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CHIXA. 149
They also sacrifice to Buddha, and petition the attendance
of guardian spirits during their absence from China.
THEIR HOME n)EALS.
These are, good health ; happy families, several living contentedly
under the same roof ;
gardens and fish-ponds, well
stocked ; tea fragrant, and grain abundant ; the young Confucius
of the family preparing for competitive examinations ;
ancestral tablets recording honored names ;
gilded halls for
the wise elders ;
violin-shaped instruments with but a single
string; plenty of holiday festivals, cheerful with music,
showy silks, savory dishes, flowers, and hanging creepers
city walls and store-fronts glittering with quotations from
favorite authors ; the conscious presence of spirits ; sacred
books, treating of old sages, reverentially read : all these,
with residences near Confucian, Buddhist, and Tauist temples,
and Chinamen are supremely happy.
CHINESE CEMETERIES.
'
When approaching Whampoa, we had a fair view of a
Chinese cemetery, the tombs in which were constructed
much in the shape of the Greek Omega. They are built
upon hillsides, and terraced up to the very summit. It is
believed that tutelary gods protect the graves, and guide the
spirits of the dead back at certain seasons to their earthly
homes and ancestral altars. The captain of our steamer,
pointing to this hill of bones and ashes, said, " I have seen
on festal
people."
days, crowding about those graves, fifty thousand
At the time of burial, they usually make an offering
to hungry and unhappy spirits, believed to haunt burialplaces.
They clothe their dead bodies in several suits of
garments for burial. Fashion demands this, which, if
neglected by the children, is construed as a want of fihal
piety. White is the proper emblem of sorrow and mourning,
— red of joy and gladness. Widows are required to wear
mourning three years ; wliile the widower is expected to