Burmese Sketches - Khamkoo

BURMESE SKETCHES. 201
and succour thy father and mother '* is extended to *' not only
when they are living, but also when they are dead." Hence
we find that it is the bounden duty of every Chinese to make
yearly offerings to his dear departed. In China the relations
of a son to his parents are minutely defined in the national
Codes, and the punishment for the omission of any of the
filial duties is entrusted to the Government ; and we know on
good authority that the severest penalty is inflicted upon those
who disobey their parents.
Many interesting stories are told as to how those who
honour and succour their parents are rewarded by some unseen
hand. The following story will, perhaps, not be out of place
here : — During the reign of the Hsia dynasty a severe famine
was followed by a virulent pestilence. During these hard
times, there lived an honest and hard-working man who had to
support his mother, his wife, and an infant. Food was so
scarce that the old woman had to be supported with the
nourishment intended for the babe. One day, the husband
foreseeing that the natural supply would soon get exhausted,
owing to the extremely small quantity of food taken by his
wife, and also wishing to sustain his mother as long as his
wife's nourishment lasted, asked her whether it would not be
advisable to get rid of their infant and thus save his mother.
The most salient point in his reasoning with his wife was, that
they could get another child, but not another parent. The
poor couple at last came to the conclusion that they should go
to a neighbouring forest and bury their child. They accord-
ingly repaired to the appointed spot and began to dig a hole,
when lo 1 a large lump of solid gold presented itself to their
view. Confucius and his successors having taught that the
chief end of man is to serve his parents while alive, and to
offer sacrifices to their manes when they are dead, no better
way could have been devised to propitiate the Chinese Rhadamanthus
and rescue the departed ones from Purgatory and the
evil influences of unseen evil spirits than by Hberal offerings in
the style one may notice in a Chinese temple during the Devil
feast. Everything points to the conclusion that the feast, in
the form in which it is observed, is the outcome of ancestral
worship. It is only by attention paid to the departed that
relatives can hope to become disembodied spirits in the Blissful
Regions, to be able, in their turn, to guard the interest of their
progeny on earth.