CURIOUS CUSTOMS.

Otago Witness, Volume 06, Issue 2899, 6 October 1909, Page 79

CURIOUS CUSTOMS.

I SIH ROBERT HART OX THE CHINESE. / ' Sir Robert Hart, in the course of a lecture- in Tendon recently, gave the following inteieeting acco\in£ ot some of the customs of the CMives» : — Among the people births, marriages, and deaths, of course, make up individual acd family history, and volumes might be written about their ways of doing things, each diebrict being sure to have some local peculiarity of its own, but in harmony with the general practice. When the child is born he 'receives a nursing name ; when he goes to school the tc-acher gives him a school name; when he is given the cap of manhood, his official name is given him, and it is always so composed as to show tiho- generation he bekaigs to— an mportant point recorded in ancestral temples and on family trees : and "then the young man selects a name of his own for his friends to call hi:n by, and which they always use in letters they write him. The young girl roceiv-es various names also at" different stages, and when she marries she is spokon. of with the double <j name of her own "and he? husband's family. Most girls ara betrothed, or, it not so, ent-er Ufa as tho concubine ot ?c ueone who is edding to his establishment. It a wife hm not Doras ? son by tba l;rr.3 hsr husbrjid is 40, it is her duly to urge him to procure, or even provide him with, a con cat bme ; and even when there aye already, sons of the first \viie. a il" pn may b:ing in a concubine or £con j .?/y -,> .ie, c: 1 more thgii "no, whtf . ?\o inn' •\".-' l .\ r^fr-:-i-cd to. 'but the "fchil- I dim of the >.os. 2, 5, c. 4 rni&i'-F'?e.i are i all c-cr..-ider:d the chiK.r;.i of No. 1 or | real wife; and tMh I'raci.oa has wrought out two re--;iHs in China of a socially v -fill kind — there aie v.rv few umvarrk-d v , n->. ->v the o a:o :-: ; Ll fewti" illegiti-m-its ch'lu;en. A «vi child is jr^t as welcome in a fanily ?s a biy. There i- =i:th a thing as infa-'-Lvlc'e, h.it it i.« not gor.-erul, and it '-.omelim.es *if acts a boy child just a3 re^Jily a girl, the cause being probably poverty. -. Chinee ira-rlage-, geive rally speaking, do not requiie or allow acquaintance, and much k-s intimacy, b-fcieluuxl. The parents arrange as to tha suitability n| th.3 famiiy connection, ant* the fjoothsay€.s and matchmakers pee that the young people concerned are not bom under opposing or conn i ctint: -ftars. When the auspicious day comes *.he bridegroom's j family rev.ds -a 'Ted chair" to bring home • tne bride ; a male member of heir family | acconipani.es tho cih/iir' to the door, hands over the key there to the bridesmaid, and gees home^ tlie bridesmaid, instead oi being a maiden, is the mainried mother ot the largest family in the neighbourhood, and she then opens the door and conducts the bride across the threshold into the house, -where the groom meets her, and in the hall they go through the marriage o&Bemony. which consists chiefly in making their bows together before has ancestors' tablets, and in paying their respects as bride and groom to the friends present. She then takes hold of his dress «ad follows -him to a room, in which the bridesmaid eeats them on a couch, giving them a thread to hold; *be bxtdeamaad then, with a red stack, li*te Jhe' bride's opaque veil, and for -the first tan*© the newlymarried pair see each ofber ; she hands them a cup of tea, which' they each tip^ and- a cup of wtne/^wbicli 1 they tre*tr similarly, and they «r» then oonsdeeetf^ married. TJus gsoom-^Jearog the, hride, then, and rejoins ihe mele guests to X«*«t with them, And. atterviu^ condipcjte Aem to the biudflj 'loom, to .see *nA ctftwe iihe hridt. The CTitke ti£a*ttar:pa& feefte

pieces. I am told, and say all" they can to force her to sh&WaT'eeiKciottsness ot their presence, but the rule 's that she is eqd to show.aray sigß^of • ksowjmg aw pix-ssai, ptfd; itt -fact/ is" t^* b&ep %i!enc« for t«res daj[£:.| -QreacS 01 this s pi-o-nooncad ,<proi>f oi bad' tre3o!oTi3. . The&t marriages have probably the average amouni of happins'ss ; some are' successes aad others failures. - -•' As regaeds dsathsj they come at all ages from. a!i causes, ord- I am tcid the genera.' desire is to reirove the dying from i room to a courtyard, Chinese room) generally becng biult roumd uncoveret courts one behind another, and jaofc ii i-iorey over storey, so that a Toom ma] not retain tha memory of a death in it. Bui the, important thing -is to choose an appropriate &3lj for the burial, and also an appropriate sii& for the grave, appropriate hiere meaning sonjetbing that shall be lucky, as bzing 'n 'hacsnony with the deceased's horoscope, and so bring srood ' fortiKi.? to his family. The vitality of the body "is soiEfiticMs wonderfully shown. I wes once at thi3 execution of nine men, eight for gan^ robbery, and the ninth for ■same unknown cause after long imprisonment., Ths cv~iit submitted o»d the head of fell off at a single blow, but t!he dL would net eubmit, but, calling 00* "jijustice! injostiee !'' wriggled sd that the headsajitQ had to strike thrice fcefore the, decapltalion wa§ complete, and ;even tteen' the eyes continued Tolling wildly in tho head and the jaw moving as if talking, wiule tho body itself wmained on its kn«es without falfing, and the arms tried to free .themselves from ihe ropea that hound therij, till one of ihe assfstahts tumbled' it over, and the gruesome sight ended.^ ■ Children who were .standing 'By f t3ieo-, rasfrsd forwaasd and • dipped -bread m "fee blood o£ the. 'beheaded, the idea henjgj that , to eat it' Tttmid *ive the courage' tiha* knows no fear of death. ■Annually Jaaniliea visit -tteir biKiial-piaces>, and, a>reading feasts, before t-he tombs for tins delectataonrbf-the -departed, eat th« good ttfeln^s -themselves, «dd overhaul th« «ite, cleansing sqd> beautifying it. Thii regajyJ foe .Sib dspa.vtc4— "A\acesfcral worship," 'as it is calk/d — acts as a checi on the waywardness of d-ssceniantg, and a man ,ven4d sttfier much himself rathei than ba false to his cult and degrade his ancestors. Thla, again, has its bad side/ tending to keep in the old and keep out the new, and in surgery isC particular it % a standing difficulty, dissection bsdng objected to as dishonouring what ancestry had handed down in form and feature, and a proper knowledge ol anaitomy being therefore inrpcssible to a-cquire — a difficulty, however, which is being got round by sending students tc foreign countries to study.