Social life of the Chinese : with some account of their religious, governmental, educational and business customs and opinions, with special but not exclusive reference to Fuhchau . appli-cant, he arranges the sixty-fourpieces of paper on a table oron the ground, and places thebird-cage near them. He nowopens the door of it; the birdcomes out, and picks up oneof the sheets with its bill, whichhe takes, opens, and bird, in the mean time, hasbeen rewarded with a kernel ofpaddy, and has entered the is again let out, when it pro-ceeds to pick up another foldedsheet, which is i
Social life of the Chinese : with some account of their religious, governmental, educational and business customs and opinions, with special but not exclusive reference to Fuhchau . appli-cant, he arranges the sixty-fourpieces of paper on a table oron the ground, and places thebird-cage near them. He nowopens the door of it; the birdcomes out, and picks up oneof the sheets with its bill, whichhe takes, opens, and bird, in the mean time, hasbeen rewarded with a kernel ofpaddy, and has entered the is again let out, when it pro-ceeds to pick up another foldedsheet, which is in like mannerunfolded,inspected, and explain-ed by the fortune-teller. Inview of the picture and the po-etry, he is able to expatiatequite learnedly and profoundlyin regard to the subject submit-ted to him by his say that he frequently allows the bird to select twopieces of paper out of the sixty-four before he shuts it up, ordiscourses on the contents of either. The difference is imma-terial. In either case, he professes to get his inspiration fromthese slips of paper. Females and the lower classes of thepopulace largely patronize this kind of i;Y MEANS Oi<AND SUPS OF PAPER. PROGNOSTICATING BY DISSECTING A CHARACTER. 335 By the dissection of written characters. This class of for-tune-tellers seldom or never open a shop; but when engagedprofessionally, they select a convenient spot by the side of afrequented street, and, having spread some oiled paper orcloth on the ground, and having arranged writing implementsnear by, look out for customers. They generally carry withthem a small box, which contains a quantity of small sheetsof paper folded up. On the inside of each is written one Chi-nese character. The customer is requested to select or takeat random two of these sheets, which he proceeds to do, oneat a time. These are taken by the fortune-teller, opened, and
Size: 1208px × 2070px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, bookidsociallifeof, bookyear1865
