Tortoises Released to Show Regret.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 17 July 1914, Page 8

Tortoises Released to Show Regret.

j A strange custom was carried out jin connection with the funeral of i Emperor Meiji which was not genI orally known at the time. Foliowi ing the custom of carrying birds in large cages at Buddhist funerals, Ito be liberated over the graves, the : ; Tokifu and the Tokio branches of : the Red Cross Society joined to- ! gether in a ceremony of freeing I three large tortoises as a mark of regret at the death of Emperor Meiji. The shell of the largest specimen ■ was 3ft. Sin. long, and upon the shell were engraved the characters: ■ "We humbly beg to show our deepest regret at the death of our Meiji Tenno. Let free in the sea off i Ogasawara Island on the occasion |of the State funeral, September | 13th, 1912. Hiroshi Abe, Governor !of Tokio." On the back of another tortoise was signed the name of the Presi--1 dent of the Tokio branch of the : Red Cross Society. At first it was : planned to inlay the characters on | the back 'of 'the tortoises in .gold, | but fearing that they might be captured again for the sake of the gold, the characters were in black lac- ; quer. On the evening of September 13th, just as the gun gave the ; signal for the starting of the Im- ■ perial funeral from the Palace, some ■officials who had been wailing in a boat off Ogasawara Island gave ■ the tortoises their freedom. All three 'of the creatures appeared to be delighted to be once more at large in : the ocean, and put their heads out of the water as much as to say ari- '■ goto, and then disappeared from sight.