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REV. ARTHUIi ELWIN ON ANCESTRAL WORSHIP. 



With regard to the food, certainly the spirit must actually come 

 to the table. The Chinese say the spirits feed on the steam. The 

 things placed on the table are all hot invariably. They never think 

 of offering anything cold to the spirits. The table is prepared and 

 the food is prepared in the kitchen and taken up and put steaming 

 hot on the table, and the spirits are supposed to inhale the steam 

 from the food, and, as the Chinese say, they have a wonderful power 

 of extracting all the goodness and strength of it although the food 

 remains as before. The only thing is it gradually gets cold, and 

 then the people who put it there come round and eat it. The same in 

 the temple. I have seen idols made of clay or mud and a table 

 with food on it just the same as that of the ancestors. There, again, 

 the food is put there for a time and then the priests, or somebody, 

 would eat it. 



Mr. Martin Rouse. — Do they know that the people eat it 1 



The Author. — Oh yes ; the friends know it. The family gather 

 together and offer these sacrifices to those who have passed away. 



In regard to the prayers to the spirits, there are most devout 

 prayers on record to these spirits, and they all know of these things 

 that are offered to the spirits, for if they are not offered, then the 

 spirit, it is supposed, has an extraordinary power of coming back to 

 the world and doing an immense amount of harm. It is extra- 

 ordinary what harm a destitute spirit can do. 



Their charitable societies referred to consist of rows of almshouses ; 

 for instance, soup kitchens, blanket societies, coffin societies and 

 burial societies. I remember seeing in Shanghai a house with a 

 large doorway over which was written. Aim Shen (Benevolent 

 Institution). I thought it was for the poor, but was told it was a 

 benevolent institution for the spirits of the other world and not for 

 people in this world at all. No doubt the English who lived in 

 Shanghai thought it was an institution for the care of spirits in this 

 world rather than for those of the other world. 



Rev. F. Storrs Turner. — I think I ought to take the oppor- 

 tunity of saying that in a great many respects I could, if time 

 permitted, parallel some of those very interesting points that Mr. 

 Elwin has laid before us. 



To begin with, I have at home two ancestral tablets given to me 

 more than forty years ago : I have three in fact. One of them is a 

 clan tablet, but two are family tablets, given to me by a convert of 



