f sap," and if a
leaf has fallen there is always a fresh one developing to replace it,
and Ling Ai was preparing for a development which was going to make her
that which she still is, my faithful and beloved fellow-missionary in
this place. With her quiet, gentle spirit she has won the confidence of
her pupils, and made possible for me that which apart from her
comradeship would have been impossible, the establishment of a large
school and training-college where in happy fellowship Chinese young
women are working together for the women and girls of their country.

THE POWERS OF DARKNESS

"What name hast thou? And he said, Legion!"

"Whensoever the impure spirit goeth out from the
man it passeth through waterless places seeking
rest; and not finding it there, it saith--

"I will return unto my house whence I came out;

"And coming, findeth it empty, swept and adorned.
Then goeth it and taketh along with itself other
spirits more wicked than itself--seven, and
entering it, findeth its dwelling there; and the
last state of that man becometh worse than the
first."--The Gospel according to Luke.

CHAPTER XII

THE POWERS OF DARKNESS

BEING A RECORD OF SOME OBSERVATIONS IN DEMONOLOGY

THE Chinaman, though perhaps the most materialistic of Easterners, is no
exception to his neighbours in the large place which the occult takes in
his outlook. For him, the physical world is peopled with spirits good
and evil, capable of exercising the most far-reaching influences on the
fortunes of men. These spiritual beings are bound up in the forces of
nature, and combine to constitute that geomantic system known by the
Chinese as _Feng-shui_ (wind and water), by reference to which, matters
of human life, inasmuch as they are designed to court the good
influences and avoid those which are inauspicious to the man, the time,
and the place, are decided.

The Chinaman can never experience the feeling of complete solitude which
the Westerner knows in wild and lonely places; for him the hillside, the
ravine, and the mountain gorge are peopled with presences best described
as fairies, though in nothing resembling the light-hearted beings which
this description generally conveys to the Western mind. To him they
present the appearance of aged, venerable beings, short of stature,
with white beards. Country, town, and h