ELUDING EVIL SPIRITS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11684, 13 July 1912, Page 3 (Supplement)

ELUDING EVIL SPIRITS.

ill most Chinese funerals -professional mourners are employed. They cover their heads and' faces up and! yell ahd sob and ecream and groan at the top of their voices, not with the idea, so much of showing-grief as with the intention of .driving away the evil spirits froin the soul or the'departed. . With this notion also tho mourners bang trays, beat gongs/and play? weird musical'instruments. Another precaution jtaken is that the funeral cortege passes over running water before the head 's actually, buried-, as this may be the -means of throwing the pursuing fiends off the scent. , . "

At the gravesido a precaution is taken whicli is typical', of :the ingeriiuity of the Chinese mind; A large packet of thiii rice paper containing some hundreds of leaves, writes a Hongkong correspondent of the. Westminster Gazette, is stamped all through with seven peculiar slits like these made with the nib of a pen. The whole mass of paper is burned and the ashes.scattered around. When, therefore, the fiends 'arrive, pre-; sumably very exhausted with' their efforts to catch up with tli& Chinaman's soul, they find to their dismay that they have first of all to piece'.together all the scattered ashes of paper, arid then to go in and out of the seven .holes in each individual slieet of paper. As von can readily, understand, even a very slick fiend" finds this ratlier a- tedious task, and by the time ha-has accomplished it the' soul of the departed has arrived in the. land o-f, the bles>;. There is little or no ceremony actually at the grave, but food! is cooked in. the carcase at a sort of altar, and is left for the deceased in' case lie may feel Peckish,.and a quantity cf.joss sticks are left burning round the grave. Another important point is, if possible, to bury the deceased in his or her native village. "When we were waiting for,the harbormaster's" launch to take its home by water we found 011 the wharf a poor, shabby,coffin laid'out .alongside a roasted ox, over which friends and relatives had mounted 1 -guard, and were moaning and plaj'ing: music, which dinand tumiujt liadi to be kept up imtil'the boat arrived to take the wanderer home. Directly.the boat started, water having been crossed, the spirits wou'ld be done and the efforts could be relinquished. The Chinese are never in a. hurry to bury their dead— it' is only the .Government regulations' which .force them to do so. -The other day a Chinese party, comprising husband, wife, several children -and an old mother, started oft for a. short holiday trip up- riv»r-by. steamboat. Ont'he way the -mother died, but do vou think this put an end to the jaunt or made the party leave the launch at thenexb stopping placelS ot a bit of it. - . ' 7 . They, screwed, up the old lady in a box- and! took lier around determined that at any - rate- she should be giren -the -opportunity of enjoying herself; and so it continued for several days, till the coffin., fell overboard by mistake and they lost it.. A curious difficulty often. arises on account o£ the ancestral worship or the Chinese, and has caused much litigation. , Many rich Chinamen dlie leading four | or five parts of their estate for the pur- | pose of ancesoral -worsli ip, and when trns , is disputed the courts liave to settle | whether the gift is. or is not. wholly lor | "supersititious uses,", as the - phrase goes. As a rule tljc court_ is , rather, inclined to wink at such, bequests. After all, a good ideal of thi? worship consists of haying money set apart so that a certain mtmber of joss sticks may be burned every, moon, and. then there is also a, ceremony which takes place on every anniversary <yr the death of the when all *he clansmen of the dead , men assemble at the grave and roast meats and cakes antl chant and say prayers, and'-have giits for the departed, and. also the t-orv offerings 011 his behalf. On the obhier hand,, a good- deal ofrmoney. set aside -for-ancestral worship is actually applied: for educational, cliairitable, -anti other recognised purposes. ..- . r Shortly ;after my arrival kong I attended a ParseeJuneral. Most of the - followers attended in ordinary "whites"- and topees: and colored toes, only: the chief moiirnere weawng the conventional frock coau, tali hat, apd black tie.' - , . , , ~ » . The curious thing about the iunei al was the number of other shinerals wo ran across that day. In fact, when the coffin was -being born on the shoulder, of the Pafsee mutes into the cemetery. (all of th'em dressed m wlutc, with gloves and little, -round white caps) followed by the motley assembly of mourners" drawn in. rickshaws by shouting coolie boys, wo got-hopelessly mixed up with a Chinese funeral which was.marine: for the Chinese cemetery adjoining, and a good:deal of offence was caused on English <.' Chinese, - and Parsee cemeteries all lie together in what is .called "the Happv Valley, th^ -V? also. the -place where ■. the steeplechase racing tates place. . , , When we and'-the Chinese cortege ha-cl at last got sorted' out. the. ceremony proved -'.o be a very short one. The two officiating priests sing-songed along, chanting away together at a breakneck speed and 1 then, suddenly stopped!The coffin was clumsily lowered, the two sons of the threw handfuls of earth on it, and their example was followed 1 by the other Parsee mourniera, and then every one Squally drifted off across to the golf : club and : the . racecourse—the_last aolemiutiqs were ait; an end. The coffin mained' exposed, save for its sprinkling of earth. The abrupt inclusion seemed to make the whole service empty ■ and hollow. •- ;• .. ■■ ■ ■