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96. But this worship of the spirits of the departed is in fact only a part of a general worship of spirits of all kinds and forms.) The former are nearest to the worshippers and naturally demand their first attention, but there are other spirits of little less importance; in particular there are dragon spirits on land, especially in the hills, and on sea; there are spirits peculiar to special hills, and in many wild trees and shrubs, which are duly wor- shipped and presented with gifts of food by the neighbouring folk. There are too certain reigning spirits which are the chief objects of Chinese worship, notably in the New Territo- ries, Tin Hau, the Queen of Heaven, who is the special guardian of sailors, and Kwan Tai, the god of war. The former has a fine temple at Cheung Chau, the chief resort of the fish- ing folk.

97. The 97 The general religious beliefs as to the relations of the spirits with the land are em- braced under the name "Fungshui ", meaning "wind and water "the two great moving elements in nature. The whole earth, with all that grows out of it, is full of spirits good and bad, which have their own prejudices about the use and occupation of their haunts, and require proper attention from the human beings in their neighbourhood; so it clearly behoves anyone intending to build a house or a grave, a road or a railway, to ascertain on the best authority what site or direction he should choose. In its origins, fungshui can undoubtedly claim to be based on feelings and ideas natural to human nature, and there is much wisdom in it, which even our modern science cannot entirely ignore. Thus "fung- shui" forbids the overlooking of other houses or places, and the setting of one grave just above another for such an action would show a spirit of arrogance and presumption. It sets great store by wild trees, which are for this reason carefully preserved and even worshipped near the villages; and certain large or ancient trees are objects of special veneration.

When a site is duly chosen, and afterwards found to be unhealthy, it is discredited; and thus in time fungshui is modified or built up by a kind of case law; and in fact the popular opinion of "good fungshui" is very seldom mistaken. It is not surprising that in course of time the ideas of "fungshui" have been complicated and overlaid with numberless small observances and superstitions, employed by necromancers and geomancers and the whole host of fungshui professors in order to increase their own repute and mystify the people: but in its general principles it is a sane and simple idea, and is readily adapted by the common sense of its votaries, in accordance with the teaching of experience, and the needs of the time.

98. During the British adininistration of the New Territories, railways and roads have been cut ruthlessly through and over the hills, sometimes in places known to be the haunts of dragons and other spirits, and houses have been built for private occupation on the tops of the hills. For these and other purposes the graves also have been summarily removed from the hillsides,-not, it must be said, without compensation being given. But such acts, which no Chinese would have ventured to perform himself, were soon regarded as inevitable and acquiesced in by the people almost without a murmur: and now as time goes on, the old ideas of fungshui are being modified so far as they prove incompatible with our laws and customs, and to some extent too by the direct influe

tern ideas. But spirit worship continues to flourish in other respects, and the gd spirits are still the objects of the whole-hearted veneration and belief of the pe The old ceremonies

are requisitioned for calling down rain, or averting illness; and the New Territory resident, however enlightened, would not choose a grave-site or a house-site without calling in the, assistance of a professor of fungshui: or neglect the proper offerings to his local temple., Naturally the professors of fungshui are not averse to playing on the fears and superstitions of the common people, and many hard-earned dollars are paid in order to avert calamities foretold by these cunning gentry; to these impositions the fishing folk are specially subject, and several dollars may be paid by a poor fisherman for the drawing of a black devil in the correct attitude for warning off the approach of its real counterpart."

99. A little better than the professors of fungshui, are their brothers in the medical profession; in both callings there are some honest men, but the doctors also play upon the weaknesses of their fellows, and it is probable that faith forms a large ingredient in most cures. However, in medicine, as in fungshui, the physician and his patient have learned. much from experience, and many of the native remedies are both simple and efficacious. Western science was at first regarded with suspicion, and even now the majority of the people prefer to adhere to their old methods and medicines; but some simple Western medicines were very soon accepted, and continue to increase in popularity.

Education.

100 For the destruction of these old superstitions and prejudices which still clog the minds of the natives, we must look chiefly to education and to travel. The New Territory