ave many excrescences added to them before the Chinese
received them. In the crucible of the local philosophy they would be
assimilated with Chinese ideas until the resulting compound assumed a
Chinese appearance. When these inevitable circumstances are recalled the
value of any positive evidence of Western influence is of special
significance.

According to the ancient Chinese, man has two souls, the _kwei_ and the
_shen_. The former, which according to de Groot is definitely the more
ancient of the two (p. 8), is the material, substantial soul, which
emanates from the terrestrial part of the universe, and is formed of
_yin_ substance. In living man it operates under the name of _p'oh_,
and on his death it returns to the earth and abides with the deceased
in his grave.

The _shen_ or immaterial soul emanates from the ethereal celestial part
of the cosmos and consists of _yang_ substance. When operating actively
in the living human body, it is called _khi_ or "breath," and _hwun_;
when separated from it after death it lives forth as a refulgent spirit,
styled _ming_.[87]

But the _shen_ also, in spite of its sky-affinities, hovers about the
grave and may dwell in the inscribed grave-stone (p. 6). There may be a
multitude of _shen_ in one body and many "soul-tablets" may be provided
for them (p. 74).

Just as in Egypt the _ka_ is said to "symbolize the force of life which
resides in nourishment" (Moret, p. 212), so the Chinese refer to the
ethereal part of the food as its _khi_, i.e. the "breath" of its _shen_.

The careful study of the mass of detailed evidence so lucidly set forth
by de Groot in his great monograph reveals the fact that, in spite of
many superficial differences and apparent contradictions, the early
Chinese conceptions of the soul and its functions are essentially
identical with the Egyptian, and must have been derived from the
same source.

From the quotations which I have already given in the foregoing pages,
it appears that the Chinese entertain views regarding the functions of
the placenta which are identical with those of the Baganda, and a
conception of the souls of man which presents unmistakable analogies
with Egyptian beliefs. Yet these Chinese references do not shed any
clearer light than Egyptian literature does upon the problem of the
possible relationship between the _ka_ and the _placenta_.

In the Iranian domain, however, right on the overland route from the
Persian Gulf to Chin