The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-08-07
Burial Customs
Chariot of Death.

about. e1ght rect In length shaded. Dy l 8 canopy of white and green suspend | ed betweenA four uprights attached to the carrying frame. The bier itself is gaudily painted and fantasticaIly draped with lengths of material lea ch. dyed of one. of the Korean five caroi- nal colors; red. blue. white. yellow, black It is supported on mems shoulders by a network of bands and cross bars.
 The number of the carriers varies from eight to forty, as the splendor of the occasion may demand. Each 1 is dressed in a gown made of grass linen and an eighteen-inch high brinn- less cap of the same material Be- fore the procession leaves the house the. *spiritbox already referred to, l is placed on a small, but very long legged chair;' there it will remain in the house for three years. We have already referred to the sheet of paper bearing the name of the deceased that was enclosed in an envelope and p1ac- ed in the box. Added to sthis there now is a spirit tablet which, accord l ing to the family, may be either a scroll or a block of wood. If of wood, preferably that of a pear tree is se- | lected. It is left unpainted and is so made that portion of it's front can be removed revealing a cavity; the l dwelling place of the spirit. A hole, l not more than a quarter of an inch T. i of the tablet so as to provide the spirit with means of passing to and from the cavity. These having been plac- ed in position the coffin will be inn mediately lowered from the stools on which it has been resting, and as soon as the arrangements are completed. it will be placed ip the bier waiting in the courtyard for its reception. The Funeral Cortege. On account of the streets being less crowded towards sunset the funeral cortege generally commences its jour- ney at about that hour. First of all come two men carrying huge torches, the lighted ends of which they trail on the ground leaving a wake of sparks l Behind this comes the procession, be- 1 tween two lines of lantern bearers, headed by the master of ceremonies mounted on horseback and followed | by a man, who carries a banner on which is written the name and the honors of the deceased. Then more lanterns and torches followed by the spirit tablet, which has been placed in a specially constructed sedan chair 1 and for the occasion of the ceremony removed from the place given to it l referred to before. On either side of l this, walk the female slaves of the l deceased, then more lanterns or torch l es followed by the bier whose bearers 1 are chanting a weird song to enable l them to keep step.
 | Corresponding to the flowers that are sent by friends in the West, there will be carried on either side of the l bier little banners made of red, blue, or yellow silk; upon them are written. l in Chinese. complim entAry references | to the departed one,
 immediately following the bier in a long single file come the mourners carried in enclosed sedan chairs; the rear is usually brought up by a howl ing crowd of street urchins, who fol- | low in the wake of the procession hop I ing for the opportunity of getting some of the refreshments that will be
 served out to the mourners at the l grave-side.
 The bier will. be placed under some temporary shelter until the nourners have been refreshed and all arrange ments completed When the coffin has been taken from the bier, and lower edy into the grave by means of the gird1es worn by the sons of the deceas- ed, the chief mourner takes his place Il on the terrace immediately below the grave and facing it while behind him are arranged all the other relatives T and friends.
 T Then with great ceremony one of
 the nourners in a stentorian voice an Enounces to the Spirit of the Mountain | that the deceased is now buried here, T and a little food and wine will be set
 
 it. Then follows an announcement
 made to the dead that the tablet will be carefully carried home, deposited
 in its place and vigorously worshipped.
 To finish off the ceremony an eIegy in
 prose will be either recited or chant
 ed. For three years the Sin-chu (the
 tablet) will be worshipped at. least twice a month, but the spirit box is only retained for few weeks until the mourners are convinced that the spirit has taken up it's abode in the ! tablet, the box then being burned Three Spirits.
 The Koreans believe that every man
 has three spirits or souls. At the
 burial one of these, as already stated,
 goes into the tablet, the second re-
 mains in the earth with the corpse
 while the third mfngles with the spir-
 it's of the atm osphere.
 The spirit in the tablet issworship-
 ped on the first and fifteenth of every
 moon, the one in the grave in the
 early spring, while the one that takes
 up it's abode in the void is never wor-
 shipped although held in continual Koreans suppose to be watching their
 every action and which zwreaks its wrath upon them if the other two , spirits are not properly sacrificed to-
 In a hay and indefinite way the | Koreans believe in a, future existence,
 though they seem utterly unable to
 give expression to their thoughts on
 this subject. Some indeed. have ideas
 of transmigration, others of an end
 less existence; yet, without exception
 each one when burying his dead at
 taches to the four corners of the bier crude effigies of roosters. for this bird
 which is up so early, giving in clarion
 notes the joyous announcement of the dawn, they hold to be essentially typ . ica1 of '.the resurrection"
 
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