f the men in this procession were dressed in sackcloth, and
that in front of it was a band of musicians producing weird, shrill
notes on their various instruments.

By these signs Chan knew that what he saw was a funeral, and he
expected to see the long line of mourners pass on to some spot on the
hillside where the dead would be buried. Instead of that, however,
they entered through the great gates of the monastery, and the coffin,
the red pall of which told him that it contained the body of a woman,
was carried into an inner room of the building and laid on trestles
that had been made ready for it.

After the mourners had dispersed, Chan asked one of the priests the
name of the woman who had died, and how it was that the coffin was laid
within the precincts of the temple instead of in the house of the
deceased, where it could be looked after by her relatives and where the
customary sacrifices to the spirit of the dead could be offered more
conveniently than in the monastery.

The bonze replied that this was a peculiar case, calling for special
treatment.

"The father of the poor young girl who died so suddenly," he said, "was
the mandarin of the neighbouring city of Eternal Spring. Just after
the death of his daughter an order came from the Emperor transferring
him to another district, a thousand miles from here.

"The command was very urgent that he should proceed without delay to
take up his post in the far-off province, and that he was to allow
nothing to hinder him from doing so. He could not carry his daughter's
body with him on so long a journey, and no time was permitted him to
take the coffin to his home, where she might be buried amongst her own
kindred. It was equally impossible to deposit the coffin in the yamen
he was about to leave, for the new mandarin who was soon to arrive
would certainly object to have the body of a stranger in such close
proximity to his family. It might bring him bad luck, and his career
as an official might end in disaster.

"Permission was therefore asked from our abbot to allow the coffin to
be placed in one of our vacant rooms, until the father some day in the
future can come and bear the body of his beloved daughter to the home
of his ancestors, there to be laid at rest amongst his own people.

"This request was readily granted, for whilst he was in office the
mandarin showed us many favours, and his daughter was a beautiful girl
who was beloved by everyone; and so