The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-07-18

gave him lady of the court for wife. But his marital happiness was soon sadly marred by his discovery that according to the law of the land, every living hus- band was buried with his dead wife, and vice versa.
 The universal burial place was the hol- reached only by shaft from the top, which was securely sealed and guarded after each burial-every husband being buried in the midst of his earthly treas ures in gold, silver and jewels, in order that his happiness in the next world might not be menaced by lack of funds. Sinbad describes such a burial-of a dead wife and living husband;
 r. can be imagined how this tale stimu- lated adventurous treasure hunters to re- newed efforts. Later on, when archaeolo- gists had discovered the rockhewn tenn ples and tombs of ancient Egyptian kings at various places along the upper Nile, and made their discoveries widely known, the idea of ancient monarchs being buried with all their wealth about them became a hundred times more credible. For this was the custom of the old royal Egyptians.
 But the actual location of the Chinese Treasure Mountain brought no solution of the difficulty Chinese superstition and reverence for the dead was an insur- mountable barrier, and treasure hunting in that direction gradually died out. It remained for American capital to take ad- vantage of the birth of a New China with financial necessities that would override superstition.
 Shin Hwang ri, who had been the Duke of the Kingdom of Tsin, subdued all the other kingdoms, placed himself on the throne and effected a consolidation of the country which has lasted to the present day. He drove the rebellious Tartars be- ~f4 ,f~xro hon employed his soldiers in the construction of the Great Wall of China, which, until the completion of the Panama Canal, was the greatest engineering feat the world had ever seen. He also built a great part of the Grand Canal of China, and made many improvements in the construction of roads and cities.
 Although an able and energetic ruler, the Emperor was very superstitious, even for his day and his race. He feared no man and was renowned for his brave deeds, but he lived in great terror of evil spirits, which he believed were pursuing him all through life. One of his subter- fuges to avoid these spirits was to go about dressed as beggar, while he com pelled courier who looked very much like him to wear the imperial robes. This, of course, was to deceive the evil spirits, who, thinking him a beggar would spare him and turn their unwelcome attentions to the poor cOufJler. I1e dlSO CoholiuStC an enormous palace containing 1000 rooms, and slept in different room every night, also to deceive the spirits.
 It was this superstition which was re- sponsible for the great tomb and for the treasure placed in it. He believed, as do many Chinese to this day, that his happi' ness in his future life would depend on the security with which his body was buried and the amount of treasure buried with it. So while Shin Hwang-Ti was collecting taxes and tribute for the con struction of the Great Wall, he was just as energetically collecting treasure for his tomb and pushing forward the work on it. Just as the Great Wall, the Grand Canal and his other enterprises were greater than any the world had ever seen, so was his tomb to be the greatest and the richest.
 An account of the construction of the tomb written by Chinese historian less than a century after the death of the Elm peror, reads as follows
 "In the ninth moon the First Empel or was buried in Mount Lii, which in the carly days of his reign he had caused to be tunneled and prepared with that view. At that time, when he had consolidated