his support. Unsuccessful scholars and blind men engage in this calling.—E. Faber.