Page:Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills.djvu/43

Rh with a hatchet and broken to pieces; sometimes rice is scattered and swept inwards as the coffin is carried out.

Strips of white paper attached to the ends of bamboo rods are used as flags to lead the spirit to the grave 引魂幡 yin hun fan.

Paper money called 買路錢 mai lu ch'ien, buying-road money, is scattered to the demons on the way. This money is of various shapes and sizes.

The tablet which is to be destroyed at the end of three years, not that belonging to the ancestral hall, is carried out on a portable pavilion t'ing tzu, with candles, incense, etc. Afterwards it is taken back to the house.

A paper image to which sacrifice has been offered, is put in front of the coffin to open the road, 開路神 k'ai-lu shên. It is burned at the grave.

On the coffin a white cock is carried, to lead the spirit which is supposed to be in the coffin. For there are three spirits; one enters Hades, one the tablet, while the third goes to the grave. The cock is the perquisite of the geomancer.

Paid men carry the coffin, and the chief mourners dressed in weeds go in front and pull. Women generally go in chairs, weeping as they go. They are accompanied by umbrellas, gongs, fire-crackers, etc.

A coffin may not be borne through a city unless it has the dragon's head at its back and front. This becomes absolutely necessary when a funeral cortege has a long distance to go.

Husbands and wives are laid close together, the side of the first grave being opened and the side of the coffin laid bare, that the new-comer may lie close. This is termed 聯棺合塜 lien kuan ho chung.

The grave is dug 開山 k'ai shan a day or more beforehand at a lucky time, and in the direction fixed by the geomancer.

A scholar with a degree is invited to 破土 po t'u break earth. He shoots three arrows away from the grave, then burns incense and worships. The idea is that the progeny of the deceased will become like this scholar.

A notice is read, to inform the spirits of the hills that the interment has taken place and to set the spirit of the deceased at rest.