, and wailing as they went: "And Kiluken Bahadur of the Sunid
Tribe (one of the Khan's old comrades) lifted up his voice and sang--

'Whilom Thou didst swoop like a Falcon: A rumbling waggon now
trundles thee off:
O My King!
Hast thou in truth then forsaken thy wife and thy children
and the Diet of thy People?
O My King!
Circling in pride like an Eagle whilom Thou didst lead us,
O My King!
But now Thou hast stumbled and fallen, like an unbroken Colt,
O My King!'" (p. 108.)

["The burying of living men with the dead was a general custom with the
tribes of Eastern Asia. Favourite servants and wives were usually buried
in this way. In China, the chief wives and those concubines who had
already borne children, were exempted from this lot. The Tunguz and other
tribes were accustomed to kill the selected victims by strangulation. In
China they used to be buried alive; but the custom of burying living men
ceased in A.D. 1464. [_Hwang ming ts'ung sin lu_.] In the time of the
present Manchu Dynasty, the burying of living men was prohibited by the
Emperor Kang-hi, at the close of the 17th century, i.e. the forced
burying; but voluntary sepulture remained in force [_Yu chi wen_].
Notwithstanding this prohibition, cases of forced burying occurred again
in remote parts of Manchuria; when a concubine refused to follow her
deceased master, she was forcibly strangled with a bow-string [_Ninguta
chi_]. I must observe, however, that there is no mention made in
historical documents of the existence of this custom with the Mongols; it
is only an hypothesis based on the analogy between the religious ideas and
customs of the Mongols and those of other tribes." (_Palladius_, p. 13.)

In his _Religious System of China_, II., Dr. J. J. M. de Groot devotes a
whole chapter (ix. 721 seqq.), _Concerning the Sacrifice of Human Beings
at Burials, and Usages connected therewith_. The oldest case on record in
China dates as far back as B.C. 677, when sixty-six men were killed after
the ruler Wu of the state of Ts'in died.

The Official Annals of the Tartar Dynasty of Liao, quoted by Professor J.
J. M. de Groot (_Religious System of China_, vol. ii. 698), state that "in
the tenth year of the T'ung hwo period (A.D. 692) the killing of horses
for funeral and burial rites was interdicted, as also th