Note 1 — I.—INTRODUCTORY.

In China, as throughout the western world, curious superstitions attach to human life in all its various stages. The hour and day of an infant’s birth are as much a matter of solicitude to the Chinese female as to the “wise woman” of our own North-country hamlets.1 The queer-looking almanacks to be found amongst the stock of every native bookshop or stall, invariably contain a series of figures representing a fanciful deity, whose title may be rendered as that of the Emperor “Four Quarters” or “All the Year Round,” each figure having one of the horary characters placed on some portion of its person. Thus, during the spring quarter the sign for from 11 to to 1 o’clock a.m. appears on the forehead; that for from 9 to 11 o’clock on the shoulder; that for from 1 to 3 o’clock upon the stomach; etc. (See illustration). When a child is born these diagrams are consulted, and according as the hour mark occurs upon the forehead, shoulders, hands, legs or other portion of the body, so they augur the future destiny of the child. Thus title and degree will be the lot of him who is born at noon. The child who makes his appearance between 9 and 11 o’clock will have, in the familiar words of the gypsy, “a hard lot at first, but finally great riches.” Toil and sorrow, however, will be the portion of the unlucky baby who first sees the light between 3 and 5 a.m., or p.m., and so on.2