Note 2 — VII.—GHOSTS, APPARITIONS, AND SUPERNATURAL BEINGS.

“The Chinese almanacks describe sixty ‘Shin of Offence’ or evil ghosts, one of which is abroad on each day of the cycle of sixty. If any one goes out in any particular direction, and afterwards feels heavy-headed or feverish he is supposed to have met this shin. He therefore takes some fruit, rice, &c., and politely bows the creature away in the direction where he met the accident. The shin are pictured in the almanacks as little naked men. When the demons take possession of a sacrificing witch she talks about happiness and misery. Every time they come she is altogether a shin in her eating and drinking and speaking, and every time they go she is altogether a human being. It would be hard to say whether demons are in the witch or the witch in the demons.”2