Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1891-11-04

SON may be In an official posltion. ne
has to unbraid his long queue, dress in
sack cloth and follow the hearse of his
parents on foot, while other mourners
may ride. The eldest son is always
the chief mourner and daughters are
only the same as friends of the family;
they cannot be considered as legal
mourners of the family.
During the first month the eldest
son is not allowed TO cleanse himself or
eat fancy food Every time he meets
anyone he kneels, and the one knelt to
must quickly advance to raise him and
give him word of comfort
''He must dress himself in pure white
from head to foot for two years, and on
the third, or last, year of his mourning
he wears only black. AS long as he
lives he must decorate and worship the
graves of his parents. Four times each
year, and every time take some eat
ables, such as roasted pigs. chickens,
etc, to offer to the starving souls of
his beloved parents When they die
their duties at these graves are religi-
ously intrusted to their sons
do the Americans wonder why
Cinnamon give great dinners for the
birth of a son, and swear like Yankee
because it was a girl, who is only
brought up for the benefit of another's
family? The philosophical reason of
ell the children dying before the age
of five being buried without even cof-
fin, is because they have only lived
plenty of trouble and pain, and any
R,,,- -
death is simply pure waste.
when they die over five and below
twenty years of age. it is presumed
that they had partially fulfilled their
duties toward their parents, therefore
they deserve to have at least a coffin
and grave, but yet do not possess
merit enough to be Inferred in the fam.
lily plot, as they were not married peo-
pie, and had no use for family aSsocia-
tons. These children who married
and leave male issue before death,
have more than partially fulfilled their
filial duties, and, therefore, are given a
coffin and a grave in the family plot by
| the parents, while his own son accords
him the proper funeral rites, as all sons
should
man may not be to have an expensive
marriage, but is always to have glori.
GUS funeral. He wants to be sure on
this point, and, unless Chinaman has
lots of good relatives or a dutiful son,
he usually prepares his own funeral
many years in advance. He measures
and gets his own coffin made, and care.
fully lays it away in some part of the
house.
1.-THE richer the dead the longer the
funeral. Some of these bodies lay fol
twenty-one days in state, and during
| all that time friends and relatives, fan
near, come before it to worship it,
while others who wish to appear friend.
| ly to the family hire one or more pro-
fessional mourners to cry and weep for
them. These hired weepers do not have
to weep long; five minutes is the usual
time The feasts upon these occasions
are just as grand as upon frst-class
weddings.
1.-THE Chinese do not spend as much
money upon their sons marriages as
they do upon their fathers funerals.
If they did the neighbors and relatives
would accuse them of being undutiful
| and ungrateful."
''Then in the end family's funerals
will cost as much in China as they dc
here?'
Perhaps more; great deal more.
But the expense in each case is regu.
lated by reason, and is according to the
deserts of the dead. 1t is not so here, ~
asserted the follower of Confucius,
knocking the ashes from his tiny pipe
bowL-N. Y. Advertiser.