For the ordinary man, China is simply peopled with bogies and devils, the spirits of the wicked or of those unfortunate enough not to secure decent burial with all its accompanying worship and rites.  These creatures, whose bodies cast no shadow, lurk in dark corners, ready to pounce on some unwary passer-by and possibly tear out his heart.  Many a Confucianist, sturdy in his faith that “devils only exist for those who believe in them,” will hesitate to visit by night a lonely spot, or even to enter a disused tumbledown building by day.  Some of the stories told are certainly well fitted to make a deep impression upon young and highly-strung nerves.  For instance, one man who was too fond of the bottle placed some liquor alongside his bed, to be drunk during the night.  On stretching out his hand to reach the flask, he was seized by a demon, and dragged gradually into the earth.  In response to his shrieks, his relatives and neighbours only arrived in time to see the ground close over his head, just as though he had fallen into water.

From this story it will be rightly gathered that the Chinese mostly sleep on the ground floor.  In Peking, houses of more than one storey are absolutely barred; the reason being that each house is built round a courtyard, which usually has trees in it, and in which the ladies of the establishment delight to sit and sew, and take the air and all the exercise they can manage to get.

Another blood-curdling story is that of four travellers who arrived by night at an inn, but could obtain no other accommodation than a room in which was lying the corpse of the landlord’s daughter-in-law.  Three of the four were soon snoring; the fourth, however, remained awake, and very soon heard a creaking of the trestles on which was the dead body dressed out in paper robes, ready for burial.  To his horror he saw the girl get up, and go and breathe on his companions; so by the time she came to him he had his head tucked well under the bedclothes.  After a little while he kicked one of the others; but finding that his friend did not move, he suddenly grabbed his own trousers and made a bolt for the door.  In a moment the corpse was up and after him, following him down the street, and gaining gradually on him, no one coming to the rescue in spite of his loud shrieks as he ran.  So he slipped behind a tree, and dodged right and left, the infuriated corpse also dodging right and left, and making violent efforts to get him.  At length, the girl made a rush forward with one arm on each side, in the hope of thus grabbing her victim.  The traveller, however, fell backwards and escaped her clutch, while she remained rigidly embracing the tree.  By and by he was found senseless on the ground; and the corpse was removed from the tree, but with great difficulty, as the fingers were buried in the bark so deep that the nails were not even visible.  The other three travellers were found dead in their beds.