Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills/Book 7/Nine Startlers
The Nine Startlers (九驚), chiu ching
The first is Mang Tzŭ (蟒子) ching, the blind man who plays the guitar and tells fortunes. Next, Liu (流) liu ching, the rambling fortuneteller who bears a bamboo clapper and goes through the streets seeking for work. Tsui (嘴) tzŭ ching uses a bird of some kind to pick out a character from a box with which character he divines for his clients. To (朶) to ching divines from a character picked out by the client himself. The Tat (帶) tzŭ ching is a fortuneteller who carries the characters and explanation already written on his person. The P‘ing (平) ching is a fortuneteller who sets up his stand and speaks about his trade and attracts customers. The Lo (挪) ching sings, and the Hai (海) tzŭ ching plays the harp as they practise their arts. The Hua (花) hua ching is a female fortuneteller.