correctly carried out in the provinces by the
mandarins, have not resulted in a complete rescue of the object
eclipsed. Doubtless the vast majority of the common people in
China believe that the burning of tapers and incense, the prostration
of the mandarins, the beating of the gongs and drums, and the
recitations on the part of the priests, are signally efficacious in
driving away the voracious monster. They observe that the sun or
the moon does not seem to be permanently injured by the attacks of
its celestial enemy, although a half or nearly the whole appeared to
have been swallowed up. This happy result is doubtless viewed with
much complacency by the parties engaged to bring it about. The
lower classes generally leave the saving of the sun or the moon,
when eclipsed, to their mandarins, as it is a part of their official
business. Some of the people occasionally beat in their houses a
winnowing instrument, made of bamboo splints, on the occasion of
an eclipse. This gives out a loud noise. Some venture to assert that
the din of this instrument penetrates the clouds as high as the very
temple of Heaven itself! The sailors connected with junks at this
place, on the recurrence of a lunar eclipse, always contribute their
aid to rescue the moon by beating their gongs in a most deafening
manner.

"Without doubt, most of the mandarins understand the real occasion
of eclipses, or, at least, they have the sense to perceive that nothing
which they can do will have any effect upon the object eclipsed, or
the cause which produces the phenomenon; but they have no
optional course in regard to the matter. They must comply with
established custom, and with the understood will of their superiors.
The imperial astronomers, having been taught the principles of
astronomy and the causes which produce eclipses by the Roman
Catholic missionaries a long while since, of course know that the
common sentiments on the subject are as absurd as the common
customs relating to it are useless. But the emperor and his cabinet
cling to ancient practices, notwithstanding the clearest evidences of
their false and irrational character." [296]

Mr. Herbert Giles accounts for this Chinese obtuseness, or, as some
would have it, opacity, in much the same way. Under the head of
_Natural Phenomena_, he writes: "It is a question of more than
ordinary interest to those who regard the Chinese people as a worthy
object of study, What are the speculations of th