magic inexhaustible
casket full of gold and silver--these and other spiritual sources
of wealth are associated with this much-adored deity. He himself
is represented in the guise of a visitor accompanied by a crowd of
attendants laden with all the treasures that the hearts of men, women,
and children could desire.

The God of Longevity

The God of Longevity, Shou Hsing, was first a stellar deity, later on
represented in human form. It was a constellation formed of the two
star-groups Chio and K'ang, the first two on the list of twenty-eight
constellations. Hence, say the Chinese writers, because of this
precedence, it was called the Star of Longevity. When it appears the
nation enjoys peace, when it disappears there will be war. Ch'in Shih
Huang-ti, the First Emperor, was the first to offer sacrifices to this
star, the Old Man of the South Pole, at She Po, in 246 B.C. Since then
the worship has been continued pretty regularly until modern times.

But desire for something more concrete, or at least more personal,
than a star led to the god's being represented as an old man. Connected
with this is a long legend which turns on the point that after the
father of Chao Yen had been told by the celebrated physiognomist
Kuan Lo that his son would not live beyond the age of nineteen, the
transposition from _shih-chiu_, nineteen, to _chiu-shih_, ninety,
was made by one of two gamblers, who turned out to be the Spirit of
the North Pole, who fixes the time of decease, as the Spirit of the
South Pole does that of birth.

The deity is a domestic god, of happy mien, with a very high
forehead, usually spoken of as Shou Hsing Lao T'ou Tzu, 'Longevity
Star Old-pate,' and is represented as riding a stag, with a flying bat
above his head. He holds in his hand a large peach, and attached to his
long staff are a gourd and a scroll. The stag and the bat both indicate
_fu_, happiness. The peach, gourd, and scroll are symbols of longevity.

The Door-gods

An old legend relates that in the earliest times there grew on
Mount Tu Shuo, in the Eastern Sea, a peach-tree of fabulous size
whose branches covered an area of several thousand square _li_. The
lowest branches, which inclined toward the north-east, formed the
Door of the Devils (_kuei_), through which millions of them passed
in and out. Two spirits, named Shen Shu (or Shu Yue) and Yue Lue, had
been instructed to guard this passage. Those who had done wrong to
mankind were immedi