his coffin, and thereafter varnishes it once a year, keeping it deposited away.
32. Calling the departed back; plugging the teeth open; keeping the feet straight; filling the mouth; dressing the corpse; and curtaining the hall:—these things are set about together. The uncles and elder cousins give their charges to those who are to communicate the death (to friends).
33. The (soul of a deceased) ruler is called back in his smaller chambers, and the large chamber; in the smaller ancestral temples and in the great one; and at the gate leading to the court of the external audience, and in the suburbs all round.
34. Why do they leave the offerings of the mourning rites uncovered? May they do so with the flesh of sacrifice[1]?
35. When the coffining has taken place, in ten days after, provision should be made for the materials (for the shell), and for the vessels to the eye of fancy.
36. The morning offerings should be set forth (beside the body) at sunrise; the evening when the sun is about to set.
37. In mourning for a parent, there is no restriction to (set) times for wailing. If one be sent on a mission, he must announce his return (to the spirits of his departed).
38. After the twelfth month of mourning, the (inner) garment should be of white silk, with a yellow
- ↑ This short paragraph is difficult to construe. The Khien-lung editors seem to approve of another interpretation of it; but even that is not without its difficulties. The flesh of sacrifice, it is said, left uncovered, would become unfit for use or to be sold.
