A CHINESE WAKE.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXXII, Issue 186, 10 December 1873, Page 1 (Supplement)

A CHINESE WAKE.

[From the Otago Daily Times.'] After " waking " Mow Tai for four days, Sun War On and his fellow co,untrymen came to the conclusion that the overdose of opium had done its work effectually. The remains of Mow Tai were wrapped up in the finest of linen and silk, and instructions issued to the undertaker to furnish a hearse with uodding black plumes and a mourning coach lined with drub silk, so that the departed Celestial might bo conveyed with all due 'ceremony to his last rest-ing-place in the Southern cemetery. The hearse and mourning coach, accompanied by a couple of cabs and an express waggon, drew up in front of Sun War On'a establishment in Princes-street yesterday afternoon, and were soon surrounded by a crowd of curious sight-seers. The express waggon was first filled with Mow Tai's old clothes, a rough stretcher, and some baskets containing a large quantity oi paper, candles, biscuits, bottles of arrack, and v duck roasted whole. Four Chinese then brought out the corpse in a collin, constructed after European fashion, and painted black, which was placed in the hearse. A plain bit of board, on which was written in Chinese characters the deceased epitaph, was placed alongside the coffin in such a position that it might be read (by those who were able to read it) ■ through the glasd sides of the hearse. About a dozen Celestials, with white mourning bands round their huts, stepped into the coach and cabs, and the cortege moved at a solemn pace towards tho Cemetery. Oil arriving thtre, tho coffin was deposited in a grave at some distance from the spot where a number of Chinese are already buried, and all the deceased's wearing apparel, bedding, &c, with a new pair of Wellington boots, were tumbled on top of the coffin, and, along with the white mourning bands, were covered up with earth. A mat was placed at the foot of the grave, and the roast duck, arrack, and 9ome confectionery were spread as if for a feast. Mow Tai's folio w-coun try men and mourners then performed some devotional exercises, going one by one to the foot of tho grave, clasping iheir hands aud bowing two or three times. Each one oprinklod the grave with arrack. A large hrap of paper and a a number of small wax candles were set ou fire, aud a husiuess-like Chinese, who appeared to act >is Master o( Ceremonies, scattered a quantity of sweetmeats broadcast among a crowd of squalling larrikins, who paid little respect to the home of the dead. Thus ended the funernl obsequies of Mow Tai.