Page 117 - Chinese Porcelain Vol I, Galland

FABULOUS AND OTHER ANIMALS. 85

or ten feet and usually go together." Procession
eight high,
"
in honour of : A paper image of a domesticated
spring (p. 376)
buffalo, as large as life, is carried. The paper, which is pasted
—
on a framework, consists usually of five colours red, black,
and the five elements of
white, green, yellow, representing
nature — metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Besides this paper
buffalo, a live buffalo is led along in the procession. There
are also several very small images, made out of clay, of a
buffalo, which are carried in the procession." Charms causing
"
illness (p. 567) : It is believed that pieces of yellow paper,
having stamped upon them the head of a dog and the head
of a buffalo, or one of these heads, if used in a certain way,
are very efficacious in causing one to become sick, stupid, or
obedient to the will of another, and even to die."
" "
Middle Kingdom," vol. ii. p. 108 : The annual ceremony
of a sacred field with a ornamental
ploughing highly plough
for the the it while
kept purpose, emperor holding turning
over three furrows, the princes five, and the high ministers nine.
The rank of the actors renders the ceremony more imposing at
and the of the make more of it than
Peking, people capital
do in the A monstrous of a cow
they provinces. clay image
is carried to the or hundreds
spot, containing accompanied by
of little similar After the field is it is broken
images. ploughed
and the and small are carried off the
up, pieces images by
crowd to scatter the powder on their own fields, in the hope
of a
thereby insuring good crop."
The ox or buffalo is the emblem of and
spring agriculture ;
hence the Chinese calendar is called the " Plan of the Buffalo."
—
Tiger. Davis, vol. ii. p. 322 : " In the forests of Yun-
nan, to the south-west, the Bengal species of tiger is said to
exist. Indeed, the numerous representations of that animal
and the stories connected with it in Chinese books, are
proofs
that it is well-known in the empire."
sufficiently
" "
Middle Kingdom," vol. i. p. 249 : The lion and tiger
are among the most common animals delineated by Chinese
painters ; but the figures are so far from the truth as to prove
that the living animals are seldom seen in the country. . . .
and were used in the of Marco
Hunting leopards tigers days
Polo by Kublai Khan ; but the manly pastime of the chase,
on the magnificent scale then practised, has fallen into disuse