254 FESTIVALS AND BURIALS. [1697. 



the Lives of Histories of Great Men. At Niglit during this 

 Eepresentation, they pitch Bamboo's, of forty or fifty foot 

 high, before the Houses of tlie most considerable of their 

 Nation, to whicli they affix Fire-works that cost a great deal 

 and last most part of the Night. This is one of the principal 

 of their Diversions. These People are very Industrious, 

 and have a particular Talent for making these Fire-works. 

 Among other things they very naturally represent by them 

 divers sorts of Animals : Disguis'd as I have told you, they 

 run along the Streets and make these Animals, compos'd of 

 Paper and Wild-fire, fly. They have a Feast which they 

 celebrate on the Water in Memory of a certain Woman of 

 their Nation, who drown'd her self, and of whom they tell a 

 fine and long Tale. The chiefest Diversion of this Feast 

 consists in the swift Rowing of several light Boats like the 

 Go-ndolcis at Venice} Divers of these Boats, equally furnish'd 

 with Powers, start at the same time on a certain Signal, and 

 they that arrive first at the Goal obtain the Prize. 



The Burials- of the Ghineses are perform'd with great Cere- 

 mony. When a sick Person is at the point of Death, all his 

 Friends and Relations gather about him, and ask him frankly 



1 Another Venetian allusion, indicating Misson's pen : — " The 

 Dragon Boat Festival, held in memory of AV at- Yuen, a Minister of 

 State, who flourished about 500 B.C., and who drowned himself. A 

 leading featui'e of this festival is the rpces which take place between 

 the different crews of long boats made to resemble dragons." (Cf. 

 China, by Dr. Gray, vol. i, p. 258.) 



" "Their burials are the next great pompous exhibitions of the Chinese. 

 These are solemnised agreeably to the rank of the deceased. . . . An 

 immense multitude of Chinese attend on the day of interment, carrying 

 images of men and women, representing the deceased members of the 

 game family, with wax tapers and censers ; while a numerous procession 

 of priests, accompanied with musical instruments, precede the corpse, 

 which is carried in a huge coffin, slung on bars, supported on the 

 shoulders of sixteen bearers, in pairs, folloM'ed by the relations of the 

 deceased, uttering most piercing lamentations. The cemetery of the 

 Chinese extends over a prodigious deal of ground on the south-east side 

 of Batavia." {TJwrn. p. 24(1) 



