Excerpt from Chinese Folk-Lore
The Chinese have the most profound belief in the existence of fairies. In their imagination, the hills and the mountains that are supposed to be the favourite resorts of these mysterious beings are all peopled with them, and from there they descend into the plains, and mingling in the guise of men and women amongst the masses of this Empire carry out their benevolent purposes in aiding the distressed and the forlorn.
The conceptions that people generally have about them are necessarily of a vague and indefinite character. They are fully convinced, however, that they are highly intelligent and with large and loving sympathies for everything human, and they also believe just as strongly that they have played an active part in connection with men during all the centuries of the past, and that, in the great crises through which men have been called to pass, they have made it a point to be present to help men come through their trials and to survive the calamities that might otherwise have destroyed them. During the changes of dynasties, and in times of revolution and anarchy when men"s lives are accounted of little value, these benign beings are supposed specially to manifest themselves to aid as far as possible in alleviating human misery and in suggesting modes of escape from impending disasters.
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