Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/612

594 must first be paid, and the eldest son throws coins into the priest's bowl. After a turn or two more, the call is repeated, the invisible door is opened, and the spirit is supposed to pass in and to mount a lofty platform, from which it takes a final view of the house and village in which it has dwelt. The priests chant its valediction, saying:

 On the last, highest lookout now I stand, And gaze toward home, with weeping loud and sore: Those who go farthest on an earthly strand May come again to kin and native land, But he who enters hell returns no more."

The mourners wail loudly, and the spirit is considered to have departed into the realm of shadows. The party led by the priest now take the short return journey, crossing the mimic bridge but once; for they say:

 For going, ages scarce suffice; The coming back takes but a trice."

The priest then brings a miniature artificial lotus-garden, on whose terraces are images of the immortals, and sets it whirling on its standard over a basin of clean water. The mourners throw coins into the basin, to secure an abundance of pure water for the use of the deceased in the nether world. Various arts are used by the priest, at this and other stages of the performance, to increase the amount of cash thrown into his basin.

At nightfall the offerings which supply the dead with the necessaries of spirit-life are sent to him by burning them. Silver and gold coins, clothing of every sort and in many colors, opium and tobacco-pipes, spectacles, wallets, boxes, horses, sedan-chairs, boats, and servants, counterfeited skillfully in paper, and costing hundreds of dollars, are offered by the descendants and friends of the deceased, and are consumed in little bonfires that fill the court-yard with flame, smoke, and ashes. Married daughters bring armfuls of paper clothing and add it to the blaze, kneeling and leaning their heads against a bar from their looms. Neighbors and acquaintances bring packages of similar goods, and commit them, through the flames, to the care of the deceased, to be transferred by him to their own relatives in the region to which he is going. Some offer real articles, which are spread on tables, with edibles, and these are usually carried away during the night by poor souls still in the flesh. Supplies of paper goods are also burned for the poverty-stricken and friendless dead, who might without this pacification rob the beloved traveler of the things intended for his sole behoof. All night the fires glow, the smoke ascends, the priests chant, and the mourners wail.