procession escorted the young widow, who was dressed in scarlet and gold, and was borne in a richly decorated chair, to the scene of the tragedy. On arriving at the scaffold, on which stood a gallows, the lady mounted the platform, and having welcomed the crowd, partook, with some female relatives, of a prepared repast, which, adds the narrator, she appeared to appreciate extremely. She then scattered rice, herbs, and flowers among the crowd, at the same time thanking them for their attendance and upholding the motives which urged her to the step she was about to take. She then mounted on a chair, and having waved a final adieu to the crowd, adjusted the noose round her neck, and drawing a red handkerchief over her face, gave the signal for the removal of the support. With extraordinary self-possession, while hanging in mid-air, she placed her hands before her, and continued to make the usual form of salutation until complete unconsciousness ensued. Such devotion to the fond memory of husbands invariably receives the approval of the people, and when reported to the emperor gains his entire approbation.

From the above account of this particular phase of Chinese society it will be seen that it represents a condition of things which leaves much to be desired. Nor is the cause of the mischief far to seek. In the very subordinate position occupied by the women of China we see the fons et origo of the evil. In a State where women are degraded, the whole community suffers loss, and the first symptoms of the approach of a healthy and beneficial civilization is the elevation of women to their legitimate and useful position in society.

At

present no trace of the dawn of a better day appears on the horizon of China, but the example which has been set by Japan leads one to hope that the day is not far distant when the slowmoving Chinaman will be induced to follow in the footsteps of their more advanced neighbour. Until quite recently the position of women in the Land of the Rising Sun was every whit as unworthy as that now occupied by their Chinese sisters. Happily the experience gained in western lands has taught the Japanese that the untrammelled society of educated and pure-minded women exercises a wholesome and elevating effect on a nation. With the intuitive perception which they possess for what is best and wisest in foreign systems, they have, by a course of sound education, begun to prepare the women of the country for the new position which it is intended that they should occupy, and already an example is being set by the empress and other leaders of fashion, of the better part they are expected to play. This change cannot be without its influence on China, and though we know that the surface of small pools is more easily agitated than the face of larger waters, yet it cannot but be that the spirit of reform which is now abroad will influence even the sluggish temperament of the Chinese nation, and will eventually stir to the depths the minds of this hitherto changeless people.

CHAPTER XII.

FUNERAL RITES.

"I VENTURE to ask about death," said Chi Lu to Confucius. While you do not know about life, how can you know about death?" was the unsatisfying reply. And though this is the orthodox Confucian view of the momentous question, the people at large have bettered the instruction of the sage and have developed a full faith in an after life, in which those who have done good pass to the blissful regions of the west, where, surrounded with peace and happiness, they live an eternal round of joy; and those that have done evil are relegated to the infernal regions, where executioners even more cruel than those to which they are accustomed on earth, torture with merciless brutality. Authors of works of a religious nature delight in describing in detail the horrors that await the spirits of evildoers. They are sawn asunder, they are devoured by wild beasts, they are thrown into caldrons of boiling oil, they are committed to the flames, and if there are any other shameful and violent deaths, they form a treasured part of the punishments of the condemned.

These beliefs find expression in. the elaborate ceremonial which surrounds the burial of the dead.

Of

On the approach of death the invalid is borne into the central hall, where, on a bed of boards, he is gently laid with his feet towards the door. In preparation for the decease his robes and hat of office, if he be a mandarin, and, if a commoner, his best attire, are placed beside him, and when the last supreme moment arrives he is dressed in state, and so meets his fate in full canonicals. After death a priest is summoned, who, after having saved the soul from perdition by the use of incantations, calls upon one of the three spirits which are said to inhabit every man, to hasten to the enjoyment of bliss in the empyrean regions of the west. the two other spirits, one is supposed eventually to remain with the corpse in the grave, and the other to be attached to the ancestral tablet which ultimately finds its place in the family hall. When this ceremony is completed, the chief mourner, in the company of friends and supporters-for grief is supposed to have so broken him down as to have rendered him unable to walk without the help of a friendly arm and of a sustaining staff-goes to the nearest river or stream "to buy water" to lave the features of the dead. Having thrown some copper cash into the water, accompanied sometimes by a small fish, which is supposed to announce the transaction to the river god, he fills a bowl from the current and returns to perform his sacred office. The coffin is a massive structure, made of four boards, from three to four inches in thickness, of a hard and durable wood. In this the body is laid on a bed of quicklime and charcoal, and the cover is hermetically sealed with cement. This is necessary for the sake of the survivors, since custom

provides that the coffin should remain above ground for seven times seven days, and it sometimes happens that the inability of the astrologers to discover a lucky day for the interment, entails a still longer pre-sepulchral period.

Much virtue exists in the style and nature of the coffin, and most men as they advance in years. provide themselves with their future narrow beds, if, indeed, their sons have not been sufficiently filially minded to make them presents of them. A tragic incident, in which an old man's coffin formed a leading feature, was lately described in the Peking Gazette. A certain Mr. Chia had a son who was as dissolute as he was disrespectful, and who, in a moment of financial pressure, sold the coffin which his father, with prudent foresight, had prepared for his final resting-place. On the theft being discovered, Chia at once charged his son with the crime, and in his anger swore that if the coffin were not returned he would, so soon as he recovered from an illness from which he was suffering, bring him before the authorities and cause him to be put to death. This threat so enraged the young man that, in a moment of drunken fury, he strangled his father. For such a crime there could be only one sentence, and the wretched criminal was condemned to the slow and lingering process of being sliced to death.*

Before closing the coffin it is customary to put in the mouth of the deceased five precious substances, which vary in value with the wealth of the family. The Chinese do not offer any explana. tion of this practice, not even the very reasonable * Peking Gazette, 1891.