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150
EAST ASIA.
disgrace all previous generations. Such is the power of these patriarchal ideas
that a single blow aimed by the son against father and mother is regarded
as parricidal, and punished by death. In times of distress the young often
earn a few hundred pounds for their starving families by offering
to take the
place of wealthy criminals condemned by the magistrate. For the law seeks
only the expiation of crime, and as long as justice is satisfied, it matters
little what head falls. Pious sons thus dying with their parents' blessing are
Fig. 68. THKRACE WITH FuNEKAL UuNS NEAR AMOY.
filled with the ineffable joy of having fulfilled their filial duty
in all its
sublimity.
In the funeral ceremonies, especially of the father, custom requires the children
to give public expression to their grief.
The eldest son, chief heir and head of the
family, or, he failing, his first-born or adopted son, has to fix one of the three souls
of the dead in the commemorative tablet of his virtues, burn incense to his shade,
render his journey easy by supplying him with fictitious money in paper, as well