Note 10 — II.—BIRTH, MARRIAGE AND DEATH.

There is a curious little piece of folk-lore, common alike to the Middle Kingdom and our own fatherland, which I lighted upon by accident. A wide-spread superstition exists at home against rocking a “toom,” or empty cradle.10 Now, strangely enough, Chinese nurses in the South of China have precisely the same belief. A little four-year old girl, who is a very intimate acquaintance of mine, not long ago began rocking the cradle in which her newly-born sister was usually laid to sleep. An amah who saw her, rushed at the child, exclaiming “You no makee rock so fashion! That baby b’long die, s’posie rock,” As it happened the infant did die, as was fully expected by the medical attendant: but of course the amah found in the anticipated fact a verification of her prediction, and farther enquiry has satisfied me that the superstition is identical with and quite as widespread as our own. The resemblance of belief here certainly seems something more than accidental.