Page:History of Corea, ancient and modern; with description of manners and customs, language and geography (1879).djvu/346

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318 COBBAN SOCIAL CXJSTOVS.

and as it died, and is not, like the Chinese, put on a matless floor. A small table is at once laid out with three bowls of rice, three bowls of pea-curd, three bowls of the spirit made of rice, three pairs straw shoes, three feet cotton cloth, three feet linen, three pieces of paper, and one jacket The dead man's name is then called out three times ; if a woman, she is called out as " Mrs Jin," " Mrs Li," as the case may be ; for the women have no name. The eatables are then thrown outside; and the paper, cotton, linen, jacket, and shoes are burnt outside the door for the use of the departed spirit The body is then washed with fragrant water, the hair combed, a,nd the nails cut ; each cut nail is put into a little bag, and the hairs taken out by the comb are put into another. These twenty-one bags are placed in the coffin with the body. After washing, the body is clad in clean every-day clothing, then swaddled in Corean fine silk, next bound in finest linen. The dutiful sons of the deceased long before prepared the "wonoong,'* or burial clothing; made of the costliest, finest, and most beautifully flowered satin that can be had. Robes, jacket, and trousers have been made and held in store. These are now put on over the linen. A rug made of the same satin is placed in the coffin, and the gorgeously arrayed body put over it The •coffin is placed at right angles to the position in which the man died, and a screen made so as to shut in the coffin from sight Inside the screen is placed a table, with a censer con- taming burning incense. At the ordinary hours of the day at which he used to take his foo(i,di8he8 are prepared and offered, and then wailing and weeping follow. During the time the cofi^ is in the house, the inmates of the family eat the poorest food, and little of that On the fourth day the hair is again done up, and mourning Shungbog put on. The mourning consists of the coarsest linen cap and robe, and the coarsest straw shoes, in shape much like the Chinese shoe. Eveiything on the person is white, — called so ; — but coarse Corean linen is of a dirty yellowish white. On the same day, the friends of the dead man come to prostrate