- Several of the customs of Tangut mentioned in this chapter are
essentially Chinese, and are perhaps introduced here because it was on
entering Tangut that the traveller first came in contact with Chinese
peculiarities. This is true of the manner of forming coffins, and keeping
them with the body in the house, serving food before the coffin whilst it
is so kept, the burning of paper and papier-mache figures of slaves,
horses, etc., at the tomb. Chinese settlers were very numerous at Shachau
and the neighbouring Kwachau, even in the 10th century. (Ritter, II.
213.) ["Keeping a body unburied for a considerable time is called khng
koan, 'to conceal or store away a coffin,' or thing koan, 'to detain a
coffin.' It is, of course, a matter of necessity in such cases to have the
cracks and fissures, and especially the seam where the case and the lid
join, hermetically caulked. This is done by means of a mixture of chunam
and oil. The seams, sometimes even the whole coffin, are pasted over with
linen, and finally everything is varnished black, or, in case of a
mandarin of rank, red. In process of time, the varnishing is repeated as
many times as the family think desirable or necessary. And in order to
protect the coffin still better against dust and moisture, it is generally
covered with sheets of oiled paper, over which comes a white pall." (De
Groot, I. 106.) - H. C.] Even as regards the South of China many of the
circumstances mentioned here are strictly applicable, as may be seen in
Doolittle's Social Life of the Chinese.
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