In the period between the death and the interment silence is observed in the house of mourning, and only those visitors are received who come to condole with the family and speak of the virtues of the departed. It is believed that conversation on any ordinary topic will cause the corpse to shake in the coffin and show other symptoms of unrest. For the same reason the servants are very particular in watching the cats of the household if there are any, but cats are not in favor in Korea. It is terribly unlucky for a cat to jump over a corpse. It may even cause it to stand upright. After the deceased has been carried out of the house, two or three _mu-tangs_ or sorceresses enter it with musical instruments and the other paraphernalia of their profession. After a time one becomes “inspired” by the spirit of the dead man, and accurately impersonates him, even to his small tricks of manner, movement, and speech. She gives a narrative of his life in the first person singular, if he were a bad man confessing his misdeeds, which may have been unsuspected by his neighbors, and if he were a good man, narrating his virtues with becoming modesty. At the end she bows, takes a solemn farewell of those present, and retires. After the tablet has been removed to the ancestral temple, and the period of mourning is over, meals are offered in the shrine once every month, and also on the anniversary of each death, all the descendants assembling, and these observances extend backwards to the ancestors of five generations. Thus it is a very costly thing to have many near relations and a number of ancestors, the expense falling on the eldest son and his heirs. A Korean gentleman told me that his nephew, upon whom this duty falls, spends more upon it than upon his household expenses. It is not till the three years’ mourning for a father has expired that his tablet is removed to the ancestral temple which rich men have near their houses. During the period of mourning it is kept in a vacant room, usually in the women’s apartments. A poor man puts it in a box on one side of his room, and when he worships his other ancestors, strips of paper with their names upon them are pasted on the mud wall. I have slept in rooms in which the tablet lay smothered in dust on one of the crossbeams. Common people only worship for their ancestors of three generations. The anniversary of a father’s death is kept with much ceremony for three years. On the previous night sacrifice is offered before the tablet, and on the following day the friends pay visits of condolence to the family, and eat varieties of food. During the day they visit the grave and offer sacrifices to the soul and the mountain spirit.