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BOOK XXXIV. KIEN KWÂN
OR
TREATISE ON SUBSIDIARY POINTS IN MOURNING
USAGES1.
1. What is the reason that the headband worn with the frayed sackcloth, for a father, must be made of the fibres of the female plant?
Those fibres have an unpleasant appearance, and serve to show outwardly the internal distress. The appearance of (the mourners), wearing the sackcloth for a father with its jagged edges, corresponds to those fibres. That of one wearing the sackcloth for a mother with its even edges, corresponds to the fibres of the male plant. That of one wearing the mourning of nine months looks as if (the ebullitions of sorrow) had ceased. For one wearing the mourning of five months or of three, his (ordinary) appearance is suitable.
These are the manifestations of sorrow in the bodily appearance 2.
2. The wailing of one wearing the sackcloth for his father seems to go forth in one unbroken strain;
1 See the introductory notice, vol. xxvii, pp. 48, 49.
The 3sü () is commonly understood to be the female plant of hemp, and the hsf () the male plant; though some writers reverse the application of the names. The fibres of both are dark coloured, those of the female plant being the darker. The cloth woven of them was also of a coarser texture. All admit that the subject here is the mourning band for the head; the staffs borne in the two cases corresponded in colour to the band.
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