The Magnolia gazette. [volume] (Magnolia, Miss.) 1872-current, 1883-06-07
A CHINESE FUNERAL.


was disturbed one day during my
midday meal at HongKong by COM
motion in a street adjoining the one in
which | was residing, caused by q
Chinese funeral of more than the usual
pretensions. AS very little is known
among foreigners, even those residing
in China, in regard to celestial OBJ
sequies and their meanings, took some
trouble to gather information regarding
the strange pagentry which | that day
witnessed.
1t is the general custom in China,
when a man is about TO die, for the eld-
est son to remove him from the bed to
the floor of the principal room of the
house, where he is laid with his feet to the
door. The inhabitants of the province
of Fuh-kien are in the habit Of placing
piece of silver in the mouth of the
dying person-with which he may pay
his fare into the next wOrld-and care
fully stopping up his nose and ears. In
certain cases they make a hole in the
roof, to facilitate the exit of the spirits
proceeding from his body; their belief
being that each person possesses seven
animal senses, which die with him; and
three souls, one of which enters Elysium
and receives judgment; another abides
with the tablet which is prepared to
commemorate the deceased; and the
third dwells in his tomb.
Whether all these practices are observed
in Hong-Kong, / am unable to say;
probably the setting open of the win
dows and doors is regarded as prefer
able proceeding to making hole in the
roof, more especially when the death
happens to occur in the lowest room of
u three-storied house. Here, however,
as elsewhere, the intelligence of the
death of the head of a family is COM
municated as speedily as possible
70 all his relatives, and the household is
dressed in white-the mourning color
of China. Priests and women hired to
mourn are sent for at the same time;
and ON their arrival, table is set out
with meats, fruits, lighted candles and
loss-sticks for the delectation of the souls
OF the deceased; and the wailing and
weeping by the mourning women is re-
Heyed at intervals by the intoned prayers
OF the priest or the discordant '.tom-
tommingn Of musicians who have
also been called to assist in the cere-
monies The women weep and lament
with an energy ansl dolefulness which,
genuine, would be highly commend
ablei but ungenerous "barbarians' of
extensive acquaintance with the Chinese
assert that this apparently overwhelm-
ing grlet IS, at least in the majority Of
cases. mere sham. In regard to the
nearest relatives of the deceased. it
would be uncharitable to presume there
Is not a considerable amount of real
grief beneath all this weeping and wall
llngi but hired mourners, who are usual
~ the most demonstrative on these oc-
casions, can hardly be expected to
launch every other day into convulsive
lamentations of genuine nature over
ihe death of individuals they hardly
know by name. AS it is, the priest
usually directs these emotional demon
STATIONS much in the same way as n
CONDUCTOR controls the performance of a
oanu OF musicians; now there are few
Irregular walls; then burst of them,
telleVed IN turn by few nasal notes
irom the priest, the intervals being filled
up py the ''tom-toms,'i and an oc-
oaslonal litter from the latest comers.
One OF the strangest features in the
oosequies | witnessed was the erection
vi "a structure in front of the house in
Ml,icn the death occurred, to enable the
coiined body to be brought down to the
iio.auWay irom the room in which it was
Sing. The house being three-storied
,i one, and the body lying in one of the
sGPiu9st rooms, the erection, which fur
,nd nlsned sloping footway of planks from
VI .he room to the road. and a landing at
Iie top' had necessarily not only to be
Iolly but substantial. Communication
was 81 course had with the room
through the window. These structures
sre, believe, erected for two reasons
nLst' because strange families in a house
ooJscl' on superstitious grounds, to a
ouiPse o9 being taken through their rooms;
~ ~ secondly, because it is almost inn
eaac.lcaple to get heavy Chinese coffin
so"n the narrow tortuous stairs of
nan nlany oi the native houses. For a sim
Ia la reason, no body in course of trans
po..a'ion from one part of China to
iiosue, siio LOT the purpose of interment is
sloWea to pass through any walled
Somn; No corpse, either. is ever al
MI ,J%eu 70 De carried across a landing
wb;ah s or to pass through gateway
nersai @s,,en can in any way be construed as
a,a rrs'g;iu,ng to the Emperor. The. Chinese
d. A., iiuueed, so superstitious in fegard to
;tsait n as seldom to mention that word
'sl' Preierring to take refuge in a cir