Note 4 — Chapter XVIII · SOME REVOLUTION FACTORS

"The ostensible purpose for which numbers enrolled themselves was the worship of the idols, and more especially of the Goddess of Mercy. The real object, however, was a political one. The agitated state of the country seemed to Hai-Shan (a conspicuous member of the White Lily sect) a sufficient reason why the standard of rebellion should be raised. At a great meeting of the initiated he declared that the goddess was about to come to the earth in human form to deliver them from their oppressors, and that now was the time to declare themselves against the Mongols. This proposition was received with the utmost enthusiasm. A white horse and a black cow were sacrificed to Heaven in order to secure its intervention on their behalf, and having adopted a red scarf to be worn round their heads as their distinctive mark, they broke out in rebellion against the Government" (MacGowan's "Imperial History of China").