Note 228 — Chapter XII · DEAD MEN AND GHOST-LORE

See Grant Allen's Evolution of the Idea of God (pp. 265-7); Tylor's Primitive Culture (4th ed.), vol. i. pp. 108-11; W. G. Black's Folk-Medicine, p. 29; and Dennys's Folk-lore of China, p. 22. The superstition sometimes takes the form of a belief that the rescued man will some day do some terrible injury to his rescuer—perhaps at the instigation of the evil spirit who was balked of his prey. It is quite erroneous to suppose that this superstitious objection to saving the drowning is prevalent throughout all China. De Groot (op. cit. vol. v. p. 526) states that he never found a trace of it in the province of Fuhkien; "while, moreover, all the Chinese we interrogated on this head protested against their humanity being thus called in question."