'A friend set forth a few days ago on a motor tour of the vicinity of Nankow, Tangshan-the hot Bprings that' the Emperors used to patronize, and the Ming Tombs, with several objects in mind. "One ewos {0 explore the network of new roads in that part of the country and another was to have a protract-fed soak in the mineral springs at} 'Tangshan as an antidote to. the Bachelors' ball of the previous night (and same. morning). His. thied arose was to search for subjects upon which he could try out un all-steel German camera with a very expensive lens that he had Bought as a bargain from a departing resident. The photographs Feproduced with this article are the traits of the experiment. They are of some of the huge stone figures that Tine the long approach to the Ming Tombs. Everyone who. has een to Peking and has "done" the place properly has seen them, oF has at any rate soon similar though ternaller ones elsewhere, Th about 600 years old and are bigger, have more artistic merit and are Detter "preserved than most—and that is about all that one' would normally have to say of them before referring, the reader to the mai mide books for the rest.
Ihnppens, however, the friend who took these photos showed the writer the first prints with due Bride and asked "whether copies would he of any use, "Of no immediate use" said 1, "bot they might serve to sllustente something: some day, 80 T should be 1g" exclaimed the photographer. "They illustrate nothing but the Ming Tombs and you're "surely not going to write about them. I can't imagine anything that would seem more banal "No," 1 admitted, "the Tombs no Jonger_make an appeal, but why not something about the animals only imitation gold and silver ingots, carts, carriages and the-like, but human figures-as well—figures. of attendants and maid servants, We may not only suppose that this custom is a survival of an unpleasant practice of sacrificing human beings to the dead to attend him in the next world, we know Such sacrifices within historical times in China are on record and also persist in folk tradition. Stories of the voluntary immolation of wives are particularly common, When the builder of the Great Wall was buried near Lintung in Shensi at the close of the 3rd century B.C., all the women of his harem who had not borne children and hundreds of his male retainers were either put to death or committed suicide; while the workmen who had con: structed his elaborate tomb and those who had carried in the vast store of treasure, were walled in with him. Nor did such customs die out with the Ch'in Dynasty, A Milder Age There came however a time when such sacrifices were considered bar-barons and when the animals and human retainers that were to ae-company the exalted into the shadow Innd were represented by the terra cotta figurines of horses. and camels, men and women, which come in such numbers from Honan and Shensi and are part of the stock in trade of every curio dealer, These were buried with the deceased potentate. together with weapons, utensils and money. Whether the change to paper representa that could be burned instead "But yati cannot say anything about them," said he, "unless you simply vay herewith one piece atone mandarin, two piece stone elephant and one piece, stone Won, take "em "If T can't write something about those stone animals" T retorted, "it will be because my, fingers have withered on the keys.
"If you promise to write somethinge about them then" said the owner. of the films with scorn incredulity, "Til have a sct of prints made, on shiny paper for reproduction." This fen then retort to a challenge, Those who have read recently published accounts of Mr, Wooles's excavations at Ur will remember that much interest was aroused by the opening of a tomb containing the body of a dead queen of very ancient times and, with her, the Yolies of the numerous, retainers and attendants that had been daughtered at her funeral so that they, like the treasures and utensils buried with her, might be of service fo her in a' future life. All primitive peoples seem to have had ome conception of the sort. The humblest prehistoric. barrows con not only the bones but the trinkets and weapons of the persons ever whom they were raised. The enormous store of wealth bu with Tatankhamen was meant for his greater ease and deleetation—T was almost going to say aprond, for the certainty of material needs in the next world was as firmly fixed in the yptian mind as is} the certainty that he will need clothes and money in England to the Frenchman who sets tail across, the Channel. When the dead Viz King wus sent No sea in his burni Boat, he too had not only his trap Pings but the corpses of his horse and dog as well, for use in Valhalla presumably. The horse and doe are only led inthe faneral pracessfons ff great soldiers now, but custom ie of course a di survival of the older one, Tu. modern China paper replicas of the things that a man considers
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.