Page:History of Corea, ancient and modern; with description of manners and customs, language and geography (1879).djvu/349

 WAILING. 321 must be set in a proper position * by a servant, on which the dying man is to be placed ; — ^he must on no account die on the kang. There should be a mat on this board, a coverlid, and a pillow for the head, which must point south. No noise is to be permitted in or outside the house. New cotton should be held ready, over the upper lip, so as to close the mouth after death, to prevent the exit of the yang chi, — the fetid breath, — ^which is sure, if permitted to escape, to kill the first person, tree, or other living thing with which it comes in contact ; and while it is retained, there is a hope of.recovery. A dying man must not be supported by a woman ; nor a woman by a man. Before finally pronouncing him dead, a fork or other piece of wood is employed to force open the teeth, to show that he is really dead. At the same time his feet are placed on the kang table (a foot higb). Wailing, with beating on the breast, begins immediately on the departure of the breath, — ^the duration of which is at pleasure, and not bound by rule ; but it should not be excessive, lest it might prevent the possible return of the spirit. During this first mourning, a serving person takes a garment, formerly worn by the deceased, and goes with it to the highest point on the top of the house, where — ^holding the garment, the neck in his left hand, the hem in his right, and looking north- wards, "f* whither the spirits (Yin) flee — he thrice calls loudly the name of the deceased ; if a man, calling him by the highest title he had when living ; if a woman, by that by which she was commonly called. This is the last efibrt to bring back the spirit to the body. This calling over, the man descends and places the garment, which he has folded up, over the dead man's body. One garment, which the deceased had several times worn, and which should be first buried, is placed on the HwuTi-bua, or " kang," see above. t This fact fixes the date when the Corean Ritual was borrowed from the Chinese. as not being much, if any, before the time of Confucius ; for the spirits were, earlier than that period, supposed to be Yang, and to have their habitation in the south. V
 * Chinese place the dying person on the floor ; but the Coreans have only