LLDEST MALE DESCENDANTS AS QUASI-PRIESTS. 717 



by a man of the same race (gotra), even in the life- time of the husband 

 with his consent.&quot; 



Among the Jews, too, though interdicted by their law from 

 making material sacrifices to the dead, there survived the 

 need for a son to utter the sacrificial prayer. 



&quot; Part of this extreme desire for sons is rooted in the fact that men 

 alone can really pray, that men only can repeat the Kaddish, a prayer 

 that has become almost a corner-stone of Hebraism, for there is deemed 

 inherent in it a marvellous power. It is held that this prayer spoken 

 by children over their parents graves releases their souls from purga 

 tory, that it is able to penetrate graves, and tell the dead parents that 

 their children remember them.&quot; 



So is it too in China, where a chief anxiety during life is 

 to make provision for proper sacrifices after death. Failure 

 of a first wife to bear a male child who may perform them, is 

 considered a legitimate reason for taking a second wife ; and in 

 the Corea, where the funeral ceremonies are so elaborate that 

 the mourners have cues to weep or cease weeping, we are 

 shown the quasi-priestly function of the son, and also get an 

 indication of the descent of this function. After a death &quot; a 

 man must be at once appointed Shangjoo, or male Chief 

 Mourner. The eldest son, if living, or, failing him, his son 

 rather than his brother, is the proper Shangjoo. . . . When 

 these friends arrive, they mourn altogether, with the Shangjoo 

 at their head.&quot; And among the Shangjoo s duties is that of 

 putting food into the deceased s mouth : performing, at the 

 same time, the reverential obeisance baring his left shoulder. 



599. The primitive and long-surviving belief in a second 

 life repeating the first in its needs a belief which, as we 

 see, prompted surprising usages for procuring an actual or 

 nominal son who should minister to these needs prompted, 

 in other cases, a usage which, though infrequent among our 

 selves, has been and still is frequent in societies less divergent 

 from early types : so frequent as to cause surprise until we 

 understand its origin. Says Satow &quot; The practice of adop 

 tion, which supplies the childless with heirs, is common all 



