Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 27.djvu/406

 12. These services having been completed, they retire, and cook again all that was insufficiently done. The dogs, pigs, bullocks, and sheep are dismembered. The shorter dishes (round and square), the taller ones of bamboo and wood, and the soup vessels are all filled. There are the prayers which express the filial piety (of the worshipper), and the benediction announcing the favour (of his ancestors). This may be called the greatest omen of prosperity; and in this the ceremony obtains its grand completion ."

1. Confucius said, "Ah! Alas! I look at the ways of Kđu. (The kings) Yû and Lî corrupted them indeed, but if I leave Lû, where shall I go (to find them better)? The border sacrifice of Lû, (however,) and (the association with it of) the founder of the line (of Kâu) is contrary to propriety;—how have (the institutions of) the duke of Kâu fallen into decay ! At the border sacrifice in Khî, Yü was the assessor, and at that in Sung, Hsieh; but these were