ers, to
purchase, almost at its weight in gold, a few feet of earth, whereon they
may raise a small mausoleum. Even the Mongols of Torgot perform journeys
occupying a whole year, and attended with immense difficulty, to visit
for this purpose the province of Chan-Si.

The Tartar kings sometimes make use of a sepulture which is the height of
extravagance and barbarism. The royal corpse is conveyed to a vast
edifice, constructed of bricks, and adorned with numerous statues
representing men, lions, elephants, tigers, and various subjects of
Buddhic mythology. With the illustrious defunct, they bury in a large
cavern, constructed in the centre of the building, large sums of gold and
silver, royal robes, precious stones, in short, every thing which he may
need in another life. These monstrous interments sometimes cost the
lives of a great number of slaves. They take children of both sexes,
remarkable for their beauty, and make them swallow mercury till they are
suffocated; in this way they preserve, they say, the freshness and
ruddiness of their countenance, so as to make them appear still alive.
These unfortunate victims are placed upright, round the corpse of their
master, continuing, in this fashion, to serve him as during life. They
hold in their hands the pipe, fan, the small phial of snuff, and the
numerous other nick-nacks of the Tartar kings.

To protect these buried treasures, they place in the cavern a kind of
bow, capable of discharging a number of arrows, one after the other.
This bow, or rather these several bows joined together, are all bent, and
the arrows ready to fly. They place this infernal machine in such a
manner that, on opening the door of the cavern, the movement causes the
discharge of the first arrow at the man who enters; the discharge of the
first arrow causes the discharge of the second, and so on to the last--so
that the unlucky person, whom covetousness or curiosity should induce to
open the door, would fall, pierced with many arrows, in the tomb he
sought to profane. They sell these murderous machines ready prepared by
the bow-makers. The Chinese sometimes purchase them, to guard their
houses in their absence.

After a march of two days, we entered the district called the Kingdom of
Efe; it is a portion of the territory of the Eight Banners, which the
Emperor Kien-Long dismembered in favour of a prince of the Khalkhas.
_Sun-Tche_, founder of the Mantchou dynasty, laid down this maxi