274
NOTES AND QUERIES
collection is to be allocated by auction to the highest bidder on the 19th of the Fifth Month on the occasion of the sacrifice. Payment is to be made in public to the incoming manager, who is to keep it and raise an interest on it. This should be followed annually.
5. The manager is to pay all taxes and expenditures for the sacrifice and hand over the balance to the incoming manager for the next year for safe keeping.
6. Expenditures for the sacrifice are budgeted annually at 10 taels and 8 mace of silver dollars [i.e. 15 silver dollars]. Items to be offered in sacrifice are to include a roast pig, a cooked banquet, fruit, two suits of sacrificial clothings, three tables of food for the feast for the evening on the day of the sacrifice, and two tables for the following morning. Expenditure should include also [payment for] the master of ceremony, and the musicians [for the wind instruments]. The leader of worship from the heung should also be included. [It is unclear if the heung was required to provide a leader-of-worship or to pay for one.]
7. On those occasions when the villagers hold watch at night in anticipation of extraordinary events [各鄉之虞], and the meeting is held in the Po Tak Temple, all expenses are to be taken out of the common fund. [It is not at all clear what the phrase 各鄉之虞 means. It could refer to keeping watch in anticipation of, e.g. disorder, or simply to a late meeting at the Po Tak Temple.]
8. On those occasions when an honest impeccable person from any of the heung meets with unjustifiable disaster, the shan-sz of the alliance [yeuk] are all to put forward their names to vouch for him. However, if the circumstances are unclear, or if the incident is not unjustifiable, this rule does not apply. No-one is to pose any obstacle to this. [It is not clear if the "heung" included only those that were parties to the alliance, but it would seem from the context that they did.]
9. It is inevitable that petty theft will occur. If the thief is from this alliance [yeuk], he is to be subjected to collected comments [kung-i] in a gathering. If he is an outsider,