iable shape. Some of those seen in Shanghai cost
as much as one thousand taels, equal to $1,500 in American gold. They
are extremely massive, more like miniature junks than the shape we are
accustomed to associate with the idea of a coffin, the head being higher
than the foot, and the lines of the sides swelling gently with very
little taper. The boards of the sides and headpiece are at least three
inches thick, elaborately carved, and gilded in Chinese characters. The
colors are various, black and red predominating. As the body is kept in
this massive shell for several months after decease, and in the house of
the nearest relative, the good sense of making the walls of extra
thickness and strength is very apparent. Even after it is laid in the
tomb, in many parts of the country, the style of sepulture allows the
coffin to be seen, and it is even exposed to the weather in some cases.
Customs differ greatly, however, in different parts of the country. In
the flat region about Shanghai, the tombs are found mostly around the
little streams flowing into the Yang-tze, or the ocean. The coffins are
placed in the open fields, a few shovelfuls of earth are thrown around
them, and they are left undisturbed, for the high weeds and the
accumulations of centuries to form mounds around them. A few regularly
constructed tombs are to be found, but they are rare. In the hill
country bordering the China sea, in the province of Foh-Kien, and
elsewhere on the coast, when the nature of the land will allow,
extensive tombs are hollowed out in the sides of the hills, and the
coffins are deposited out of sight. Here a whole family reposes, it may
be, in one of these majestic tombs (for, seen from a distance, they have
a picturesque and imposing appearance). The popular shape is that of a
horseshoe or half moon, the circle being toward the summit of the hill.
This portion of the tomb is raised like a crown, and facing it is an
altar, with Chinese characters engraven on its pillars, where the
offerings of the relatives or worshippers are placed. Before this is a
place like a court, railed off and flanked, it may be, by smaller altars
on either side, facing other entrances, where the less venerated members
of the family are interred. In front of the whole are two high posts,
the meaning or use of which, if they have any at all, we are not
acquainted with.

On these altars are burnt the paper offerings sent to their departed
friends, the manufact