Hundred Families’ Lock
A common Chinese talisman is the “hundred families’ lock,” to procure which a father goes round among his friends, and, having obtained from an hundred different parties a few of the copper coins of the country, he himself adds the balance to purchase an ornament or appendage fashioned like a lock, which he hangs on his child’s neck for the purpose of figuratively locking him to life and causing the hundred persons to be concerned in his attaining old age.