EXTENT AND REASONS FOR INFANTICIDE. 261 three tenths, in some places, occasionally rising to one third, and .in others sinking to one fifth, making an average of one fourth put to death. In other departments of the province, the practice is confessed, but the proportion thought by intelligent natives to be less, since there was less poverty and fewer people. The examination was conducted in as fair a manner as possible, and persons of all classes questioned as to the number of children they had killed themselves, or known were killed by their relatives or neighbors. One of eight brothers told him that only three girls were left among all their children, sixteen having been killed. On one occasion, he visited a small village on Amoy I., called Bo-au, where the whole population turned out to see him and Doct. Cumming, the latter of whom had recently cut out a large tumor from a fellow villager. He says: "From the number of women in the crowd which turned out to greet us, we were pretty well persuaded that they were under as little restraint as the men from indulging their curiosity; and, upon inquiry, found it to be so. We were conducted to a small temple, when I had the opportunity of conversing with many who came around us. On a second visit, while addressing them, one man held up a child, and publicly acknowledged that he had killed five of the helpless beings, having preserved but two. I thought he was jesting, but as no surprise or dissent was expressed by his neighbors, and as there was an air of simplicity and regret in the individual, there was no reason to doubt its truth. After repeating his confession, he added with affecting simplicity, 'It was before I heard you speak on this subject, I did not know it was wrong; I would not do so now.' Wishing to obtain the testimony of the assembled villagers, I put the question publicly, ' What number of female infants in this village are destroyed at birth?' The reply was, 'More than one half.' As there was no discussion among them, which is not the case when they differ in opinion, and as we were fully convinced from our own observation of the numerical inequality of the sexes, the proportion of deaths they gave did not strike us as extravagant.” The reasons assigned for committing the unnatural deed are various. Poverty is the leading cause; the alternative being, as the parents think, a life of infamy or slavery, since if they cannot rear their offspring themselves, they must sell them. The fact of the great numbers of men who emigrate to the Archipelago has no doubt also had its effect in inducing parents to destroy daughters, for whom they had little expectation of finding hus bands if they did rear them. Many who are able to support their daughters, prefer to destroy them rather than incur the expenses of their marriage, which are sometimes great, but the investiga tion showed that the crime was rather less among the educated than the ignorant, and that they had done something to dissuade their poor neighbors from putting their girls to death. In the adjoining departments of Chauchau and Kiaying in Kwangtung, the people admit that the practice is frequent, and as their circumstances are similar, it is probable that it is not much less than around Amoy. While one of the worst features of the crime is the little degree of detestation everywhere expressed at it, yet the actual proportion is an important inquiry, and taking the whole nation, has been much exaggerated, chiefly from applying such facts and estimates as the preceding to the whole country. The lieut.-governor of Canton once issued a dissuasive exhortation on this subject to the people, telling them that if they destroyed all their daughters they would soon have no mothers. Until investigations have been made elsewhere, it is not fair to charge all the Chinese with the atrocities of a small portion, nor to disbelieve the affirmations of the inhabitants of Canton, Ningpo, and Shanghai, and elsewhere, that they do not usually put their daughters to death, until we have overwhelming testimony that they deny and conceal what they are ashamed to confess.* The ceremonies practised on the decease of a person vary in different parts of the country, though they are not necessarily elaborate or expensive anywhere, and all the important ones can be performed by the poorest. The inhabitants of Fuhkien put a piece of silver in the mouth of the dying person, and carefully cover his nose and ears. Scarcely is he dead, when they make a hole in the roof to facilitate the exit of the spirits proceeding from his body, of which they imagine each person possesses seven animal senses which die with him, and three souls, one of which enters elysium and receives judgment, another abides with the tablet, and a third dwells in the tomb. The popular ideas regarding their fate vary so much that it is difficult to describe the national faith in this respect; transmigration is more or less believed in, but the detail of the changes the good or evil spirit undergoes before it is absorbed in Budha varies ad libitum, * Chinese Repository, Vol. XII., pp. 540-548; Vol. XI., p. 508; Vol. VII., p. 54. Smith's China, p. 443. FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 263 almost according to the fancy of the worshipper. Those who are sent to hell pass through every form of suffering inflicted upon them by hideous monsters, and are at last released to wander about as houseless demons to torment mankind, or vex themselves in the body of animals and reptiles. When the priests come, the corpse is laid out upon the floor in the principal room, and a tablet set up by its side; a table is near, on which are placed meats, lamps, and incense. While the priests are reciting prayers to deliver the soul from purgatory and hell, they occasionally call on all present to weep and lament, and on these occasions, the females of the household are particularly clamorous in their grief, alternately uttering the most doleful accents, and then tittering with some of the new comers. Papers having figures on them, and Peter's pence in the form of paper money, are burned, white lanterns, instead of the common red ones, and a slip of paper containing the name and titles, age, &c., of the dead are hung up at the door; a mat porch is put up for the musicians and the priests. The soul, having crossed the bridge leading out of hell with the