148 SPORT, TRAVEL, AND ADVENTURE 



When a girl ' spills the tea 'that is, loses her be- 

 trothed by death she is sometimes married to the tablet 

 which represents his spirit, and goes to live with that 

 is to say, to be a drudge to his parents. If a girl 

 dies before betrothal, her parents betroth her to the 

 spirit of some man. This is done by writing their 

 names on tablets in a temple. This prevents her spirit 

 returning to torment the family. 



The first moon of the Chinese year (February) is 

 considered the most felicitous time for marriage. It 

 is in this month that the peach-tree blossoms, and 

 hence there are constant allusions to it in connection 

 with the marriage. 



The first part of a wedding procession con- 

 sists of lantern-bearers, banner-bearers, and those 

 who carry the tablets upon which are inscribed the 

 names of the man and woman who are being married. 

 Some of these bearers wear extraordinary-looking 

 headdresses. Two or three large red official umbrellas 

 are then borne past. In the middle comes the glass 

 chair of the bride, which is highly adorned with the 

 doll-like symbolic figures. 



On the arrival of the bride at the bridegroom's 

 house, a woman who has borne male children and who 

 lives in ' harmonious subjection ' to her husband 

 approaches the door of the sedan chair and utters 

 felicitous sentences. In some parts of the country 

 the bridegroom unlocks the chair, in others it is one 

 of the women. A boy six or eight years old, holding 

 in his hands a brass mirror, with the reflecting surface 

 turned from him and towards the chair, invites the 

 bride to alight. This she does, and is then lifted over 

 the threshold, on which charcoal burns in a pan, to 



