- This is a Chinese custom, though no doubt we may trust Marco for
its being a Tartar one also. "In the province of Shansi they have a
ridiculous custom, which is to marry dead folks to each other. F. Michael
Trigault, a Jesuit, who lived several years in that province, told it us
whilst we were in confinement. It falls out that one man's son and another
man's daughter die. Whilst the coffins are in the house (and they used to
keep them two or three years, or longer) the parents agree to marry them;
they send the usual presents, as if the pair were alive, with much
ceremony and music. After this they put the two coffins together, hold the
wedding dinner in their presence, and, lastly, lay them together in one
tomb. The parents, from this time forth, are looked on not merely as
friends but as relatives - just as they would have been had their children
been married when in life." (Navarrete, quoted by Marsden.) Kidd
likewise, speaking of the Chinese custom of worshipping at the tombs of
progenitors, says: "So strongly does veneration for this tribute after
death prevail that parents, in order to secure the memorial of the
sepulchre for a daughter who has died during her betrothal, give her in
marriage after her decease to her intended husband, who receives with
nuptial ceremonies at his own house a paper effigy made by her parents,
and after he has burnt it, erects a tablet to her memory - an honour which
usage forbids to be rendered to the memory of unmarried persons. The law
seeks without effect to abolish this absurd custom." (China, etc., pp.
179-180.)
[Professor J. J. M. de Groot (Religious System of China) gives several
instances of marriages after death; the following example (II. 804-805)
will illustrate the custom: "An interesting account of the manner in which
such post-mortem marriages were concluded at the period when the Sung
Dynasty governed the Empire, is given by a contemporary work in the
following words: 'In the northern parts of the Realm it is customary, when
an unmarried youth and an unmarried girl breathe their last, that the two
families each charge a match-maker to demand the other party in marriage.
Such go-betweens are called match-makers for disembodied souls. They
acquaint the two families with each other's circumstances, and then cast
lots for the marriage by order of the parents on both sides. If they augur
that the union will be a happy one, (wedding) garments for the next world
are cut out, and the match-makers repair to the grave of the lad, there to
set out wine and fruit for the consummation of the marriage. Two seats are
placed side by side, and a small streamer is set up near each seat. If
these streamers move a little after the libation has been performed, the
souls are believed to approach each other; but if one of them does not
move, the party represented thereby is considered to disapprove of the
marriage. Each family has to reward its match-maker with a present of
woven stuffs. Such go-betweens make a regular livelihood out of these
proceedings.'" - H. C.]
The Ingushes of the Caucasus, according to Klaproth, have the same custom:
"If a man's son dies, another who has lost his daughter goes to the father
and says, 'Thy son will want a wife in the other world; I will give him my
daughter; pay me the price of the bride.' Such a demand is never refused,
even though the purchase of the bride amount to thirty cows." (Travels,
Eng. Trans. 345.)
NOTE 4. - There is a little doubt about the reading of this last paragraph.
The G. T. has - "Mes desormes volun retorner a nostre conte en la grant
plaingne ou nos estion quant nos comechames des fais des Tartars,"
whilst Pauthier's text has "Mais desormais vueil retourner a mon conte
que Je lessai d'or plain quant nous commencames des faiz des Tatars."
The former reading looks very like a misunderstanding of one similar to
the latter, where d'or plain seems to be an adverbial expression, with
some such meaning as "just now," "a while ago." I have not, however, been
able to trace the expression elsewhere. Cotgrave has or primes, "but
even now," etc.; and has also de plain, "presently, immediately, out of
hand." It seems quite possible that d'or plain should have had the
meaning suggested.
CHAPTER LVI.
SUNDRY PARTICULARS OF THE PLAIN BEYOND CARACORON.
And when you leave Caracoron and the Altay, in which they bury the bodies
of the Tartar Sovereigns, as I told you, you go north for forty days till
you reach a country called the PLAIN OF BARGU.[NOTE 1] The people there
are called MESCRIPT; they are a very wild race, and live by their cattle,
the most of which are stags, and these stags, I assure you, they used to
ride upon. Their customs are like those of the Tartars, and they are
subject to the Great Kaan. They have neither corn nor wine.[They get birds
for food, for the country is full of lakes and pools and marshes, which
are much frequented by the birds when they are moulting, and when they
have quite cast their feathers and can't fly, those people catch them.
They also live partly on fish.[NOTE 2]]
And when you have travelled forty days over this great plain you come to
the ocean, at the place where the mountains are in which the Peregrine
falcons have their nests. And in those mountains it is so cold that you
find neither man or woman, nor beast nor bird, except one kind of bird
called Barguerlac, on which the falcons feed. They are as big as
partridges, and have feet like those of parrots and a tail like a
swallow's, and are very strong in flight. And when the Grand Kaan wants
Peregrines from the nest, he sends thither to procure them.[NOTE 3] It is
also on islands in that sea that the Gerfalcons are bred.
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