THE CHINESE: THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 685 



the prescribed offerings at his tomb. We have stood by many a 

 Chinese death-bed, and though the dying man might " prattle o' green 

 fields," and fancy himself once more surrounded by his friends amid 

 the peach-groves of Hiang Shan, while his frail body was tossing on 

 the stormy waves of the Indian Ocean, yet there was no sign of dread 

 with regard to the future that awaited him. But there, far out at 

 sea, there was no opportunity for witnessing the ritual of death But 

 one brief hour after the eye has glazed, and the jaw has fallen, the 

 canvas-shrouded and shotted corpse takes its last plunge into the 

 blue ocean depths, without a prayer, without a rite save the few cash 

 sprinkled by his remaining comrades over his watery tomb. 



On shore a very different spectacle is presented. As the last hour 

 draws near, the relatives wander round the house with cries, the gong 

 is incessantly beaten, and packet after packet of fire-crackers gives 

 out its short, sharp series of detonations, sounding like irregular 

 platoon-firing, to frighten away the evil spirits supposed to be watch- 

 ing round the house to seize the departing soul ; while, within, upon 

 the filming eye the smoke of the ever-burning incense mingles with 

 death's gray shadow. The eye has closed, the spirit has departed, and 

 now every door and window is flung wide open, and the " keen " rises 

 wildly to recall the wandering guest to its deserted tenement. And 

 now the death is announced to all the relatives ; the door is hung with 

 white drapery, and down each lintel hangs a scroll of white, on which 

 appear funereal inscriptions in blue. Large blue-and-white lanterns 

 are hung on either side of the entrance, and probably a bamboo 

 portico, thatched with matting, is erected to preserve lanterns, inscrip- 

 tions, and garlands from the weather. Should it be a parent who has 

 passed away, two figures of the stork, the emblem of longevity, appear 

 amid the decorations. The relatives of the deceased, robed in white, 

 and with white cloths bound about their heads, now go in procession 

 to the nearest spring or river ; before them is supported the nearest 

 heir of the deceased, wearing a white veil, showing signs of the deep- 

 est affliction, and bearing in his hand a bowl in which are two copper 

 coins, whose united value is about half a farthing. This company, 

 uttering the most dismal howls, and having in its train musicians 

 whose performances are scarcely less doleful, has gone to purchase 

 water to wash the dead. This ceremony having been performed, the 

 body is dressed as in life, and placed in its coffin, which has previously 

 been half -filled with quicklime. The lid is then put on, and cemented 

 down, the whole of it being afterward highly polished, and the name 

 of the deceased inscribed upon it. 



The coffin, it may be as well to remark, is not a slight shell like 

 those in use among us, but is either a hollowed tree or made in the 

 form of one the sides being rounded, and five or six inches in thick- 

 ness. They are formed of very hard and costly woods, reaching oc- 

 casionally the price of five hundred pounds. A handsome coffin is 



