CHAPTER XII

Summary

ABSURD superstitious practices, and the effects of idle fancies, nurtured and strengthened by a false religion—a religion nothing better than a tissue of incongruous fables and puerile delusions—run riot everywhere in the public gaze; and sorcerers, necromancers, and soothsayers are ever in request to help those ignorant people who, haunted by bad fortune, malignant spirits, or unpropitious influences, are ready to come down handsomely to induce the sorcerer to ward off real or prospective disasters, by incantations, philters, or timely notice of the impending calamity.

This state of mind is more noticeable in large cities, such as Tien-tsin, than in the country, and though it jars very much on one's feelings, and excites a sincere pity, it cannot be forgotten that the most refined nations of antiquity shared similar delusions, and that even in our own land—not many generations ago—they flourished as luxuriantly.

Looking at the two half-doors near which I am standing, I see what corresponds to a superstitious safeguard yet to be found on barn-doors and stables in England—the lucky horse-shoe. This is sometimes transferred to floating habitations, such as fishing-boats, and even, if I remember right, to more formidable craft—and had not the immortal Nelson a rusty symbol of this description nailed to the main or mizen-mast of his invulnerable flag-ship?