NOTES AND QUERIES
195
Taoist heaven would be held on the seventh night after the death; but it is probable that these rites were more frequently combined with the rites of funeral night and conducted then. In most areas the most important rituals during the mourning period were the preparation for the return of the spirit of the deceased to visit his family, and, a little after this, the visit of the family to a spirit medium to consult the deceased to check that he was contented and comfortable.
On the twenty-first day early in the morning members of the immediately bereaved family would go to the grave, place new offerings there, and pay the family's last respects. (In Sheung Shui this rite was done on the third day after death). The family would then put on full mourning, which would not have been worn since the day of the burial, or the day the seventh day rituals were held. They would attend Taoist rituals in front of the temporary spirit tablet, thereafter take the tablet to a suitable spot, in some cases near a river, where it would be burnt. In some cases this was done within a ritual enclosure purified by the sons of the deceased, together with all the objects used in the various rituals, and with gifts of paper money and objects to the deceased and to other deceased family members. The family would, in many cases, then remove mourning, in some cases at a spot outside the village. The mourning would then be burnt. All mourners would put on new clothes which had been passed through the smoke of the fires. Led by the Taoist priest the family would return to the place where the temporary spirit tablet had been placed, now stripped and swept, and would assist the priest in the placing and worshipping of a new paper tablet to the deceased, after which new lucky papers would be pushed up, the ex-mourners would put on pieces of red tape or cloth to signify their final removal of mourning, and go to welcome their friends and relations in another meal prepared by the elders of the village.
This extremely condensed statement represents the basic ritual of a Punti village funeral. In Hakka villages customs differed substantially. Thus, for instance, the burial usually took place in such villages at dawn, and many of the family rituals, such as buying water, were correspondingly brought forward to the previous day, to before the main Taoist celebration. Again, Hakka custom demanded in many areas a daily visit to the grave throughout the mourning period whereas Punti custom demanded only a daily visit to the spirit tablet. In many other places similar divergences are to be noted. This note, therefore, represents only a very bare skeletal framework of rituals common to most Punti villages; it ignores the numerous intricate, but fixed and essential, minor