Note 11 — V.—CHARMS, SPELLS, AMULETS AND DIVINATIONS.

The use of the Pa-kwa or “Eight diagrams”—a collection of strokes arranged in hexagonal form and familiar to the merest tyro in Chinese studies—as a charm to ward off evil influences, is universal. It is made of all sizes and shapes, from large ones on boards one or two feet square, down to tiny medals for personal wear not larger than a sixpence. In the centre is the diagram of the Yang and Yin (male and female principle), or sometimes a concave metal or glass mirror. Coarsely executed boards of this description are placed perpendicularly on the highest part of the roof. More neatly carved specimens are hung up in rooms. Go where one will, the inevitable pa kwa, carved, painted or written, is almost sure to ornament some portion of the premises. On some houses again will be seen “three arrows placed in an earthen tube, and laid on the side of the roof, the tube pointing towards some distant object—the arrows being fastened in their places by clay.” Sometimes the representation of a lad sitting on a three-legged nondescript animal, with a bow in his hands, as if on the act of shooting an arrow, takes the place of or accompanies the other objects described.11