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 . gard to the recovery of a sick man, or whethera certain investment of funds will be profitable or unprofit-able ; whether an anticipated journey will be successful or not;whether ones literary efforts will be attended with success,and at what time he will graduate; whether one may effect achano-e of fortune from bad to p;ood: whether one will havechildren in the future, and what will be their sex, etc. Six differen
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 . gard to the recovery of a sick man, or whethera certain investment of funds will be profitable or unprofit-able ; whether an anticipated journey will be successful or not;whether ones literary efforts will be attended with success,and at what time he will graduate; whether one may effect achano-e of fortune from bad to p;ood: whether one will havechildren in the future, and what will be their sex, etc. Six different methods of telling fortunes are found in useamong the Chinese. By using the eight horary characters ichich denote the year,month, day, and hour of ones birth. This is perhaps themost common and the most popular kind of fortune-telling inthis part of the empire. There is a constant reference to the five elements and certain twelve animals. A particularexamination and explanation of the terms eight characters, five elements, and twelve animals, as related to fortune-telilng, will soon be given. Of this kind of fortune-tellers there are two classes, blind 332 BLIND FORTUNE-TELLER. men and men who are not blind fortune-tellers are usu-ally led about the streets by alad—some find their way of them have a kind ofharp, which they play occasion-ally as they slowly walk alongthe street. Sometimes they car-ry a rattle, which consists of twosmall pieces of wood. Theseare held in one hand, and, whenstruck or clapped together in aparticular manner, produce asound much like kok kok, or,when struck together in anothermanner, produce the sound^>o& poJc. This sound, when heard,indicates the approach or presence of a blind class of men seldom or never open a shop where theymay be consulted, but traverse the streets and lanes, depend-ing on incidental customers. These are said to redcon for-tunes. The fortune-tellers whose eyesight
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, bookidsociallifeof, bookyear1865
