Should this custom be
discarded, the unhappy defuncts might do mischief to their negligent
relatives.... On every occasion of these nuptials both families give some
presents to the match-maker ("Kwei-mei"), whose sole business is annually
to inspect the newly-deceased couples around his village, and to arrange
their weddings to earn his livelihood.'"
Mr. Kumagusu Minakata adds:
"The passage is very interesting, for, besides giving us a faithful
account of the particulars, which nowadays we fail to find elsewhere, it
bears testimony to the Tartar, and not Chinese, origin of this practice.
The author, Kang Yu-chi, describes himself to have visited his old home in
Northern China shortly after its subjugation by the Kin Tartars in 1126
A.D.; so there is no doubt that among many institutional novelties then
introduced to China by the northern invaders, Marriage of the Dead was so
striking that the author did not hesitate to describe it for the first
time.
"According to a Persian writer, after whom Petis de la Croix writes, this
custom was adopted by Jenghiz Kan as a means to preserve amity amongst his
subjects, it forming the subject of Article XIX. of his Yasa promulgated
in 1205 A.D. The same writer adds:
