FUNERAL EXTRAVAGANCES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 65, 25 June 1910, Page 10

FUNERAL EXTRAVAGANCES

QUAINT BI'RIAL CEREMONIES. Much has (been written of late con-| cerning the money spent by the poorer classes on funerals. The idea seems to be prevalent amongst them that unless the obsequies are carried out in the most elaborate manner possible proper respect has not been paid to the memory oi the departed one. The consequence is that every penny which can he secured is often spent on the funeral, no matter whether it is the breadwinner who lias gone or not. But it is the same all the world over, particularly in the East.. In China, for instance, even if by chance a man should desire an unostentatious burial, the thought of such a thing would be abhorrent to the relatives, who would con-, sider it a distinct slight both to themselves and to the family gods.' • Talking of Chinese burials reminds one of a funeral at Cardiff three years ago, when a Chinese seaman named Ah Pow was buried. The scene at the cemetery was much like an Oriental festival. A number of Ah Pow's fellow-countrymen were present at the graveside, and at a given signal the contents of a large hamper, consisting of basins of rice, a bottle of whisky, a plate of sweets, a chicken, a piece of bacon, and bundles of crinkled paper and caudles, were produced. The whisky was poured on the coffin, and while the papers and candles were burnt, all the eatables were thrown into the grave in order to provide Ah 1 Pow with sustenance on his journey to the next world. i

The Japanese code of mourning is very elaborate and complicated. As followed by the well-to-do classes, it involves the wearing of special garments and abstinence from animal food. j At the death of a husband or real or adopted parents the custom demands thirteen months of mourning apparel and fifty days' abstinence from meat. Grandparents are honored 'by 150 days if they are on the paternal side; if only common, insignificant, maternal grandparents, they have to put up with ninety. The same rule applies to materna uncles and aunts; it is a neat way of introducing the Oriental contempt for women.

Three distinct methods of disposing of the dead are in vogue in India. WMc the Mohammedans inter the dead, the Hindus prefer to throw the bodies into the purifying waters of the Ganges, and even now there are constant infractions of the severe regulations framed to suppress this dangerous practice. The form of funeral adopted by the Parsees >s that of simply exposing their dead at a great altitude' to the scavenging services of crows and vultures.