| Yue Ling: |
In this month orders are given to the officers of slaughter and prayer to go round among the victims for sacrifice, seeing that they are entire and complete, examining their fodder and grain, inspecting their condition as fat or thin, and judging of their looks. They must arrange them according to their classes. In measuring their size, and looking at the length (of their horns), they must have them according to the (assigned) measures. When all these points are as they ought to be, God will accept the sacrifices. The son of Heaven performs the ceremonies against pestilence, to secure development for the (healthy) airs of autumn. He eats the hemp-seed (which is now presented) along with dog's flesh, first offering some in the apartment at the back of the ancestral temple. |
