Note 22 — V.—CHARMS, SPELLS, AMULETS AND DIVINATIONS.

I speak in the text of writers in the English language. But Du Halde gives some interesting details in his well-known work. Colonel Yule, in his Marco Polo, Vol. I., p. 290, draws attention to this fact in a note upon the Taosse (Taoists), whom he defines as “worshippers of the mystic cross Swasti. Apparently they had at their command the whole encyclopædia of modern spiritualism. Du Halde mentions amongst their sorceries the act of producing by their invocations the figures of the Laotseu and their divinities in the air, and of making a pencil to write answers to questions without anybody touching it.” This is evidently a Chinese version of Mr. Daniel Home’s alleged powers, and the coincidence is more than strange. ↑