TWO CURIOUS FUNERALS.

Hot Lakes Chronicle, Volume 3, Issue 153, 6 November 1895, Page 4

TWO CURIOUS FUNERALS.

One of the most remarkable funerals on record toot place in the IT' iter! fo< *f;v. r>ii e-ir- t.i.ken the doepest iutt-re t in woiiu u's work. She hud started a woman's club, the cardinal tenet of which was that no member should ask a man to do anything for her that she could do herself. In acwda; ce with this rule, and acting on the expressed wish of their president, after her death her club members took charge of the bod}-, prepared it for the funeral, read the Burial Service over it, lowered the coiiin into the ground, and then filled up the grave with their own hands. Near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, the other day, Leo Jin Mun, a Chinese Freemason, died, and would probably have attracted n> further attention outside his own little circle had not his funeral struck the American journals as grotesque oven for a Chinese ceremony. After secret ceremonies at the house, the body was deposited in a casket. A table was spread with the provisions which are to sustain tho spirit in its new home. These included a piece of fat roast pork, another of raw pork, two chickens cooked with the head and logs on, and all kinds of fruit and sweetmeats. At one end of tho table was a box of sand in which burned coloured candles and Joss sticks. Before this the oflieials knelt and said their prayers. At tho head of the procession was a horseman with a triangular red banner with Chinese characters. Then followed Ma-ons in carriages. All the way to tho cemetery torn toms wero beaten. After deciding to place tho coffin endwise in the grave, I o Tom Ma. Grand Missionary, deli v. red the funeral oration. Candles and Joss sticks were again bnrned, and small coins were scattered on the ground to keep the devil busy picking thera up so that ho will let Lee Jin Mun rest in pence. Then tho worldly possessions of tho deceased Were placed in two piles at each fad of the coffin and burned, and tho grave ttas filled up.