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saw a young man carrying the paper image of a horse, and another young man chasing him. Both were running in the direction of Tai Long Wan. This was part of the se-su (letter of pardon) rite. I learned subsequently from one of the ritual representatives that the two were expected to pass the same spots as the procession of the previous day did. The priests read the memorial after the horse and chaser returned. The rite was followed immediately by a brief performance of Floating the Water Lanterns, the usual rite preceding the final Offering to Ghosts.
There were more than a dozen middle-aged women preparing paper offerings for the Offering to Ghosts. They claimed to be indigenous residents. This was confirmed by another person I asked. The villagers present were well aware of what was going to take place: "This evening the daai-si-wong is going to be paraded to as far as Tai Long Wan, and the priests will chant until midnight.” At Tai Long Wan where I went with the priests and the ritual representatives for the haang-chiu procession in the early afternoon, I overheard one young man telling somebody to send someone to Shek O to prepare the Tai Wong Ye [daai-si-wong] for the procession.
The procession started at about 6:15 in the evening. The daai-si-wong was carried by young men down the main streets of Shek O and then to Tai Long Wan. I later noticed that Mr. Wong and the other leaders in the festival were in the crowd. Most of the participants were young men. At Shek O a few women came out from their homes to greet the procession. Mr. Lam, the seaman, was among the crowd with his wife, but only as an on-looker. He told me that half the participants of the procession were indigenous villagers and half more recent settlers, and that the man who gave command through a loudspeaker was a Tanka whose parents had moved here almost 20 years ago. (He said descendants of newcomers like him mostly worked in the civil service. "They are indistinguishable from us the indigenous boys.”) Many children and some married women followed. I heard some of the latter making the remark to themselves "gan-jy haang, haang hou-wan” (follow the daai-si-wong and have good luck). When the procession started for Tai Long Wan one woman came to relay the warning that women were not to follow the daai-si-wong, or at least not
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saw a young man carrying the paper image of a horse, and another young man chasing him. Both were running in the direction of Tai Long Wan. This was part of the se-su (letter of pardon) rite. I learned subsequently from one of the ritual representatives that the two were expected to pass the same spots as the procession of the previous day did. The priests read the memorial after the horse and chaser returned. The rite was followed immediately by a brief performance of Floating the Water Lanterns, the usual rite preced- ing the final Offering to Ghosts.
There were more than a dozen middle-aged women preparing paper offerings for the Offering to Ghosts. They claimed to be indigenous residents. This was confirmed by another person I asked. The villagers present were well aware of what was going to take place: "This evening the daai-si-wong is going to be paraded to as far as Tai Long Wan, and the priests will chant until mid- night.” At Tai Long Wan where I went with the priests and the ritual representatives for the haang-chiu procession in the early afternoon, I overheard one young man telling somebody to send someone to Shek O to prepare the Tai Wong Ye [daai-si-wong] for the procession.
The procession started at about 6:15 in the evening. The daai- si-wong was carried by young men down the main streets of Shek O and then to Tai Long Wan. I later noticed that Mr. Wong and the other leaders in the festival were in the crowd. Most of the participants were young men. At Shek O a few women came out from their homes to greet the procession. Mr. Lam, the seaman, was among the crowd with his wife, but only as an on-looker. He told me that half the participants of the procession were indige- nous villagers and half more recent settlers, and that the man who gave command through a loudspeaker was a Tanka whose parents had moved here almost 20 years ago. (He said descendants of newcomers like him mostly worked in the civil service. "They are indistinguishable from us the indigenous boys.”) Many children and some married women followed. I heard some of the latter making the remark to themselves "gan-jy haang, haang hou-wan” (follow the daai-si-wong and have good luck). When the proces- sion started for Tai Long Wan one woman came to relay the warn- ing that women were not to follow the daai-si-wong, or at least not
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