has
experienced some disaster. Some even affirm that the object
eclipsed is being devoured by an immense ravenous monster. This is
the most popular sentiment in Fuhchau in regard to the procuring
cause of eclipses. All look upon the object eclipsed with wonder.
Many are filled with apprehension and terror. Some of the common
people, as well as mandarins generally, enter upon some course of
action, the express object of which is to save the luminary from its
dire calamity, or to rescue it from the jaws of its greedy enemy.
Mandarins must act officially, and in virtue of their being officers of
government. Neither they nor the people seem to regard the
immense distance of the celestial object as at all interfering with the
success of their efforts. The various obstacles which ought
apparently to deter them from attempting to save the object eclipsed
do not seem to have occurred to them at all, or, if they have
occurred, do not appear to be sufficient to cause them to desist from
prosecuting their laudable endeavours. The high mandarins procure
the aid of priests of the Taoist sect at their yamuns. These place an
incense censer and two large candlesticks for holding red candles or
tapers on a table in the principal reception room of the mandarin, or
in the open space in front of it under the open heavens.

"At the commencement of the eclipse the tapers are lighted, and
soon after the mandarin enters, dressed in his official robes. Taking
some sticks of lighted incense in both hands, he makes his
obeisance before or facing the table, raising and depressing the
incense two or three times, according to the established fashion,
before it is placed in the censer. Or sometimes the incense is lighted
and put in the censer by one of the priests employed. The officer
proceeds to perform the high ceremony of kneeling down three
times, and knocking his head on the ground nine times. After this he
rises from his knees. Large gongs and drums near by are now beaten
as loudly as possible. The priests begin to march slowly around the
tables, reciting formulas, etc., which marching they keep up, with
more or less intermissions, until the eclipse has passed off.

"A uniform result always follows these official efforts to save the
sun and the moon. _They are invariably successful_. There is not a
single instance recorded in the annals of the empire when the
measures prescribed in instructions from the emperor's astronomers
at Peking, and