In connection with the above case, we noticed that late in the afternoon, one of the relatives was trying to drive away a raven, that persisted in croaking from a tree close by. The explanation was that the raven's croak forebodes unwelcome guests or trouble, while the merry chatter of the magpie is a harbinger of coming friends or happiness. We also observed cash, hanging by a red cord from a button on the patient's collar, according to a general custom; the idea being, that when death is evident, the cash is dropped into the patient's mouth, so that he or she may not pass into the next world absolutely pemniless;—an evidence of their vague belief in some future existence, a vain groping, alas in darkness, to make some Preparation for a future state. Another ¥ery general custom is to fill one hand of the dying with bran, to feed the ants, and so preserve the body. For a similar reason, a bun is sometimes put into the hand to feed the dogs. to have three stalks of dry grass standing on the forehead, with tops together, in the shape of a tent, or as riffes are stacked, called "Hide spirit grass," so that when taken to the temple of the god Yen Wangvich, the angry god will not be. able to find the-spirit to punish it, hidden underneath the grass.
By this last superstition they acknowledge sin deserves punishment, with no hope of future reward, besides 'a woeful lack of trust in a god whom they can so easily deceive.
Hsinchen, Honan, April.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.