of the manner of forming coffins, and keeping
them with the body in the house, serving food before the coffin whilst it
is so kept, the burning of paper and papier-mache figures of slaves,
horses, etc., at the tomb. Chinese settlers were very numerous at Shachau
and the neighbouring Kwachau, even in the 10th century. (_Ritter_, II.
213.) ["Keeping a body unburied for a considerable time is called _khng
koan_, 'to conceal or store away a coffin,' or _thing koan_, 'to detain a
coffin.' It is, of course, a matter of necessity in such cases to have the
cracks and fissures, and especially the seam where the case and the lid
join, hermetically caulked. This is done by means of a mixture of chunam
and oil. The seams, sometimes even the whole coffin, are pasted over with
linen, and finally everything is varnished black, or, in case of a
mandarin of rank, red. In process of time, the varnishing is repeated as
many times as the family think desirable or necessary. And in order to
protect the coffin still better against dust and moisture, it is generally
covered with sheets of oiled paper, over which comes a white pall." (_De
Groot_, I. 106.)--H. C.] Even as regards the South of China many of the
circumstances mentioned here are strictly applicable, as may be seen in
_Doolittle's Social Life of the Chinese_. (See, for example, p. 135; also
_Astley_, IV. 93-95, or Marsden's quotations from _Duhalde_.) The custom
of burning the dead has been for several centuries disused in China, but
we shall see hereafter that Polo represents it as general in his time. On
the custom of burning gilt paper in the form of gold coin, as well as of
paper clothing, paper houses, furniture, slaves, etc., see also
_Medhurst_, p. 213, and _Kidd_, 177-178. No one who has read Pere Huc will
forget his ludicrous account of the Lama's charitable distribution of
paper horses for the good of disabled travellers. The manufacture of mock
money is a large business in Chinese cities. In Fuchau there are more than
thirty large establishments where it is kept for sale. (_Doolittle_, 541.)
[The Chinese believe that sheets of paper, partly tinned over on one side,
are, "according to the prevailing conviction, turned by the process of
fire into real silver currency available in the world of darkness, and
sent there through the smoke to the soul; they are called _gun-tsoa_,
'silver paper.' Most families prefer to previously fold every sheet in the
shape of a hollow ingot, a