is located in the head or the brains (^), p. 77. Consequently the soul is sometimes able to leave the body and wander about, without the body dying. Among the Indonesians, this belief has given rise to the legend of flying heads heads able to leave the body for a while and fly about. express by the word Electricity. identified until now with Pekalongan The intellectual soul (H) in Java: "It is said that in this "country exist flying heads, but "whose eyes have no pupil. Their "heads are able to fly. What the "people worship is called Chung"lok, on account of which they are "called Lok-race. In the time of "Emperor Wu of the Han-dynasty "(B.C. 140-87), there lived in the "South a people capable of trans"forming itself. They were able to "send first their heads flying for"ward to the southern seas. With "the left hand, they flew to the "eastern sea, and with the right "hand, to the western marsh. "Towards the evening, the heads "returned upon their shoulders, "and when both hands came "together, a violent storm raged "beyond the waters of the sea" 1). It seems that De Groot has remained unacquainted with the above quotation. But this is not a chinese conception, and the instances of such flying heads, quoted by professor De Groot, are acknowledged by chinese authors themselves as having taken place in the southern regions(); though, superstitious as the Chinese are, they have accepted the legend (p. 7879). The chinese Encyclopedia San-tsai Tu-hwui, says, in speaking of the country of Pu kia-lung (), wrongly 1) 又言其國中有飛頭者。其人目無瞳子。 其頭能飛。其俗所洞者日虫落。因號落氏。 漢武帝時、南方有解形之民。能先使頭飛南 海。左手飛東海。右手飛西澤。至暮頭還肩 上。兩手遇、疾風飄於海水外。 Other philosophers have located the soul in the heart (p. 80); those of the Sung-dynasty said that the Tsing (or subtle, vital principle) was simply the blood (p. 81). or talk with them: (cf. my Dutch-Chinese Dictionary, i. v. Spook). A ghost who has a place to revert to, does not turn to a spectre. Hence the belief of the Chinese). Cf. my DutchChinese Dictionary, i. v. Spook and Ziel (soul). that the ignis fatuus seen on old battlefields, drenched with the blood of slain men and horses, were so many wandering souls 2). The story told by De Groot of a certain Chang Ch'ih who saw during the night the ground studded with lights (p. 81-82), reminds forcibly of the english, popular name given to the ignis fatuus "Jack with a lantern". The popular As for the chinese scenic shades and Javanese Wayang, I can only repeat what I have said upon the subject in the Toung-pao, 1901, p. 203. If the Wayang purwa (or scenic shades) were played in Java in A.D. 1416, Ma Hoan, the most exact chinese ethnographer of Java, would not have failed to notice it. But he only speaks of the Wayang bèbèr, a long picture between two wooden cylinders, and which is unrolled (ambèbèr) as the dalang, or representator, goes on with his explanation. (cf. Groeneveldt's Notes on the Malay Archipelago, p. 53). Surely, he would have mentioned 2) 戰鬭死亡之處、有人馬血、積年為粦 my Dutch-Chinese Dictionary i. v. Dwaallicht and Stijgbeugel. We remark inter parentheses, composed of rice and that there is on p. 81 a misprint in De Groot's work, viz. for only is composed of flames and perverse; the scenic shades of the Javanese, if he had seen them, as they would have recalled to his mind his popular, native scenic shades. Professor De Groot says (p. 88) that these Chinese Shades were never very popular in China. But, in Amoy, they are very popular as appears clearly from the colloquial expressions tsuá iá (), paper-shades, Iá là (), shade-game, phê ang (E), leather puppets, phê kaû (), leather monkeys, etc. (Cf. the Amoy Dictionaries of Douglas and Francken). The sixth Chapter treats of diseases of the soul: Insanity and Convulsions. As our own psychologues are just as ignorant as the Chinese with respect to insanity, we may just as well leave this subject, aud refer the reader to De Groot's work itself. Chapter VII contains a good lot of, or Tales, about souls leaving the body, which could have some interest if the author had compared them with similar tales in Europe and other parts of the world. Chapter VIII treats of Reanimation after death, or Resuscitation, likewise illustrated by