Processions in honour of the gods are of frequent occurrence. Mr. Fortune
speaks of one which he saw at Shanghai as at least a mile in length. The gods, or
josses, arrayed in the finest silks, were carried about in splendid sedan-chairs, in
the centre of a long train of devotees, all superbly dressed for the occasion, and
all bearing their different insignia of office. The dresses of the officials exactly
resembled those of some of the attendants who figure in the suite of the higher
mandarins. Some wore on the sides of their hats a broad fan, composed of
peacock-feathers; others strutted in gaudy theatrical costumes, with two long
black feathers stuck, like horns, in their low caps. The scowling executioners
carried long conical black hats on their heads, and whips in their hands, for the
prompt chastisement of the refractory. Bands of music, in different parts of the
procession, played at intervals as it marched along.
On arriving at a temple in the suburbs, it came to a halt. The gods were taken out
of the sedan-chairs, and with a great exhibition of reverence, replaced in the
temple, from which they had been removed in the morning. Then their
worshippers bent low before their altars, burning incense, and depositing their
gifts. Numerous groups of well-dressed ladies and their children were scattered
over the ground in the neighbourhood of the temple; all were kneeling, and
apparently they conducted their devotions with great earnestness. A large
quantity of paper, in the shape of the Sycee silver ingots, was piled up on the
grass by the different devotees, and when the ceremonies of the day were being
brought to a conclusion, the whole was burned in honour of, or as an offering to,
the gods.