[Chinese] Unlike the Irish, for South Chinese, the Little People are the really big people -- often neighbors -- who are out of favor. Specifically, they are the victims of someone's curses. A curse can be made by a Da Siu Yan (Little People Hitter), or the curse can be do-it-yourself. The Da Siu Yan is usually a woman. Her equipment is simple: the food, incense and written prayers of ordinary ancestor worship. Except the prayer is that the mentioned person should have bad luck, usually some specific inconvenience. It is easier -- especially for a Gwai Lo (the writer and most readers are Gwai Lo -- Foreign Ghosts, sometimes translated also as Demons or Devils) to buy the spell at a paper goods store (see Dzi Dzat) or find an appropriate spell in an Chinese almanac. The Da Siu Yan is still a professional class in Hong Kong, but if the guild is still alive in Macau it is not easily visible. There is a seasonal cursing that is still practiced in Macau, and the encyclopedia will publish an artic...
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