SAINT-MAKING IN THE EAST.

Otago Witness, Volume 01, Issue 2123, 1 November 1894, Page 45

SAINT-MAKING IN THE EAST.

There are three principal modes of beatification as praotised in the Kast. The commonest method is by the voice of the people. "He was a saint 1" they exclaim on the death of some remarkable man, and the priests acquiesce, for each new saint brings grist to their mills. When the voice of the people ia silent, then the priests, in their own interests, proclaim saints and demand shrines for them. These two methods are especially characteristic of Hindustan. A distinguished writer has oompared the process of beatification, canonisation, or deification — whichever term we like to use — to the ascent and descent on Jacob's ladder. " The Hindus," he says, " construct for themselves Jacob's ladders between earth and heaven ; the men are seen ascending until they beoome gods ; they then descend again as embodiments of the divinities ; insomuch that it may be almost doubted whether any god, except the Vedio divinities and other obvious Nature gods, oonaes down the ladder who had not originally gone up as a man, and an authentic man." Tha Hindu, in a cerbain stage of enlightenment, is inclined to deify any notable person, not necessarily waiting for his death. While Warren Hastings was on his trial in England it was stated as an argument in his favour that he was being worshipped in his appropriate temple in India.

But interesting and important as the Hindu methods of deification are, those of the Chinese are far more curious. In China the Emperor claims power, not only over his subjects (and indeed, for that mattor, the whole inhabited world), but also over the realms of departed spirits. These he beatifies, canonises, decorates with titles, mentions with approval in the Ptkin Gazette when they do anything to deserve that honour, and actually degrades and uncanonises them if he sees just cause. la the latter respect his power over the departed clearly exceeds that even r,< the Pope himself. For example, the Euaperor Hieng-fung elevated the god of war to tin equal rank with Confucius, who previously had been chief among the State gods. Sir Alfred Lyall has drawn attention to some amusirg extracts from the Pekin Gazette, illustrating the way in which the Chineso treat their deities. Thus the Gazette of November 1878 has the following :—": — " The Governor- general of the Yollow river requests that a tablet, mjy bs .<ut up in honour of the river gA. Ho aUr.e3 that during the transmission of relief rice to Honon, wheneverdiffloultie? wer* encountered through shallows, wind, or >aio, the river god interposed in the most untawakubls manner, so th*t the tr«neport of g>r.in went on without hindrance. — Onh-r.-Li-i tl>e pn>p*r office prepare a tablet for the tein/ie of the river god." The whole subject of the power of the living over tha dead is one that deserves quite as mucb consideration as that of the dead over the living. Though intelligent Roman_ Catholics will no doubt attach a much "deeper significance to the recent beatification of Joan of Arc, no one can doubt for a moment that the poorer classes will imagine that the Pope has rendered her poaition better, more blessed in the spiritual world. Let those who feel inclined to smile ask themselves if they, too, are quite free from similar beliefs. From the time of the Witch of Endor to the day of the fashionable spirit-medium there have been large classes of apparently intelligent people who show in numerous ways the world-old faith that is in them. Amorjg the poor of England there is a widespread belief that burial is a matter of interest to iv« deceased. They have not such, clear theories on the subject of funeral rites at the Homeric Greeks, bat they are equally L unable to. cUstiwtulah the.lr pwranfc QtiVPfi-

tions from their posthumous sensations. "If you don't bury me in such-and-BUCh a place," I said a poor woman, with great emotion to her husband, "I'll haunt you 1" And how many a dying epouse has dreaded the re-marriage of the relic 1 Being interpreted, these vague dreads clearly sigaify a belief that the actions of the living can render the spirits of the dead more happy or more miserable than they would otherwise be. That other religious notions are interwoven with them it would be idle to deny. But what shall we say of spirits called from the vasty daep to talk at the bidding of a medium 1 or to sit for their photographs 1 or even to have plaster casts taken of them ?— for all these indignh ties have been offered by the living to the dead within the last ten years in England. Is not this, at least, as great a bid for power iv the unseen world as any of the decrees of Pope or Chinese Emperor 1 These acts are not, it is true, recorded in the official gazette; but there are a dozen newspapers in France, Russia, and America which do record them, \ It is curious, however, that while western nations vie with those of the east in superstitions of the most degrading type, they leb their thoughts dwell always on the influence of the dead on the living, and shut out from their minds the influence they constantly assume themselves 4 -o have over the dead. Strange as it may t^.pear, there is scaroely & nation or a people that does not postulate the same power. — Contemporary Review.

MUSIC IN COKE 4.

The Ooreans are exceedingly fond of sing' ing. Most of their songs are exceedingly monotonous, reminding one of the ohantk of the mediroval monks. A single note is held and dwelt on, and harmony is unknown. Oorcan music has but the air. Even a baas is unknown. The consequence is that foreign bands appear to the people to emit a jargon of sounds. But on the few occasions when a band of musicians from a war vessel haft visited the capital, crowds of people have gathered to listen, and quaint and queer are the oomments dropped at such times. The favourite musical iHstrument of the Ooreans ia a compound of the clarionet and the cornet, the mouth-piece and stem being of reed and bamboo, and the flare or end of braes. At dinners, " music "is furnished bj a band, but upon western ears the impression is dr-ci.icdly unpleasant. The instruments' ?r" C linese in origin, are very imperfect, and tin- musio Is In a minor key.

Dancing, too, is a favourite pastime, the dancing, kowever, being rather posturing according to the Japanese or nautoh-girl fashion. These gestures, being wavy motions of tho arms and bands and sinuous twlstings of the bedy, accompanied by slow though comely slides, are very graceful. — From " Corea of To-day," published by Nelson, and Sons.