Page:Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills.djvu/40

28 ko chiang tʽing for the singers, who are generally scholars with youths to assist; a room for the mourning robes of the family, etc.

The officiating masters are usually literati, who call on the mourners to do certain things in a certain order. They are, the officiating priest 點主官 tien chu kuan; the two precentors 引讚生 yin tsan shêng; three or four assistant precentors 通讚生 tʽung tsan shêng; the reader of the eulogy 讀祝生 tu chu shêng; singers of the poetic eulogy 歌詩生 ko shih shêng; the teacher of filial duties for the youth of the family 講書生 chiang shu shêng.

Letters are sent to relatives, announcing the date of the funeral and the time when offerings to the deceased should begin, and giving an invitation to be present.

The mourners arrive for the ceremony, bringing many kinds of gifts, such as pigs and sheep for sacrifice; pig's head, feet and tail, raw, or cooked with coloured rice; paper, candles, incense, gold and silver tinsel money, with "golden youths and gemmy maids" i.e. slaves made of paper.

A paper shrine is prepared to contain the tablet when carried to the grave.

The sons and daughters put on their white or coarse hemp garments, and white turbans or girdles are given out to all visitors.

A likeness of the deceased is hung in the chief room of the house. Lanterns are hung, and mourning scrolls of any coloured paper except red; the most commonly used are white and light blue. On the lanterns are the characters 當大事 tang ta shih.

The services are begun by the sons going round to the mourning department, donning the mourning robes and taking from each store such things as wine, incense, etc.; these they offer to the tablet 神主牌 shên chu p'ai, and then fall down before it while the the [sic] preacher reads and the singers chant the Filial Piety classic 孝經 hsiao ching.

The members of the family walk up to the pavilion where the ancestral tablet has been placed. They prostrate themselves before it at the bidding of the master of ceremonies, and return to their places. This is done thrice.