CHINESE GRATITUDE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 142, 14 June 1909, Page 6

CHINESE GRATITUDE.

Once upon a time, a thousand years ago or thereabouts, there was a great famine in China. It spread through a dozen-cities, and the poor died in thousands. Noyr it chanced that there were two rich men, Hoong Sing and Gwan Goong, who, out of the great compassion they had for the sufferers, gave up all they had, bought food, and terminated the famine. They died and the people worshipped their memory. They were made josses and looked upon almost as gods. Images to represent them were enshrined in temples, and their countrymen laid gifts before the shrines, in memory of their benevolanco and as tokens of lasting gratitude. Gratitude, indeed, so lasting that in busy modern Sydney, strange to relate, the Chinese inhabitants have erected a Joss House, or Temple of Memory, as it may be termed, in

remembrance of the benevolent departed. The ceremony that attended the opening thereof, as described by a Sydney journal, makes one rub one's eyes and wonder if one^is not reading a page out of an Eastern romance. First came the procession: men carrying gongs, lighted candles, and joss sticks giving out a whiff of incense, flarelights, a banner, and some large dark objects, priests wearing-curious robes and on their heads hats such as one sees in pictures of mandarins; and other queer paraphernalia. This procession, which took place at an advanced hour of the night, was watched, as may be imagined, by a curious crowd. ■ Exactly at midnight the ceremony inside the building commenced. The" first priest—there were six or seven—knelt tipon a cushion, with his back to the direction of the altar, facing the images representing the two worthies already named; and ho chanted something which the others seemed for a moment to take up, like a response. He rose again and faced the altar, and again ho chanted, his voice mingling with the Chinese lowtoned conversation all about him, and drowned nearly by the sounds of the gongs. A length of dark-coloured cloth was then laid from the one table to the other in the direction of the altar. That was to typify th..< road the josses would take to reach the shrine". A fowl was now brought to the priest, who, grasping it, began another incantation. Little red candles were lit before the josses; the priest flung handfuls of rice along the second table. The droning ceased, and the josses were carried slowly to the shrine. Within it they were set, Boong Sing in front, the banner of Gwan Goong behind and over him—and all was over for that night. It should-be added that theso ceremonies are not strictly to be defined as religious. The whole proceeding.?, the temple itself, are merely in reverential memory of the dead.