Page:Strange stories from a Chinese studio.djvu/58
A CHINESE STUDip 29
the various leases of life allotted to men. Before he had uttered a word, the necromancer asked him, saying, " Is it not about your servant. Sir, that you would consult me ? " Mr. Yii was startled at this, and repUed that it was. " The sick man," continued the necromancer, "^will come to no harm ; you. Sir, are the one in danger." Mr. Yii then begged him to cast his nativity, which he pro- ceeded to do, finally saying to Mr. Yii, " You have but three days to Uve ! " Dreadfully frightened, he remained some time in a state of stupefaction, when the necromancer quietly observed that he possessed the power of averting this calamity by magic, and would exert it for the sum of ten ounces of silver. But Mr. Yii reflected that Life and Death are already fixed,' and he didn't see how magic could save him. So he refused, and was just going away, whereupon the necromancer said, '* You grudge this trifling outlay. I hope you will not repent it." Mr. Yii's friends also urged him to pay the money, advising him rather to empty his purse than not secure the necro- mancer's compassion. Mr. Yii, however, would not hear of it, and the three days slipped quickly away. Then he sat down calmly in his inn to see what was going to happen. Nothing did happen all day, and at night he shut his door and trinuned the lamp ; then, with a sword at his side, he awaited the approach of death.
By-and-by, the clepsydra * showed that two hours had already gone without bringing him any nearer to dis- solution ; and he was thinkmg about lying down, when he
- A firm belief in predestination is an important characteristic of
the Chinese mind. '* All is destiny *' is a phrase daily in the mouth of every man, woman, and child, in the empire. Confucius himself, we are told, objected to discourse to his disciples upon this topic ; but it is evident from many passages in the Lun Yu, or Confucian Gospels [Book vi. ch. 8, Book xiv. ch. 38, &c.], that he believed in a certain pre-arrangement of human afiairs, against which all efforts would be imavailing;
- An appliance of very ancient date in China, now superseded
by cheap clocks and watches. A large clepsydra, consisting of four copper jars standing on steps one above the other, is stfil, how- ever, to be seen in the city of Canton, and is in excellent working order, the night-watches being determined by reference to its indi- cator in the lower jar. By its aid, coils of ** joss-stick," or pastille, are regulated to bum so many hours, and are sold to the poor, who use them both for the purpose of guiding their extremely vague notions of time, and for lighting the oft-recurring tobacco-pipe.