Primitive religions : being an introduction to the study of religions, with an account of the religious beliefs of uncivilised peoples, Confucianism, Taoism (China), and Shintoism (Japan) / by G.T. Bettany.

  • Bettany, G. T. (George Thomas), 1850-1891.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Primitive religions : being an introduction to the study of religions, with an account of the religious beliefs of uncivilised peoples, Confucianism, Taoism (China), and Shintoism (Japan) / by G.T. Bettany. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    grave, everything being designed either to show the sorrow of the living or to comfort or help the deceased. ' Many of these customs are observed for months. They vary, like others mentioned, from district to district. On the forty-second day after death, it is believed that the spirit arrives at a certain place in the other world, whence he looks back on his old home and becomes for the first time aware of his own decease. He is then sup- posed to lose his appetite and to be unable to partake of the food provided for him, afterwards he is provided with one large last meal, signifying that he must thenceforth procure and cook his own food, and at the same time a large amount of mock paper money is provided for him and burnt. [In addition to works already quoted, Mr. II. A. Giles’s “Gems.of Chinese Literature,” 1884, and “ Ohuang-tzu” (or Chwang-tze), 1889, may be con- sulted with advantage.] 1