Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1876 — The Hung League. [ARTICLE]

The Hung League.

The Pall Mall Gatette gives the following account of the ceremony of admission to the great secret society of China: In peaceful times the ranks of the society are recruited by volunteers, but when the league is preparing to take the field, threats and violence are often used to secure members/ At such crisis aman returning home fin ds a slip of paper bearing the seal of the league awaiting him, which calls upon him at a given hour to betake himselfito a eertain spot, and warns him that the murder of himself and his family will be the penalty of disobedience to the command. Sometmes it is also, that one of the brotherhood insults a utranger on the road, and, pretending to fly fron the just consequence of his act, leads the unsuspecting wayfarer to some lonely spot, where he is seized upon by a number of brothers and is carried away to dhe place where the lodge is held. On the appointed evening the recruits present themselves at the “ City of Willows,’’ as ■the lodges are called, where they are met by the “vanguard," who carefully enters their names and places of residence in a book.kept for the purpose. The vanguard jdan gives orders to form the “ bridge of swords," whereupon the brethren place themselves in a double row, and drawing ithsir swords cross them in the air in the form of a bridge or arch. Under this arch the new members are led, and at the Same time are mulcted of an entrance fee cash. After this they are to the Hung gate, where stand two i

generals, who introduce the “ new horses" to the Hall of Fidelity and Loyally. Here the neophytes are instructed in the objects of the society; and, finally, they are conducted into the presence of the assembled council In the "Lodge of Universal Peace." As a preliminary to the administration of the oaths, the master examinee the vanguard in the 833 questions of the catechism of the society, and then orders him to bring forward those neophytes who are willing to take the oath, and to put off the heads of those who refuse to do so. As the vanguard is supposed not to bear tho swerd in vain, few decline to take the oath, and the ceremony of affiliation is proceeded with by cutting off the queues of the recruits (thougli thia operation is dispensed with if the members are llvingamong Chinese who are faithful to the Tartar rale), by washing their faces and exchanging their clothes for long white dresses as Jokens of purity and the commencement of a new life. Straw shoes, signs of mourning, are also put on their feet to signify the death of their old nature; and thus attired they are led up to the altar. Here some questions with reference to the immediate objects of the league are put to the vanguard, and then each member offersup nine blades of grass and an incense stick, while an appropriate stanza is repeated between each offering. A red candle is now lighted, and the brethren worship heaven and earth by pledging three cups of wine. This done, the seven-starred lamp, the precious imperial lamp, and the Hung lamp are lighted, and prayer is made to the gods, beseeching them to look down upon the members, and to accept the incense burned in their honor. The oath binding them to observe obedience to the league, and to display a spirit of fraternity, devotion and righteousness toward the brethren, is then read aloud, and is followed by each member drawing some blood from his middle finger, and letting it drop into a chalice partly filled with wine. Each neophyte then, having drunk of the mixture, and repeated the appointed stanza, strikes off the head of a white cock, as a sign that so shall all unfaithful and disloyal brothers perish. And now the ceremony of affiliation is over, and it remains but for the President to give to each recruit a diploma, the book containing the oath, law, secret signs, etc., a pair of poinards, au4 three Hung coins. With these emblems of their obligations, the new members return to their homes at break of day.