presence among them of the representatives of former dynasties; but the
duties of the occasion devolved mainly on the princes of the same
surname as the royal House. Libations of fragrant spirits were made,
especially in the Kau period, to attract the Spirits, and their presence
was invoked by a functionary who took his place inside the principal
gate. The principal victim, a red bull in the temple of Kau, was killed
by the king himself, using for the purpose a knife to the handle of
which small bells were attached. With this he laid bare the hair, to
show that the animal was of the required colour, inflicted the wound of
death, and cut away the fat, which was burned along with southernwood to
increase the incense and fragrance. Other victims were numerous, and the
fifth ode of the second decade, Part II, describes all engaged in the
service as greatly exhausted with what they had to do, flaying the
carcases, boiling the flesh, roasting it, broiling it, arranging it on
trays and stands, and setting it forth. Ladies from the palace are
present to give their assistance; music peals; the cup goes round. The
description is that of a feast as much as of a sacrifice; and in fact,
those great seasonal occasions were what we might call grand family
reunions, where the dead and the living met, eating and drinking
together, where the living worshipped the dead, and the dead blessed the
living.

This characteristic of these ceremonies appeared most strikingly in the
custom which required that the departed ancestors should be represented
by living relatives of the same surname, chosen according to certain
rules that are not mentioned in the Shih.. These took for the time the
place of the dead, received the honours which were due to them, and were
supposed to be possessed by their spirits. They ate and drank as those
whom they personated would have done; accepted for them the homage
rendered by their descendants; communicated their will to the principal