Note 17 — V.—CHARMS, SPELLS, AMULETS AND DIVINATIONS.

But amulets and charms worn about the person are, perhaps, even greater objects of importance in Chinese estimation than household or other charms. Retaining as we do the words, now applied to harmless trinkets worn on the watch-chain,17 we are apt to forget the deep significance attached to them by our forefathers, and to somewhat unduly ignore the influence which a belief in their virtues once exercised over our own ancestors, and still exercises over people like the Chinese. I may here note that small trinkets, believed to be veritable amulets, are worn by the well-to-do Chinese just as among ourselves. The most popular form of charm is, both in China and England, a piece of money. Most boys have treasured a “lucky fourpenny” with a hole in it, and most Chinese babies have been the unconscious owners of “lucky cash” attached to them by a red string and bearing certain lucky characters inscribed on them. The cash chosen for this purpose are, as a rule, ancient. The older the cash the greater its virtue. Sometimes coins of this sort are tied on the wrists of a new-born child and worn by it for a considerable time. Similarly a number of cash belonging to the reigns of different Emperors are placed under the bed of a newly-married couple. Collectors of old coins frequently come across curious specimens of the numismatic art produced for this purpose, metals generally in China being favourite substances for amulets. One of the commonest amulets given to an only son is a small silver lock. The father collects a number of cash from the heads of a large number—strictly speaking a hundred—different families, and having exchanged them for silver has the latter converted into a native padlock which is used to fasten a silver chain or ring on the boy’s neck.18 This it is supposed will be respected by evil spirits, and will therefore contribute to the boy’s longevity. Another popular amulet is made in the shape of a flattish silver hook with some fortunate inscription thereon. But most common of all are the little bells worn by the Chinese child of every degree in the Southernmost provinces and, more sparingly, used in the North also. The origin of the custom as regards Canton has been already given. But a belief in the occult qualities of bells is so wide-spread19 that considerable doubt may reasonably exist whether, even if the legend be true, the Cantonese did not merely amplify an existing practice by way of appeasing the Demon of the bell. It is at all events strange that our own ancestors should have credited bells with possessing occult powers to aid mankind in their combat with the spirits of darkness, while the Chinese propitiate the same enemies by wearing models of bells upon their clothes. But a yet more odd coincidence is found in the sixty-six bells attached to the Ephod of the Jewish High priest when engaged in sacerdotal ministration.20 At the present day we give bells to babies mounted on a piece of coral—itself a celebrated charm since the days of Pliny, by whom it is noted as an amulet against fascination and able to preserve and fasten the teeth. Few substances, by the way, except metal are used by the Chinese as amulets, jade being almost the only exception.21 It would be interesting to ascertain whether the ear-ring was ever regarded in China, as by the Semitic races, as a sort of amulet or charm.