th a
fine cloth. Every day as long as the body is kept, they set a table before
the dead covered with food; and they will have it that the soul comes and
eats and drinks: wherefore they leave the food there as long as would be
necessary in order that one should partake. Thus they do daily. And worse
still! Sometimes those soothsayers shall tell them that 'tis not good luck
to carry out the corpse by the door, so they have to break a hole in the
wall, and to draw it out that way when it is taken to the burning.[NOTE 6]
And these, I assure you, are the practices of all the Idolaters of those
countries.

However, we will quit this subject, and I will tell you of another city
which lies towards the north-west at the extremity of the desert.

NOTE 1.--[The Natives of this country were called by the Chinese
_T'ang-hiang_, and by the Mongols _T'angu_ or _T'ang-wu_, and with the
plural suffix _Tangut_. The kingdom of Tangut, or in Chinese, _Si Hia_
(Western Hia), or _Ho si_ (West of the Yellow River), was declared
independent in 982 by Li Chi Ch'ien, who had the dynastic title or _Miao
Hao_ of Tai Tsu. "The rulers of Tangut," says Dr. Bushell, "were scions of
the Toba race, who reigned over North China as the Wei Dynasty (A.D. 386-
557), as well as in some of the minor dynasties which succeeded. Claiming
descent from the ancient Chinese Hsia Dynasty of the second millennium
B.C., they adopted the title of _Ta Hsia_ ('Great Hsia'), and the dynasty
is generally called by the Chinese Hsi Hsia, or Western Hsia." This is a
list of the Tangut sovereigns, with the date of their accession to the
throne: Tai Tsu (982), Tai Tsung (1002), Ching Tsung (1032), Yi Tsung
(1049), Hui Tsung (1068), Ch'ung Tsung (1087), Jen Tsung (1140), Huan Tsung
(1194), Hsiang Tsung (1206), Shen Tsung (1213), Hien Tsung (1223), Mo Chu
(1227). In fact, the real founder of the Dynasty was Li Yuan-hao, who
conquered in 1031, the cities of Kanchau and Suhchau from the Uighur Turks,
declaring himself independent in 1032, and who adopted in 1036 a special
script of which we spoke when mentioning the archway at Kiuyung Kwan. His
capital was Hia chau, now Ning hia, on the Yellow River. Chinghiz invaded
Tangut three times, in 1206, 1217, and at last in 1225; the final struggle
took place the following year, when Kanchau, Liangchau, and Suhchau fell
into the hands of the Mongols. After the death of Chinghiz (1227), the last
ruler of Tangut, Li H'ien, who surrendered