Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/610

592 of white artificial flowers, stuck in balls of clay, are set upon the altar, and the worship of the dead then commences. Many female relatives stay behind the screen to wail. A child is appointed to watch and give notice of the approach of a worshiper, and at his signal the women wail in chorus. A male relative goes out, receives the guest, and kneels beside him while he bows and touches his forehead to the ground. The guest is then invited into another room to partake of tea, and the wailing ceases until another visitor arrives. Friends of various surnames and clans come during the first six days to pay obeisance to the dead, and bring bundles of spirit-money to be burned before the altar. The son of the recipient of these posthumous honors returns to each a present of a few feet of home-made white cloth, and invites all to the great performances of the seventh day.

The effigy and altar remain a hundred days, and before them the near relatives bow down and weep twice a day. Those who can wail in verse, eulogizing the departed, gain much approbation. Every morning and evening, so long as the coffin is in the house, or for one hundred days if the burial should be longer delayed, a daughter-in-law puts upon the altar a meal of vegetable food. The deceased is supposed to partake of its essence, and it is afterward added to the family mess. Beside the fare set forth for the dead man, there is laid upon the table a single chopstick and an egg for the jailer that has charge of the spirit until it is judged in hades. Having but half a pair of chopsticks to use, he must needs eat slowly, and so the dead man may get his share of the viands set forth!

Besides the occupations already described, the men of the afflicted family must procure food-stuffs, including pork, geese, and ducks, for the entertainment of guests; must hire mourning garments, or buy cloth for making them; must put an awning over the court in front of the house, to enlarge the space wherein the priests are to perform the ceremonies of the seventh day; and must order at the shops where outfits for ghosts are made all the paper paraphernalia which is to be burned at the funeral.

The women must, meanwhile, cook abundant meals for all who assist in the obsequies; must pound bushels of rice into flour for making steamed cakes to offer, with tea, to all comers; must make many little white bags, and put into each two long rolls of raw cotton, some green peas, some unhusked rice, and two copper coins, and must fasten these bags upon cords, whereby they can be tied around the waist. On the seventh day each son and son's wife wears three of these bags, all the children of the sons wear two bags, and each married daughter and son-in-law wears one bag. Mourning badges must also be made—wristlets of white for