Page:Strange stories from a Chinese studio.djvu/59
30 STRANGE STORIES FROM
heard a scratching at the window, and then saw a tiny little man creep through, carrying a spear on his shoulder, who, on reaching the ground, shot up to the ordinary height. Mr. Yii seized his sword and at once struck at it ; but only succeeded in cutting the air. His visitor instantly shrank down small again, and made an attempt to escape through the crevice of the window ; but Yii redoubled his blows and at last brought him to the ground. Lighting the lamp, he found only a paper man,^ cut right through the middle. This made him afraid to sle^p, and he sat up watching, until in a little time he saw a horrid hobgoblin creep through the same place. No sooner did it touch the ground than he assailed it lustily with his sword, at length cutting it in half. Seeing, however, that both halves kept on wriggling about, and fearing that it might get up again, he went on hacking at it. Every blow told, giving forth a hard sound, and when he came to examine his work, he found a clay image all knocked to pieces. Upon this he moved his seat near to the window, and kept his eye fixed upon the crack. After some time, he heard a noise Uke a bull bellowing cflitside the window, and some- thing pushed against the window-frame with such force as to make the whole house tremble and seem about to fall. Mr. Yii, fearing he should be buried under the ruins, thought he could not do better than fight outside ; so he accordingly burst open the door with a crash and rushed out. There he found a huge devil, as tall as the house, and he saw by the dim light of the moon that its face was as black as coal.
• " Paper men " are a source of great dread to the people at large. During the year 1876 whole provinces were convulsed by the belief that some such superstitious agency was at work to de- prive innocent persons of their tails ; and the so-called " Pope " of the Taoist religion even went so far as to publish a charm against the machinations of the unseen. It ran as follows : — " Ye who urge filthy devils to spy out the people 1 — ^the Master's spirits are at hand and will soon discover you. With this charm anyone may travel by sunlight, moonlight, or starlight all over the earth.** At one time popular excitement ran so high that serious conse- quences were anticipated ; and the mandarins in the affected dis- tricts found it quite as much as they could do to prevent lynch- law being carried out on harmless strangers who were unlucky enough to give rise to the slightest suspicion.
Taoist priests are generally credited with the power of cutting out hunuin, animal, or other figures, of infusing vitality into them on the spot, and of employing them for purposes of good or evil.