Note 39 — II.—BIRTH, MARRIAGE AND DEATH.

The idea of furnishing the dead with food, arms, clothing, money, etc., is essentially Chinese, but by no means confined to them. Mr. D. Forbes states that the Aymara Indians supply the dead with food and clothing.39 Horses are sacrificed at the funerals of the Red Indians, and dogs used to be at the funerals of the Aztecs, while camels formed the funeral sacrifices of the Bedouins. The Chinese, less extravagant, consume paper models of money, animals, and boats, with a similar object; and the reminder of the Stygian ferry in the use of paper junks is at least odd.40 The belief that the spirits of the dead pass over routes used by the living is in like manner a superstition common to both East and West. The ceremonials observed in this country to facilitate their passage, and the beatings of gongs to frighten away evil spirits are equally observed by the Kasi Indians, who, when the funeral cortege happens to pass a puddle, lay down a straw for the dead man’s soul to use as a bridge. An ancient Chinese practice is, by the way, curious. They used to bury the dead in the same position as the fœtus assumes in the womb. I have nowhere met with any modern mention of this custom. According to the Chinese ritual the relations of one deceased assume mourning (made of white hempen cloth) seven days after his death. Though in our own case there is probably no superstitious origin in the custom it may be noted by way of coincidence that we usually bury people after the expiration of that interval, which is the first time the mourners appear publicly clad in the habiliments of woe.