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BOOK XXXI. PÅN SANG
OR
RULES ON HURRYING TO MOURNING RITES".
1. According to the rules for hurrying to attend the mourning rites, when one first heard that the mourning rites for a relative were going on, he wailed as he answered the messenger®, and gave full vent to his sorrow. Having asked all the particulars, he wailed again, with a similar burst of grief, and immediately arranged to go (to the place). He went 100 li a day, not travelling in the night.
2. Only when the rites were those for a father or a mother did he travel while he could yet see the stars, and rested when he (again) saw them: If it was impossible for him to go (at once)“, he assumed the mourning dress, and then went (as soon as he could). When he had passed through the state (where he was), and reached its frontier, he stopped and wailed, giving full vent to his sorrow. He avoided wailing in the market-place and when near the court. He looked towards the frontier of his own state when he wailed.
See the introductory notice, vol. xxvii, pp. 46, 47. · The mourner is absent from his state, and a messenger has been sent to tell him of the death. The relative, it is argued, may have been any one within the five degrees' of consanguinity.
* That is, from peep of dawn till the stars came out again after sunset.
• Being restrained by the duties of the commission, with which he was charged by the ruler.
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