The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1889-11-01
6URYINc THE DEAD.
HOW Various People of Asia Dispose q
Human COrpseS.

How Various People of Asia Dispose Q.
Human Corpses.
India, though a swarming hive OF
people. did not impress me as a ..coun.
try of cemeteries" as did Turkey and
Persia This is, of course, owing to
the HindoO custom of cremation and
the fact that the burying races form
but small proportion of the popula-
ton But as soon as China was
reached the silent cities of the dead
came again to the fore with greater
prominence than ever. One stands on
the walls of Canton, near the five-sto-
ried pagoda. and sees the hills to the
north all covered with graves. 1t is
the same near any Chinese city. The
living occupy the city and the level
ground, the dead the hills. No corpse
Is allowed to be buried within the
walls of Chinese city, and without,
the vast cemeteries cover the hills,
with no fence or other limitation about
them The Chinese family which can
afford it, builds horseshoe grave. :"
or bricked vault on the hillside, with
the end built up in the horseshoe
form. Poorer people stick their dead
In shallow graves. on viii; small
tablet of wood or stone is put In
some districts of QuaDg-tung, near the
head-waters of the Pe-Kiang river, the
cemeteries consist of big jars set in
inches of the rocky cliffs of the Mae
ling mountains. As you pass along
the foot trails you see the steep rocks
above. thickly studded with those big
earthen jars, i'm each of which is a
human body in a sitting position.
In the rich alluvial plains. where no
uncultivated hills are available for
burying the dead. a graveyard resem-
bles very much white ant village in
Africa The graves are sugar loaf
mounds. thickly clustered together
While John Chinaman pays great re-
spect to the dead, he takes care that
they do not appropriate much ground
that is of value to the living. The
cemetery of Chinese village among
the rich rice fields covers very little
ground in proportion to the number OF
graves. 1t seemed to me that bodies
must have been placed one on top OF
another. or stood upright, so thick
were the tapering mounds. The Chi
nese graveyard is, on the whole, less
disreputable looking place than the
Turkish or Persian; yet the horseshoe
vaults are sometimes seen in a very
dilapidated condition. When passing
through them have frequently peeped
in and seen the crumbling coffin and
the skeleton.
In some parts of China one seems to
be travelling through cemeteries most
of the time. Particularly is this the
case in thickly-populated districts.
where the topography is undulating
plain. The ridges. where the soil is
thin, are then the cemeteries. and
rigid spirit of economy has
re egated the alignment of the
public roads there, too. rather
than through the fields. In such a
district the traveller is in the company
of the dead all day long. Among some
of the aborigines of China their GENE
terry is bamboo grove. The dead.
swathed in mating. are lashed in an
upright position to the stems. Here
they remain until the ravages of time
birds. insects anil the elements have
reduced them to skeletons. when the
bones are washed in hot water and
buried. These people tie up the male
b 'dies in one grave and the female in
another.
The japanese in the matter of GENE
| teries. as in so many other things, are
| more in cOnsOnance with our ideas
than any other Asiatics. The cemetery
is usually inclosed in a neat wall or
| fence. and, like the houses and gardens
and every thing else in that country,
is often work of art. The graves
are miniature iower-beds. and one sees
| there marvellous stunted trees.
trimmed into fanciful shapes, quaint
bits of rock. shells and other adorn-
| ments- From the Sea of Marmora to
the Gulf of Pichili, all across broad
Asia, the Western eye is offended by
the bald Obtrusiveness of the millions
that have gone before, but the
Japanese have learned, like us, to
cover them up with flowers and fence
them i'm. T. Post.