the water, and when the washing is concluded, they will hand the towel. They will ask whether they want anything, and then respectfully bring it. All this they will do with an appearance of pleasure to make their parents feel at ease. (They should bring) gruel, thick or thin, spirits or must, soup with vegetables, beans, wheat, spinach, rice, millet, maize, and glutinous millet,—whatever they wish, in fact; with dates, chestnuts, sugar and honey, to sweeten their dishes; with the ordinary or the large4eaved violets, leaves of elm-trees, fresh or dry, and the most soothing rice-water to lubricate them; and with fat and oil to enrich them. The parents will be sure to taste them, and when they have done so, the young people should withdraw[1].
5. Youths who have not yet been capped, and maidens who have not yet assumed the hair-pin, at the first crowing of the cock, should wash their hands, rinse their mouths, comb their hair, draw over it the covering of silk, brush the dust from that which is left free, bind it up in the shape of a horn, and put on their necklaces. They should all hang at their girdles[2] the ornamental (bags of) perfume; and as soon as it is daybreak, they should (go to) pay their
respects (to their parents) and ask what they will eat
- ↑ The structure of this and the preceding sentences is easy enough, but it is not easy for a translator to assure himself that he is rendering every Chinese character by its correct equivalent in his own language.
- ↑ They hang on these instead of the useful appendages mentioned in paragraphs 2 and 3, as being too young to employ these. This determines the meaning of 長者 in the last clause as I have given it Zottoli's rendering is:—"Si nondum comederint, tunc adjuturi majores inspectabunt praeparata."
G g 2