aid of the priests, gets a letter of recommendation from them to be admitted into the western heavens. Previous to burial, a lucky place for interment, if the family have moved away from its paternal sepulchre, must be found. The body is coffined soon after death, arrayed in the most splendid habiliments the family can afford; a fan is put in one hand, and a prayer on a piece of paper in the other. The form of a Chinese coffin resembles the trunk of a tree; the boards are three or four inches thick, and rounded on top, from whence a coffin is called "longevity boards," making a very substantial case. When the corpse is put in, it is laid in a bed of lime or cotton, or covered with quicklime, and the edges of the lid are closed with mortar in the groove, so that no smell escapes; and the coffin varnished, if it is to remain in the house before burial. The Chinese often expend large sums in the purchase and preparation of a coffin during their lifetime; the cheapest are from $5 to $10, and upwards to five hundred dollars, and even one or two thousand, according to the materials and ornamenting. The bodies of deceased persons are sometimes kept in or about the house for many years, and incense burned before them morning and evening; they are placed either on trestles near the doorway, and protected by a covering, in the principal hall, or in the ancestral chamber, where they remain until the fortunes of the family improve so as to enable them to bury the remains, or a lucky place is found, or until opportunity and means allow the survivors to lay them in their patrimonial sepulchre. The lineal relatives of the deceased are informed at the time of his death, and as many as can do so repair to the house to condole with and assist the family. The eldest son or the nearest descendant repairs to an adjoining river or well, with a bowl in his hand, and accompanied by two relatives, to "buy water" with money which he carries and throws into it; with this water he washes the corpse before it is dressed. After the body is laid in the coffin, and before interment, the sons of the deceased among the poor are frequently sent around to the relatives and friends of the family to solicit subscriptions to buy a grave, hire mourners, or provide a suitable sacrifice, and it is considered a good act to assist in such cases; perhaps fear of the ill-will of the displeased spirit prompts to the charity. The coffin is sometimes seized or attached by creditors, to compel the relatives to collect a sum to release it, and instances of filial sons are mentioned who have sold themselves into temporary or perpetual slavery in order to raise money to bury their parents. On the day of burial, a sacrifice of cooked provisions is laid out and the coffin placed near it. The chief mourners, clothed in coarse white sackcloth, then approach and kneel before it, knocking their heads upon the ground, and going through with the full ceremony; two persons dressed in mourning, hand them incense sticks which are placed in jars. After the male mourners have made their parting prostrations, the females perform the same ceremonies; and then such friends and relations as are present; during these observances a band of music plays. The funeral procession is formed of all these persons, the band, the tablets, priests, &c. Burial-places are selected by geomancers, who, if the family be rich, protract their decision to a tedious length. The doctrines of the fung shwui, or "wind and water rules," are as ridiculous a farrago of nonsense, superstition, and craft, as have ever held sway over the human mind in any country or age; and it is not more surprising than melancholy to see a people like the Chinese so completely be fooled by them. The professors of the art are usually acquainted with the doctrines of the Budhists and Ration. FORM AND SITUATION OF GRAVES. 265 alists, have a smattering of medicine and astronomy, and join thereto almost any hocuspocus they please. The propitious influences of a grave are easily vitiated, and calamities are referred to this cause by the geomancers, who then have the prospect of another job. Mr. Brown mentions the case of one necromancer, who, after having selected a grave for a family, was attacked with ophthalmia, and in revenge for their giving him poisonous. food which he supposed had caused the malady, hired men to remove a large mass of rock near the grave, whereby its efficacy was completely spoiled. The side of a hill in view of water, a copse, or a ravine near a hill-top, are all lucky spots. Care is taken to choose a spot which the water cannot reach, and at the south, uncultivated hills are selected for burial-places, because they are dry, and the white ants will not attack the coffin; but at the north, where ants are unknown, the dead are buried in fields and cultivated land. They are nowhere collected in graveyards in cities or temples, as is the practice in western countries, where sometimes the living are jeoparded to honor the dead. The forms of the grave vary, sometimes consisting of a simple tumulus with a tombstone at the head, but in the southern provinces oftener in the shape of the Greek letter 2, or that of a huge arm chair. The back of the supposed chair is the place for the tombstone, while the body is interred in the seat, the sides of which are built around with masonry, and approach each other in front. The whole is occasionally built of stone in a substantial manner, and carved pillars are placed at the corners. The position is thought to be the better if it command a good view, as the spirit of the defunct will be better satisfied. Some of the graves occupy many hundred square feet, the lot being defined by a low stone, bearing two characters, importing whose chih or house it is; and large sums are expended by the rich upon the sculpture and building of the tomb. The carving in some cases is very elaborate, and in others the sculptures are arranged for effect. Mr. Fortune mentions one tomb near Sungkiang fu, which was situated on a hill-side, to be reached by a stone stairway, on each side of which were statues of goats, dogs, cats, horses ready saddled and bridled, and lastly two gigantic priests, a pair of each; the tomb itself was hidden from view by trees. The shapes of graves vary more at the north, some of them being conical mounds planted with shrubs or flowers, others VOL. II. 13 |