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. On the third day
it returns to say farewell to the home, and then leaves for its
long journey, and all this paper furniture is sent on ahead.
They continue forty-nine days of prayers by the priests,
alternating three days by the Buddhists, three by the Lamas, and
three by the Taoists, after which the Buddhists take their turn
again. Everything else remains much as I have described it. The
family, servants, everybody in mourning, and all business put
aside to make way for this ceremony of mourning, mourning,
mourning, when they ought to be rejoicing, for the poor old
Princess had been a paralytic for years and was far better out of
her misery.
The Princess frequently sent her cart for me during these days.
Once when I was going through the court where there were vast
quantities of things to be burned for the spirit, all made of
paper, I noticed some that were so natural that I was unable to
distinguish between them and the real things. Especially was this
true of the furniture and flowers like that which had been in her
apartments. There were great ebony chairs with fantastically
marked marble seats, cabinets, and all the furniture necessary
for her use. Among these things I noticed on the table a pack of
cards and a set of dice, of which she had been very fond, and a
chair like the one in which the eunuchs had carried the crippled
old Princess about the court, and I said to the young Princess
who accompanied me:
"You do not think your grandmother will require these things in
the spirit world, do you?"
"Perhaps not," she replied, "but she enjoyed her cards and dice,
and the chair was such a necessity, that, whether she needs them
or not, it is a comfort to us to get and send her everything she
liked while she lived, and it helps us bear our sorrows
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