numerous tales, the one more marvellous than the other. Re-incarnation of souls through birth is the subject of the IXth Chapter. This theory has been infiltrated into China by the Buddhists, and is, properly speaking, un-chinese. The doctrine of incarnation belongs to the belief in metempsychosis, and we have no right to langh at either Buddhists or buddhist Chinese to believe in the transmigration of the soul, as long as we ourselves believe in Incarnation in its most ridiculous and absurd consequences. As a sequel to the preceding chapter, the Xth one treats of Zooanthropy, or of incarnations of men into animal forms as tigers, foxes, wolves, dogs, bears, stags, monkeys, rats, etc., profusely illustrated by a lot of fabulous tales. Here again, a comparison with similar beliefs in Europe would have much enhanced the value of the chapter. Chapter XI treats of the descent of men from animals, not by evolution, according to the theory of Darwin, but due to copulation of men with animals, or of different animals with each other. Instances of the first are given by the author, page 255 seq. transcriptions of the exotic name However, we cannot agree with the author, when he quotes (p. 267) a number of names of "The pig-dung foreign tribes, composed with the radical for dogs or beasts in general, They are simply injurious or contemptuous designations for uncivilized, barbarian nations. When a Turk calls a European a christian dog, he does not intend to say that the Europeans descend from dogs, but that they are just as filthy and omnivorous as dogs are. Some of those chinese names have no meaning, but are simply Gilos", not because they are the offspring of pig-dung, but only because this tribe is especially dirty 3). It is well known that the Chinese have a special knack of choosing such characters for transcribing phonetically your name, that they imply, at the same time, an injury 4). The Malays do the same thing: a certain, rather indebted, gentleman called Mispelblom Meijer was transliterated by the Malays as Massa bělom bayer, "the gentleman who has not yet paid", etc. The instance quoted by the 3) See my Review of father Vial's work on the Lolos in Toung-pao, Vol. IX, pp. 4) See Notes and Queries on China and Japan, Vol. IV, 1870, p. 46. 413 seq. author of the northern Turks believing to be descended from a wolf, a buri (chin. fu-li )), is not chinese, but western and exotic. The progenitor of these Turks was a human boy nourished by a she-wolf (p. 265), exactly as Romulus and Remus in the legendary history of Rome. The author himself says (p.271) that words denoting wolves or dogs were never in China actual tribal names. He is quite right, and this confirms our supposition that beastlike tribe-names are only contemptuous terms used by the Chinese for designating exotic, barbarian races. Chapter XII treats of Plantand Tree-spirits, all illustrated by numerous quotations from chinese tales; on p. 294 seq. the amorphous plant-spirits are discussed. From such plants, miraculous drugs are prepared, labelled as yoh, shin yoh or sien yoh (fairy drugs). There is, however, nothing particular in these names, for we use them also. ling Our old maids use Eau des Fées (fairy water) to dye their gray hair black; Jalap bears the scientific name of Mirabilis jalapa; Palma christi is called in Dutch wonderboom (wondertree); our english wonderbalm is called in Chinese ₺ balm"; a quack is called in Dutch a wonderdokter, in Chinese i shin i; wonderolie is the dutch name for the Castor-oil; all these epithets only indicate the wonderful effect these drugs have upon diseases, but can hardly be considered us to be the products of amorphous plants animated by a divine spirit (ling or ling or shin). 神shin). "quintuple-spiritual On page 347 seq., we have several instances of paper horses, etc., changed into real horses. All who have been in China, know that, with wealthy Chinamen, not only paper horses, but a model of his house with the whole furniture in it, all made of paper, are burned in the belief that they will change to real horses, house and furniture in the other world. It is a mitigated 5) See my Dutch-Chinese Dict. i. v. Wolfskop (wolf-head). |