within reasonable distance, it is de rigueur for him to go and offer his condolences. It is customary to take along a little present of money, rice, linen, paper, candles or tobacco.
The one who is watching beside the body now takes warm water and washes it, using not a cloth but a piece of clean paper, while the family sit in the adjoining room or busy themselves in giving away to needy neighbours the old clothes of the deceased. In preparing the body for burial, the hair is tied up loosely, not in a regular top-knot, and all the combings, which have been sedulously preserved for years, are worked into the hair. All the teeth which have been extracted from the mouth of the dead man since his youth and all the finger-nail and toenail parings are put together in his pouch and laid beside him.
Meanwhile others have been busy making the new garments in which the body is to be dressed. Every part of the garments and the fittings of the casket must be new, the mattress, blanket, pillow, overcoat, coat, waistcoat, trousers, socks, wristlets, leggings, head-band and all. The body is now removed to a table specially prepared for the purpose, and a full dinner is placed before it. The relatives have by this time gathered from far and near, and they all assemble in the room adjoining and kneel, the men toward the east and the women toward the west. The relatives to the sixth remove are represented, and they all wail in concert. A pillow is brought, and each mourner comes forward in his turn and, placing his forehead on the pillow, performs a special ceremony.
The " spirit ghost box " is now brought and placed again at the head, with some of the man's clothes beneath it. His mouth is opened, and in it is placed some flour made of gluten rice. This is for the purpose of holding in place a certain " jewel " that is put between the lips. This precious object is called the mu-gong-ju, or " pearl without a hole." It is not a real pearl, but a hard substance taken from the shell of a certain kind of huge clam that is found only near the mouth of the Nak-tong River. It is a rough substance and has no lustre, and it is
