The Portland daily press., 1890-01-11

| circumference of the mound. / once
climbed to the summit of grave which
was 200 hundred feet high, 1t is at
Nankin, and is the tomb of the last
emperor of the Ming dynasty. It is a
mile around the grave at the foot of the
mound, and it is inclosed in high brick
wall and has tunnel entrance under.
meath the wall. Centuries have passed
since that immense bank of earth was
thrown over the bones of the dead en-
| peror, and scrub oaks and chestnut
trees have long grown over the mound.
In front of the tunnel, under the wall,
which is of arched masonry, is the ruin
of magnificent porcelain temple, which
was demolished in the siege of Nankin
during the Japanese rebellion, in which
Chinese Gordon took part. The broken
porcelain bricks still lie in huge piles.
just as they fell under the blows of
cannon balls. Leading away in half
circle for mile stands an open column
OF huge 80 ttatuary, which leads to
the tomb Of The prince, over which
stands an immense stone column, upon
the four sides of which are chiseled in
Chinese characters the lineage and his
tory of the long dethroned royal family.
The statuary is in pairs, standing
sixty steps apart, facing each other,
| and between them is paved road
some twenty feet broad. The figures
represent all the ranks of Chinese officials,
both military and civic, who did the bid
ding of the dead emperor. Also, there
are elephants, camels, horses, bulls, lions,
tigers and other large animals, with one
pair of each standing and one pair crouch
ing.
The figures are mammoth in size and
are carved out of blue limestone, and the
figures as well as the pedestalupon which
they rest are each of one solid stone and
not built in sections.
What labor and expense the building
of this grave and its surroundings repre-
sents, may be judged when it is said that
it was all done without the aid of ma
chinery or vehicles. 1t is all the record
of human muscle and perseverance.
The mound was carried there in bas-
kets on mems shoulders, just as forts
and other earthworks are done at the
present day, no steam engines or even
horse carts being employed. The canals
are dug and embankments made by hui
man hands and the earth carried in bas-
kets.
When the Chinese first began to carry
their dead back from California the ships
charged the same for each coffin taken
to China as they did for live Chinese
passenger Then the cunning heather
cheapened the cost by filling one coffin
with the bones of many dead. The ships
agents got on to this, and required that
each coffin be opened for inspection.
Then the ships stood in with San Fran
ciscan undertakers, and required that
metallic caskets be used, under pretense
that the health of the passengers and
crew was endangered by the presence of
the eXhumed bones from California ceme-
teries. This sealed casket is now re-
quired for the transmission of these bones.
But the Chinese evade this expensive
ruling by bleaching and cleaning the
bones of their dead and packing them in
their trunks with their baggage. The
surgeon of one of the Pacific mail steam
ers told me that this was a common
thing, and it requires personal inspection
of every parcel of baggage to prevent it
being practiced by returning Cinnamon.
All who die during the voyage are EN-
balmed and never buried at sea. The
peculiarities of Bret Harte's Heather
Chinee" are not confined to his manner
of playing poker or the cut of his coat,
but extend m even greater degree into
his treatment of his dead.
~. b. N, T.