Chinese Funeral Rites.

Cromwell Argus, Volume I, Issue 32, 22 June 1870, Page 6

Chinese Funeral Rites.

In China, the funeral rites are more varied in character perhaps than in any other part of the world, on account of the picturesque dresses and strange superstitious observances visible in the procession to the grave. The first herald of the funeral cortege of a tolerably wealthy celestial is generally a dense cloud of dust (this, however, is merely a peculiarity of the climate). From the midst of this a deafening aud most discordant crash of musical instruments (if they can be so called) proceeds. The performers, varying from eight to sixteen in number, are dressed in long figured-silk robes, with curious little hats something like the detached roof of a summer-house on a very small scale. All of them have either a straight wooden trumpet or a pair of cymbals, with which they produce the noise above-mentioned. These musicians are immediately followed by a bevy of coolies, bearing mattocks and shovels, for the grave is not dug beforehand according to our usages. These fellows also carry packages of crackers, which they light with joss-sticks, -and scatter broadcast around. The object of this is to drive evil spirits away by the aoise ; and certainly if the spirits aforesaid have any sense of hearing, one would think it ought to have the desired effect. Immediately succeeding the coolies, in two, tnd sometimes three, ranks, come the hired mourners—always women dressed in veritable sackloth, and wearing veils of white, the colour for Chinese mourning. These hired mourners all wring their hands, and give every external manifestation of extreme woe, uttering shrill cries from time to time. This howling, intermingled with the banging of crackers and the braying of trumpets, produces a babel of sounds' of which the description is more endurable than the reality. After the .mourners generally come three 6r four priests, whose robes bear a striking resemblance to those o" the Roman Catholic priests. En route to the grave their mission appears to be to cast down little slips of red paper inscribed with various sentences in Chinese : these are called "joss papers," and the idea of casting them about is, that should the devil, undeterred by the noise of the crackers, attempt to approach the deceased, he will be sure to be attracted by these papers, and will stop to make himself acquainted with their contents, thus giving the funeral party time to hurry on with the body, and deposit it in the ground beyond the reach of Satanic clutches. It is difficult to imagine a more simple superstition than this j yet the faith of the Chinese in the belief that these joss papers will check at least the approach of evil spirits is rooted beyond all shaking. Their whole idea appears to be that the route to the grave is lined throughout with fiends—in fact, as the tale of the temptations of St. Anthonv tells us, J " Devils are there of every s : ze. Dev ; 3 great aud devils sinaU,"

eager to seize upon the departed before its last earthly tenement is reached. JSTow, amid a perfect volley of crackers and a cloud of joss papers, comes the body, borne generally on bamboo poles by six or ei<*ht coolies. The coffin in which it is enclosed is made of some light polished wood, of a rery peculiar shape, more like the outer case of an Egyptian mummy than anything else, except that it is quite pMn, bearing no inscription whatever, Closely round are clustered the friends and relations headed by the widow and eldest child (if there be one), followed by more hired mourners: these all, with the exception of the widow and child, are throwing down joss papers and crackers, as though their lives depended on it; the widow following with clasped hands and head bent down dressed in a sort of sackloth cloak, with her white veil torn to ribbons to express her misery and disregard of personal ap pearanco. Whenever the procession stops *? 8J- ve rest to the coolies who are carrying the body, the widow, taking her child by the hand, keeps rushing round the coffin uttering shrill cries; while her friends verily cover the earth around with joss papers, and keep up a perfect cannonade of crackers, for it is at this period, when the coffin is stationary, that it is supposed the devil has the best chance of effecting his purpose, and, therefore, it behoves those round it to redouble their precautions. So the procession goes on, the same scene being repeated at every halting-place, till the grave is reached, and the body placed beyond the reach of further harm.— Belgravm.