But They Never Burn Their Dead Until They Have [Sent For The Astrologers,
And Told Them The Year, The Day,
And the hour of the deceased person's
birth, and when the astrologers have ascertained under what constellation,
planet, and sign
He was born, they declare the day on which, by the rules
of their art, he ought to be burnt]. And till that day arrive they keep
the body, so that 'tis sometimes a matter of six months, more or less,
before it comes to be burnt.[NOTE 5]
Now the way they keep the body in the house is this: They make a coffin
first of a good span in thickness, very carefully joined and daintily
painted. This they fill up with camphor and spices, to keep off corruption
[stopping the joints with pitch and lime], and then they cover it with a
fine cloth. Every day as long as the body is kept, they set a table before
the dead covered with food; and they will have it that the soul comes and
eats and drinks: wherefore they leave the food there as long as would be
necessary in order that one should partake. Thus they do daily. And worse
still! Sometimes those soothsayers shall tell them that 'tis not good luck
to carry out the corpse by the door, so they have to break a hole in the
wall, and to draw it out that way when it is taken to the burning.[NOTE 6]
And these, I assure you, are the practices of all the Idolaters of those
countries.
However, we will quit this subject, and I will tell you of another city
which lies towards the north-west at the extremity of the desert.
NOTE 1. - [The Natives of this country were called by the Chinese
T'ang-hiang, and by the Mongols T'angu or T'ang-wu, and with the
plural suffix Tangut. The kingdom of Tangut, or in Chinese, Si Hia
(Western Hia), or Ho si (West of the Yellow River), was declared
independent in 982 by Li Chi Ch'ien, who had the dynastic title or Miao
Hao of Tai Tsu. "The rulers of Tangut," says Dr. Bushell, "were scions of
the Toba race, who reigned over North China as the Wei Dynasty (A.D. 386-
557), as well as in some of the minor dynasties which succeeded. Claiming
descent from the ancient Chinese Hsia Dynasty of the second millennium
B.C., they adopted the title of Ta Hsia ('Great Hsia'), and the dynasty
is generally called by the Chinese Hsi Hsia, or Western Hsia." This is a
list of the Tangut sovereigns, with the date of their accession to the
throne: Tai Tsu (982), Tai Tsung (1002), Ching Tsung (1032), Yi Tsung
(1049), Hui Tsung (1068), Ch'ung Tsung (1087), Jen Tsung (1140), Huan Tsung
(1194), Hsiang Tsung (1206), Shen Tsung (1213), Hien Tsung (1223), Mo Chu
(1227). In fact, the real founder of the Dynasty was Li Yuan-hao, who
conquered in 1031, the cities of Kanchau and Suhchau from the Uighur Turks,
declaring himself independent in 1032, and who adopted in 1036 a special
script of which we spoke when mentioning the archway at Kiuyung Kwan.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 400 of 655
Words from 208792 to 209324
of 342071
