Page:Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills.djvu/38

26 incense and candles, chant awhile, and return to the house with a vessel full of water.

Then the priests have a day of tramping round the house, a man following them with a tray of vegetarian dishes of all kinds, 轉齋 chuan chai. Some of this food is first offered to the dead; the rest is eaten by the company. At the close of the ceremony the rice offered to the dead is at once carried off and presented to families with no male issue, in the hope that sons will then be born.

The priests then proceed to break open Hades 破地獄 p'o ti-yü. Quicklime is sprinkled on the ground in the form of a square to represent Hades; at each of the four sides is an imaginary gate. The priests walk round it, chanting as they go, then a priest breaks it open by smashing a basin or tile with his staff at each corner and in the middle.

At certain seasons lighted lanterns are set adrift on the rivers to appease the spirits of those dead who have no one to sacrifice to them.

To each of the ten kings of Hades a tablet is set up; the priests go round them chanting prayers and followed by the youth of the family. Each time they go round a passport is burned, till all ten kings have been thus passed.

In the courtyard of the house a small platform is erected for the worship of heaven 供天 kung t'ien; ten lighted yellow candles are set thereon, incense is offered, and there is much chanting with clanging and banging of gongs, etc. It is said that when the spirits are pleased a small black line appears on the candles.

A ticket containing an official declaration about the person for whom the chanting is being done is burned with a thick bundle of paper, and thus sent to the gemmeous Emperor. This is called 上表 shang piao.

The priests cast a flower here and stick another there; this is supposed to take away sin or to lessen its evil consequences.

The departed spirit is exhorted 勸亡 chü'an wang to behave and and [sic] not to injure the living. It is also invited, with chanting, to return, the youths of the family kneeling meanwhile.