The people of Guangxi believe in ghost-masters, and there are two families, the Chen and the Lai, who can seize a living person to take the place of a dying one, so that sick households mostly call them in.
When the ghost-master comes, he first takes a cup of water, covers it with paper, and hangs it upside down over the sick person’s bed; the next day he comes to look, and if after a full day the water has not dripped, he says the patient can be saved. Or he takes a cockerel, thrusts a white blade seven or eight inches into its throat, and holds it toward the sick person’s body, working the breath and chanting the spell. When the spell is done, if the chicken’s beak does not drip blood, he likewise says the case can be saved. He pulls out the blade and throws it to the ground, and the chicken flies about as before. If a drop of water or a drop of chicken’s blood comes down, he declines the case and will not treat it.
For those who can be saved he sets up an altar, hangs dozens of images of gods and ghosts, and dresses himself as a woman, pacing the stars and holding the spell while gongs and drums sound together. At night he dyes oil-paper into a lamp and goes out into the wilds to call the soul, his voice faint and far. If a neighbour happens to be fast asleep, his soul comes at once at the call. The ghost-master hands him the flame; and once the neighbour has taken it and gone, the ghost-master congratulates the sick household, and the sick man recovers — and the man who took the flame dies.
The way to undo it is this: if at night you hear the gongs and drums, press both feet onto the earth, and no harm can come to you. The Chen and Lai families have grown rich on this, and their halls are deep and dark, crowded with images of gods and ghosts.
My aunt by marriage fell ill, and Lai the ghost-master was called to see her. Lai came with a sword to catch ghosts. There was a thing in the room like a great bat that dove under the bed. Lai struck at it with the palm-thunder, and the fire leapt back and burnt his beard. Lai was furious. He had a cauldron of tung oil heated, wrote a charm and burned it, and stirred the oil in the cauldron with his bare hand. We heard the ghost under the bed squeaking for mercy, and after a long time it stopped; and my aunt’s illness was indeed cured.
One day Chen the ghost-master was calling a soul for a family when he saw a girl in blue drifting toward him. He looked hard at her: it was his own daughter, come to take the flame. Chen was shocked. He threw the flame to the ground and struck her on the back with his palm. He hurried home to look, and his daughter had woken from her sleep with a start, and said: “In my dream I heard my father call me, so I came.” On the blue cloth gown she was wearing, the mark of a palm-print in oil was plain to see.
The daughter of Prefect Wei of Guilin was mortally ill, and her mother called Chen the ghost-master to look at her. Chen demanded a hundred gold as his fee. The prefect was a severe man, and had him seized and beaten, meaning to put him in gaol. The ghost-master laughed and said: “Beat me — and don’t regret it.” As he was being beaten, the girl suddenly cried out from her bed: “Chen the ghost-master has sent two ghosts to beat my behind and drag me to prison!” Her mother was terrified and begged hard for his release, promising him a great reward. Chen said: “I have been frightened by the malignant ghosts; my strength can do no more.” The girl duly died.
