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. She had three sons who were in high official
positions in the palace, and if their mother died they would have
to withdraw from official life and go into mourning for three
years. When men are thus compelled to resign the new incumbent is
not inclined to restore the office when the period of mourning is
over. They were therefore doubly anxious to have their mother
recover. They had tried all kinds of Chinese physicians and
finally sent for me.
I explained the nature of the operation necessary, and gave them
every reason to hope for a speedy recovery, while without
surgical treatment she must surely die. They consented and the
operation was successful. She recovered rapidly for a few days
until I regarded her as practically out of danger. But one day
when I called I found her bathed in perspiration, shaking with
fear, weeping and depressed. Her wound was in an excellent
condition and I could find no reason for her despondency. I
cheered her up, laughed and talked with her, gave her such
articles of diet as she craved, and left her happy. The next day
I again found her in the same nervous condition.
"Something is wrong with your mother of which you have not told
me," I said to her son.
"Before we sent for you," he said, "we had called a spirit
doctor, who went into a sort of trance, claimed to have descended
into the spirit world where he saw them making a coffin which he
said my mother would occupy before the fifteenth of the month
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