but if the giver feels too poor to hire a man, this
burden, too, falls upon the bereaved household, for etiquette requires
that all flowers sent be borne to the grave by uniformed coolies, who
march in the funeral train. Another favorite present at this time, among
Buddhists, is a cage of living birds, to be borne to the grave and
released thereon. This act of mercy is counted to the deceased for
righteousness, and is believed to aid in rendering his next incarnation
a happy one.

A funeral procession is an imposing spectacle, and, to the uninstructed
foreigner, a cheerful one; for there is nothing sad or sombre in the
white, or bright-colored, robes of the priests, the white,
tinsel-decorated bier, the red and white flags borne aloft, the enormous
bunches of gay-colored flowers;--the very mourners in white silk, and
with faces apparently unmoved by grief, bring no thought of the object
of the procession to the Western mind. It seems more like a bridal than
a burial. But if you follow the cortege to the cemetery and there
listen to the wailing of the wind instruments, and the droning of the
priests as they perform the last rites, and watch the silent company
that one by one go forward to bow before the coffin and place upon it a
branch of _sakaki_ or burn a bit of incense, the trappings of woe in
Japan will impress themselves strongly upon your mind, and the gayly
appareled funeral processions will seem to you ever afterward as
mournful and hopeless a spectacle as you can find in any country.

The house of death remains a place of mourning for forty-nine days after
the funeral. During this period the spirit of the deceased is supposed
to be still inhabiting the house, and a tablet or shrine is set up in
the death chamber before which food and flowers are renewed daily.
Visitors are expected to make obeisance to the dead. At the end of this
time, some acknowledgment must be sent to every friend who has sent
anything to the house at the funeral. For a time after death has come
into the family the relatives of the dead are regarded as ceremonially
unclean. The period of defilement varies with the nearness of
relationship. In the old days, no one thus defiled was allowed to go
about his regular business or to mingle with other men; but busy modern
Japan does not find it convenient to pause long in its work, so that
government officials and school-children are now sent written papers
excusing them for coming back to their t