摘要：In our case, observed in the province of Shantung, parents in time of the serious illness of a child emit the vow that the child will be dedicated to a certain god or goddess if it recovers. The vow is fullfilled by substituting a paper puppet for the real child. The ceremony, beginning in the house of the recovered child and continued on a distant field-road, is performed by an old "ghost-mother," especially engaged for this purpose. Offerings of food are placed on the ground in front of the child-puppet, considered to be the child's chow on the way to the deity. Every possible care is taken to make the "child" as beautiful and agreable to its future Lord as possible, otherwise, if the substituted child is refused by the god or goddess and sent back, the life of the real child would be endangered. Chains of gilded paper-money are hung over the shoulders of the puppet to cover the "child's" travelling expenses. Finally the puppet is set afire and thus the vow is fullfilled by substitution.
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