Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1893-05-17
CHINESE MOURNERS.
Wailing for Hours Over Depart
ed Highbinder.
Cncanny Ceremonies Performed by Mon
golian Priests-Trying to APP
pease the Demons
of Death.

Chow EOOk, one of the hardest char
acters of Chinatown, recently died and
was buried in San Francisco. He kept
in Baker alley one of the worst of
Chinatown's houses of ill-fame. Chow
Fook was member of the Hop Wah
society, and was rich. old, ugly and a
villain to the core. His death has left
a great void in highlander circles.
Chow Fook baily Itch. baily blave,"
explained the round-faced keeper of
the little restaurant on Dupont street,
near the alley, when questioned by an
Examiner reporter. lie was pro-
fessed Taoist, and, being rich, he was
given costly funeral, and being
highbinder of standing. his obsequies
was largely attended. Very few of the
Chinese funeral trains yet seen in San
Francisco have been so imposing as
Chow Fook's. From early morning IN
til the funeral ~ortegc was formed,
about two o'clock, six Taoist priests
were present in the little room where
the dead highbinder lay in state.
Charms and images were strewn around
the apartment and richly-colored hang
ings adorned the walls. The black
robed churchmen kept up a continuous
appeal to the innumerable gods of
their wild and fanciful religion, now
ringing bells to propitiate the evil del
ties, then reciting in concert passages
of the Tao Teh King" and anon Civ
ing praise to Yu Wang Shang To God,
the perfect king), with the loud clangor
of brazen cymbals. They have a
strange way of accounting for the
~ hn 0f fhair 1irpio
these Taoist priests. The Old Boy"
they call him. He was supernaturally
conceived, they say, and his mother
bore him for eighty-one years before
he was born. When his birth came
his hair was hoary with age, and he
was thenceforth called, because of his
aged appearance, Luno-tsze, or "The
Old Boy" All through Saturday night
the cooks at the bagnio of the deceased
Chow Fook were busily engaged at
preparing the funeral meats. A hog
was roasted whole, and dish after dish
esteemed by the celestial palate was
carefully cooked for the morrow.
After the coffin lid had been screwed
down the porker and all the other deli
caacies were thrown into the alley
''Nebba eat pawk or anything apty cous-
in die" said one of the Taoists. And it
is so. The funeral baked meats" are
thrown away in accordance with an
ancient superstition. The dead Chow
Fook was borne in hearse to the Chi
nese cemetery. The cortege was led
| by hack load of celestials, whose of
| fee it was to scatter sacred paper
along the way.
why do they scatter paper?" re-
| peated an educated Chinese when
questioned. "Well, because of an old
notion that if the bits of paper were
not thrown along the route the de-
mons would make the corpse SO heavy
that it could not be borne to the grave. "
Chow Fook, despite the weight of his
sins, must have been very, very light,
if the Taoist rule held good, for paper
| galore Uttered the entire way from
Baker alley to the vault in which the
| form was laid. Following the men
| who appeased the demons came the
hearse and then the mourners. These
mourners were clad in garments of
white, that being the mourning color
among the Chinese. The priests fol-
| lowed the mourners, Changing their
cymbals and reciting their liturgies,
| and after them came a long line of
| carriages filed with ''fens.,a.v
Toward dusk the priestS returned
| and the mourning commenced in earn
| est. Six mourners, completely en-
veloped in white, took up their station
on the floor of the room in which the
corpse had been during the forenoon.
They sat huddled close together and
set up a low moaning, accompanying
their droning cries by movements of
| their bodies-now swaying in one di-
rection and then in another. The
priests sat upon a raised platform.
| They were robed in black, and had Gu
rious headdresses, some having pea
cock feathers in their hair. These
priests made a most unearthly din,
chanting bits Of Taoist invocations and
making discordant sounds on Chinese
cymbals and with shrill-voiced bells
Gathered around were as many celes-
tials of both sexes as the room would
hold, while the adjacent apartments
were uncomfortably thronged. Incense
of sandal-wood loaded the air, and a
ghastly light was thrown upon the
scene by candles burning in colored
lanters. 1t would be hard to conceive
anything more weird. The uncanny
ceremonies continued until four o'clock
in the morning.