'silver ingot,' _gun-kho_ as they call it. This
requires a great amount of labour and time, but increases the value of the
treasure immensely." (_De Groot_, I. 25.) "Presenting paper money when
paying a visit of condolence is a custom firmly established, and
accordingly complied with by everybody with great strictness.... The paper
is designed for the equipment of the coffin, and, accordingly, always
denoted by the term _koan-thao-tsoa_, 'coffin paper.' But as the
receptacle of the dead is, of course, not spacious enough to hold the
whole mass offered by so many friends, it is regularly burned by lots by
the side of the corpse, the ashes being carefully collected to be
afterwards wrapped in paper and placed in the coffin, or at the side of
the coffin, in the tomb." (_De Groot_, I. 31-32.)--H. C.] There can be
little doubt that these latter customs are symbols of the ancient
sacrifices of human beings and valuable property on such occasions; so
Manetho states that the Egyptians in days of yore used human sacrifices,
but a certain King Amosis abolished them and substituted images of wax.
Even when the present Manchu Dynasty first occupied the throne of China,
they still retained the practice of human sacrifice. At the death of
Kanghi's mother, however, in 1718, when four young girls offered
themselves for sacrifice on the tomb of their mistress, the emperor would
not allow it, and prohibited for the future the sacrifice of life or the
destruction of valuables on such occasions. (_Deguignes, Voy._ I. 304.)

NOTE 5.--Even among the Tibetans and Mongols burning is only one of the
modes of disposing of the dead. "They sometimes bury their dead: often
they leave them exposed in their coffins, or cover them with stones,
paying regard to the sign under which the deceased was born, his age, the
day and hour of his death, which determine the mode in which he is to be
interred (or otherwise disposed of). For this purpose they consult some
books which are explained to them by the Lamas." (_Timk._ II. 312.) The
extraordinary and complex absurdities of the books in question are given
in detail by Pallas, and curiously illustrate the paragraph in the text.
(See _Sammlungen_, II. 254 seqq.) ["The first seven days, including that
on which the demise has taken place, are generally deemed to be lucky for
the burial, especially the odd ones. But when they have elapsed, it
becomes requisite to apply to a day-professor.... The popular almanac