NOTE 5. - Even among the Tibetans and Mongols burning is only one of the
modes of disposing of the dead. "They sometimes bury their dead: often
they leave them exposed in their coffins, or cover them with stones,
paying regard to the sign under which the deceased was born, his age, the
day and hour of his death, which determine the mode in which he is to be
interred (or otherwise disposed of). For this purpose they consult some
books which are explained to them by the Lamas." (Timk. II. 312.) The
extraordinary and complex absurdities of the books in question are given
in detail by Pallas, and curiously illustrate the paragraph in the text.
(See Sammlungen, II. 254 seqq.) ["The first seven days, including that
on which the demise has taken place, are generally deemed to be lucky for
the burial, especially the odd ones. But when they have elapsed, it
becomes requisite to apply to a day-professor.... The popular almanac
which chiefly wields sway in Amoy and the surrounding country, regularly
stigmatises a certain number of days as ting-sng jit: 'days of
reduplication of death,' because encoffining or burying a dead person on
such a day will entail another loss in the family shortly afterwards."
(De Groot, I. 103, 99-100.) - H. C.]
NOTE 6. - The Chinese have also, according to Duhalde, a custom of making a
new opening in the wall of a house by which to carry out the dead; and in
their prisons a special hole in the wall is provided for this office. This
same custom exists among the Esquimaux, as well as, according to Sonnerat,
in Southern India, and it used to exist in certain parts both of Holland
and of Central Italy. In the "clean village of Broek," near Amsterdam,
those special doors may still be seen. And in certain towns of Umbria,
such as Perugia, Assisi, and Gubbio, this opening was common, elevated
some feet above the ground, and known as the "Door of the Dead."
I find in a list, printed by Liebrecht, of popular French superstitions,
amounting to 479 in number, condemned by Maupas du Tour, Bishop of Evreux
in 1664, the following: "When a woman lies in of a dead child, it must not
be taken out by the door of the chamber but by the window, for if it were
taken out by the door the woman would never lie in of any but dead
children." The Samoyedes have the superstition mentioned in the text, and
act exactly as Polo describes.
["The body [of the Queen of Bali, 17th century] was drawn out of a large
aperture made in the wall to the right hand side of the door, in the
absurd opinion of cheating the devil, whom these islanders believe to
lie in wait in the ordinary passage." (John Crawfurd, Hist. of the Indian
Archipelago, II. p. 245.) - H. C.]
And the Rev. Mr. Jaeschke writes to me from Lahaul, in British Tibet:
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