last spring. Three times a day a new cup of tea is placed on the
table for his spirit, and on the walls of the room were scores of silk
scrolls, fifteen feet long, expressing the sympathy of friends and
relatives. Around the coffin, too, were almost life-size images of
servants, and above it a heap of gilded paper to represent gold. When
the geomancers finally find a suitable grave for the poor fellow he
will be buried, and these paper servants and this paper gold will be
burned, in the belief that they will be converted into real servants
and real gold for his use in the spirit world.

{145}

A friend of mine in Peking who saw the funeral of the late Emperor and
Empress Dowager told me some interesting stories of the truly Oriental
ceremonies then celebrated. Tons of clothes and furs were burned, and
vast quantities of imitation money. A gorgeous imitation boat, natural
size and complete in every detail from cabins to anchors, steamer
chairs, and ample decks, was fitted up at a cost of $36,000 American
money, and burned. Furthermore, as my friend was coming home one
evening, he was surprised to see in an unexpected place, some distance
ahead, a full regiment of soldiers, gorgeous in new uniforms, and
hundreds of handsome cavalry horses. Getting closer, what was his
amazement to find that these natural-size soldiers and steeds were
only make-believe affairs to be burned for the dead monarchs! To
maintain their rank in the Beyond they must have at least one full
regiment at their command!

Since we are on such gruesome subjects we might as well finish with
them now by considering the punishments in China. I went out to the
execution grounds in Canton, but it happened to be an off-day when
nobody was due to suffer the death sentence. I did see the cross,
though, on which the worst criminals are stretched and strangled
before they are beheaded. The bodies of these malefactors are not
allowed ordinary burial, but quick-limed, I believe. There were human
bones beside the old stone wall where I walked, and when a Chinese
brat lifted for a moment a sort of jute-bagging cover from a barrel
the topmost skull of the heap grinned ghastly in the sunlight.

The cruelty of Chinese punishments is a blot upon her civilization.
When I was in Shanghai a friend of mine told me of having been to a
little town where two men had just been executed for salt-smuggling.
Salt is a government monopoly in China, or at least is subject to a
sp