Summary: of the Royal Asiatic Society on the 14th of April, 1866. In this paper he treats not only of the jin-hwei, or “men-foxes,” but of the entire class of supernatural beings which, if not identical with, are no doubt closely allied to, the Were-wolves of Europe. One of the most striking of these stories, concerning the cultivation of a paddy field by a man much annoyed by the depredations of a fox, runs as follows :—The animal, finding that its squatter would take no steps to divest the field of stones where­ with to fence it, took upon itself the task of clearing them away, rendering the soil more fertile than that of any other around. When the crops were safely garnered the fox appeared to the astonished proprietor in the form of a man, and laughingly observed, “ Master, you have not yet finished the legal formalities requisite for obtaining the use of my field.” The case was tried at Peking, and the astonished judges decided in favour of tho man-fox. Another curious|tale relating to the same subject was narrated by the same gentleman, concerning the strange disappearance of a fox’s tail, and its magical reappearance at the command of the humane donor. A more familiar story, perhaps, is that of the penitent fox, and the boy to whose high moral character it had appealod in vain, tho last-named character being so touched by the Ureatore of all things. According to the old legendary lore of the Chinese, one sect of Taoists had the power of eman­ oipation from the body, an idea which has undoubtedly exercised considerable influence over the general folk-lore of the oountry. As has boon shown by Mr. Watters in an essay “On Spirit Media” (!)}, the priesthood of Li Chihio during the end of th© last century possessed the art of releasing or conjuring the spirit from the body, and of allowing it to range Bodily form, nicknamed after the manner of the Renjuitld (people who carried presents of meat in. olden times, and so nicknamed for a time from the resemblance of their names to tho word “ to eat”). The name under which it circulates in the “ Middle Kingdom ” is Tong-bing Peo- * Chapter XVII..
mother’s; but in China says Wong Shing Kin, though the kitten never is killed, the mother is knocked on the head.” He was induced to give his opinion on so favor­ able a subject in consequence of the worthy doctor’s assuming that in China, where there is no public opinion on anything, cats are as much petted as unnecessary children in England. Borne out by his audience he contradicted ; Dr. Smith said that in China—and more particularly in Canton where he had resided some time—people were very secluded and had no society; consequently they bestowed great affection upon their pets, to whom they could talk without fear and with great familiarity. Dr. Valentine, who had by this time completed his work, declared, as he should naturally do 011 such a subject, that the habits of the negroes were generally those of the. Chinese, Europeans having skilfully combined the two, with a little from each. The above remarks by Dr. Valentine may here­ be checked by evidence to hand there being too many singular beliefs cur- rent in China to enable me to follow up the sentimental remarks unfortunately be believes in such prae- tices and more unfortunately he amuses himself by describing the course of his disorders in illusions that he is under the nbsession of certain supernatural beings. “ Yes, enjoy your ghost, sir, I said ; and never was a human being 80 systematically humbugging by a crowd of spirits as that excellent creature hath been by outbreaks of the nobility of Tartarus.” In another tract the subject is carried on still further. “ As yet I have heard no “ In China the animals themselves,” he mery recently been in Canten, and it was my daily amusement to observe how people in that city and metropolis of China weighed out meat to their favorites by honourable degrees geese not shot, cats neijer drowned, and dogs unsubject to unrighteous pummelling.” It is difficult to estimate the number of leedaries current in China regarding animals, but they are probably as numerous as they are in our own country. certqiq,y Tnany thoughts suggested to a comparative study of both. Nor is it to 6« supposed that Chinese fables ar^bat niodern produqtions^ Although the mass qf widespread qn animal fquests is due to European analo­ gies and has really nothing directly in common with Chinese ideas; th^e have been long pre­served in sundry applications known qnly to the initiated of old. The story farmers who found that the eyes of one of the duid being consumed as rap, by A good-looking woman while working; and at length, seizing a spadf aDd digger under one arm the traveller went into tho Temple of tho City God and said, “ I have a dreamt,” adding the following in the vernacular, “I dreamt last night that in a field to tho back of the Temple of tho City God there was a large and deep well, and in the middle the Sig„ Animal, Spirits of the, and Horse: Races, Story of tho, .. .. 121 Localities, .. .. .. 131 „ Connection with Funeral Honours to the, of the Passions, the,.. .. .. 39 Ass and the Oxen, Chinese fable of the, 
Back-dams made of woven bamboos Island and Lion, Procession of the, 109 to keep out flood-water, which are not Isle of the Blest, the Chinese, 100 unfrequent in the mountainous districts of Italy, have their counterpart in similar works in China, the latter perhaps sup plemented by stone walls arranged to suit all exigencies of flood. In Kang-sin, for example, I observed a stone wing wall on the east aide of a country road turning at right angles to it and serving the purpose of a back-dam to perfection. But one of the most remarkable works of a meteorological character carried out by the * Chinese is the reclamation of land in estuaries and on coasts subject to inundation from tho sea. Of these works, the lands around Canton, Macao, and into the sea are admirable examples, the embankments being evidently intended to prevent the recurrence of those devastations which are known to have at one time sub merged what are now