Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 27.djvu/346

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
312
THE Lî Kî.
BK. V.

officers, (with the women) In the apartments, all will wail, but without the leaping. When this burst of sorrow is over, they will return to their (proper) places, and proceed forthwith to set forth the mourning offerings to the dead. The minor minister will ascend, and take away the bundle of silks[1].

2. On the third day, all the relatives, high nobles, Great and other officers, should take their places as before, with their faces to the north. The Grand minister, the Grand master of the ancestral temple, and the Grand officer of prayer, should all be in their court-robes and caps. The master for the child[2] will carry the child in his arms on a mat of sackcloth. The officer of prayer will precede, followed by the child, and the minister and master of the temple will come after. Thus they will enter the door (of the apartment where the coffin is), when the wailers will cease. The child has been brought up by the western steps[3], and is held in front of the coffin with his face to the north, while the officer of prayer stands at the south-east corner of it. Mournfully clearing his voice three times, he will say, "So and So, the son of such and such a lady, and we, his servants, who follow him, presume to appear before you." The boy is (then made) to do obeisance, with his forehead on the ground, and to wail. The officer of prayer, the minister, the officer of the temple, all the relatives,

the high nobles, with the Great and other officers,


  1. And bury it in the court between the two flights of stairs.
  2. Thus early is it made to appear that the child is put under a master; P. Zottoli translates the name by "secundus magister."
  3. The child had been brought by the master from the women's apartments, and carried to the court, that he might thus go up again to the hall by these steps.