Sketches from Formosa.

320
SKETCHES FROM FORMOSA
apparently far-travelled country folks marching along
with bottles, and those short lengths of bamboo which are
made use of in Formosa for holding liquids. On making
inquiry, I was told that the people were all going to the
village of Sa-te-chu in order to obtain a supply of " Geniiwater
" as a protection against plague and for cure of
the opium habit ; an answer which, of course, only
excited my curiosity and made me resolve on proceeding
myself to Sa-te-chu, so as to find out what was really at
the bottom of this rapidly spreading movement. Nor
need I withhold another reason which influenced me at the
time ;
for there could be no mistaking the rumours then
afloat, that those " Genii-water " gatherings might take
a serious anti- Japanese form and result in injury to the
Church itself ; injury like that which took place several
years ago in a village further south, where no fewer than
nineteen Christians were cruelly murdered for their
alleged complicity in bringing the Japanese into Formosa.
A remark or two before stating what I saw at Sa-te-chu
may make matters a little more intelligible. For one
thing, let it be noted that the pilgrims I questioned all
seemed to agree as to the way in which this " "
Holy-water cure had come about. Two humble, earnest-looking
men had recently been seen worshipping in Koxinga's
Temple near Sa-te-chu and in the meritorious act of
sweeping it after finishing their devotions ; but this so
much impressed one of the villagers, who was passing at
the time, that on reporting the matter to his neighbours
they came out to find those two devotees in the art of
blessing the well behind the Temple, just before they
mysteriously vanished out of sight ! It will be well also
to remember that Koxinga was the great pirate-chief who
expelled
the Dutch from Formosa in the seventeenth
century, and whose name again came prominently before
the people of the Island so late as 1874. During that