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. I felt a strange
sensation come over me and I knew the spirit had entered me. I
got into my cart, drove down to the home of my sister-in-law,
went in where the corpse lay, and told the spirit that it would
be a disgrace to have a woman at the Board of Punishments. 'This
is your place,' I said, in an angry voice; 'get out of me and
stay where you belong.' I felt the spirit leaving me, my fingers
became stiff and I felt faint. I had only been at the Board a
short time when they sent a servant to tell me that my wife was
quiet and sleeping. When I returned in the evening the fever was
gone and she was rational."
XVIII
The Funeral Ceremonies of a Dowager Princess
There are five degrees of mourning, as follows:--For parents,
grandparents and great-grandparents; for brothers and sisters;
for uncles and aunts; and for distant relatives. In the first
sackcloth without hem or border; in the second with hem or
border; in the third, fourth and fifth, pieces of sackcloth on
parts of the dress. When sackcloth is worn, after the third
interval of seven days is over the mourners can cast it off, and
wear plain colours, such as white, gray, black and blue. For a
parent the period is nominally three years, but really
twenty-seven months, during all which time no silk can be worn;
during this time officials have to resign their appointments, and
retire from public life. --Dyer Ball in "Things Chinese
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