"Yes; for many days feasts are prepared for the departed relative, hot water is carried to him to wash his face and hands, and I have also heard of another way that the Chinese have of 'conveying' spirits to the kingdoms of Buddhistic hell. Little sedan-chairs are made of bamboo splints and paper, with four little paper bearers, and sometimes there is a fifth little paper man, holding an umbrella. These are burnt like the paper mock-money; and sometimes, after the death of another friend, a little paper trunk, full of paper clothes, is supplied for one already dead, and burnt, when the senders believe that the person who died last is conveying this trunk to the other in safety for them."
"They think that people need a great many things in the other world, then," Sybil said. "And do children often worship at their parents' tombs?"
"Yes; at certain seasons of the year they make pilgrimages to the tops of high hills, or to other distant parts, where they prostrate themselves, this being supposed to continue the homage and reverence which they showed to them on earth; and they believe that in a great measure the happiness of the spirits depends upon the adoration and worship which they pay to them, whilst those who render it secure for themselves favour from the gods. Twice a day do children also pay adoration to their dead parents, before a shrine set up in the house to the memory of departed ancestors."
"But what is the use of preparing feasts for the dead?" Sybil asked. "They cannot think that the dead really eat the food?"
"They seem to do so, and not only lay a place for them, but even put chop-sticks for their use."
Another procession Sybil and Leonard saw one day, and this Sybil described in the last letter that she wrote to her friend, before she left China. Some men carried an image of the Dragon King, others carried gongs, drums, and green and black and yellow and white flags, whilst boys, walking in the procession, called out loudly from time to time.
The children could not possibly imagine what this procession could be all about.
Some characters were written on the flags.
One man who, as Leonard thought, had a very happy, smiling face, had a pole slung across his shoulders, from which hung two buckets of water. In his hand he held a green branch of a shrub which, from time to time, he dipped in the water, and then sprinkled the ground; while he also continually called out something. Other men were carrying sticks of lighted incense. Most of the people, in the procession, wore white clothes, and white caps without tassels.
