508 Count Vay de Vaya and Lushod [April 15, 



chairs, men on horseback, are coming forward in an endless row. 

 And what a pageant this is ! What an effective group ! The minutest 

 detail has been carried out with artistic taste. The smallest traits 

 are wonderfully grouped together to enhance the general effect. \ 



The procession is headed by children, dressed in white from top 

 t(j toe, wearing bell-shaped headgear. Then follow bearers of torch- 

 lights and banners, servants carrying texts attached to poles, others 

 dangling lanterns, and behind these another group burning straw 

 plaits. 



The next section of the procession consists of riders, of whom 

 eight are entirely covered in white cloaks. You would imagine they 

 were phantoms, if it were not that they wept bitterly. These are 

 the paid mourners, like the moaning women of ancient Eome. It is 

 a native funeral. A member of the Min family is being taken to his 

 last resting place. He is a descendant of a famous clan, a relative of 

 the late Empress of Korea, so regal pomp is awarded him. And the 

 funeral procession is really grand, although all dresses worn therein 

 are of unbleached linen. The trimmings are for the most part of 

 paper, but in such striking combinations, and designed and finished so 

 perfectly, that we disregard the details and only admire the general 

 effect. The group of moaning women is followed by monsters dressed 

 as guys, such as gruesome fables are peopled with. One wears a red 

 masque, another a yellow, this a green and that a blue one. The 

 appearance of all is awe-inspiring, their heads being adorned with 

 horns, cocks-combs and crowns. Now more and more new groups 

 follow, approaching stately and disapjDcaring slowly in the darkness 

 of the night. 



A Princely Funeral. 



How long the procession lasted I know not, but some thousand 

 persons must have marched by ere the two gilt catafalques appeared 

 on the scene. Both were alike, resembling monumental pagodas, 

 gabled in many places, designed with the quaint originality of this 

 people, and ornamented with all the fulness of its fancy. The two 

 coffins, prescribed by ancient traditions, rest on pedestals in the shadow 

 of high baldachinos. Behind the coffin walks a person wrapped in 

 sackcloth, suggestive of the cloth worn over their uniforms by mem- 

 bers of the Society of Misericordia in Italy. The catafalques and 

 coffins are carried on their shoulders by thirty-two mourners, proceed- 

 ing slowly and rhythmically. 



But the pageant is not yet at an end. On a number of sedau- 

 chairs are heaped up the personal belongings of the defunct. His 

 clothes, household furniture, horses and cows — all follow him so that 

 they may be consumed as a burnt-offering by his graveside; all in 

 effigy, for they are but of paper. It is in such cheap edition that the 

 ancient traditions are being preserved by the more practical progeny 

 of the jDresent day. The silver coins, thrown by the riding weepers 

 amongst the crowd, are likewise make-believe, representing nothing 



