OCCASIONAL NOTES. 167 
throws in a handful of earth. The sextons fill it up and make 
a circular mound above. Offerings and prostrations are made 
before the completed grave, and ‘then there isa general con- 
sumption of rice, wine, “and betel- nut, 
_ The period of mourning is very protracted. Nominally 
it lasts for three years for father or mother, but immemorial 
custom decrees that this means twenty-four months. Fora 
grandparent or brother or sister it lasts one year, and so on in 
decreasing ratio. Men of rank cannot undertake public duties 
durmg this season, and ought not to be present at marriages 
or feasts of any kind. ‘The son should eat no meat and drink | 
no wine. The people are very proud of these regulations, but 
they do uot keep them. At the end of the first year there are 
great sacrifices before the grave, at the end of the second the 
“(lead man’s house,” the bamboo cage, is burnt, and with it 
the mourning garments. Desecration of the grave is punished 
with extreme severity. 
The richer peopie erect stone monuments over their 
ancestors. ‘The plain between Saigon and aes, the Plaine 
des Tombcaux, is full of these, of ail sizes aud in ‘all states of 
decay, sometimes standing quite alone, sometimes with shrubs 
and then trees planted by them. ‘There are inscriptions on 
most of them, usually cut into the stone and painted various 
eolours. T hey bear the ey and individual name and those 
of the deceased’s titles and ule of birth, the date of death, 
and the name of th ne ae who set up the stone. Some of 
them are almost miniature temples. ‘They are kept up by the 
head of the house, and there are regularly fixed days tok wor- 
ship before them. 
This is in fact the only worship the Annamese have, but 
some of them carry it on with tolerable regularity. The first 
and the fifteenth of every month are the regular days set apart 
for worship at the ancestral shrine. At the same time there is 
always more or less sacrificing to the Co-Hon already spoken 
of. Nothing is deemed too great to soften their tancour. 
Besides the silver and gold paper a and the “‘ cash notes ” above 
alluded to, there is a much more valuable paper currency. 
These are sheets of paper covered all over with designs and 
