do the Chinefe bury their dead within the precin£ts o f a city or
town, much lefs within the walls o f their temples ; but always
depoiit them at a proper diftance from the dwellings o f the
living, in which refpe£t they have more difcretion than the
Europeans; who not only allow the interment o f dead bodies
in the midft o f their populous cities, but have thruft them alfo
into places o f public worihip, where crowded congregations
are conftantly expofed to the naufeous effluvia, and perhaps
infe&ion, arifmg from putrid carcafes. Yet fo tenacious are
the people o f the privilege o f interment within the walls o f the
church, in fome countries o f Europe, that any attempt to discontinue
the imprudent cuftom would be attended with fome
degree o f danger, as happened to the late Grand Duke o f T ui-
•Cany who,, having built a commodious and fpacious cemetery
without the city o f Florence, to which it was intended to
remove the coffins out o f the vaults o f the church, had
nearly raifed a rebellion among his fubje<fts. In Render s tour
through Germany, an inftance is given o f the fatal effedts o f
burying in churches, the relation o f which makes-, one ihudder
with horror.
The bank o f the river, being one o f the enclofing fences to
•the burying-ground, was ornamented with beautiful weeping
willows which, with,a few Solitary cyprefles interfperfed among
'known and pra&ifed in this country. He obferves, that at Ou-tche there is a temple
or pagoda inhabited by a number o f priefts, who ihew the body of a very ancient
bonze, prepared in fuch a manner, and filled with fuch ingredients, that it does not
decay, but remains perfeftly entire. He is dreffed in his robes o f ceremony, and in
his hand he .holds a machine which was invented by him for cleaning riqe.
the
the tombs, were the only trees that appeared in this part o f the
country.
In a corner o f the cemetery was a temple, built after the
ufual plan, with an altar in the center; and a number o f deities
moulded in clay were ranged on each fide on ftone pedeftals.
We obferved no priefts; but an elderly lady was very bufily
employed in throwing the flicks o f fate, in order to obtain a
lucky number in which, however, fhe failed. During the
operation o f fhaking the cup, her countenance betrayed a greater
degree o f eagernefs and anxiety than ufually appears an the
face o f a Chinefe; and fhe left the temple in a peeviih and
muttering tone, fufficiently expreffive o f the greatnefs o f her
difappointment which, it.feemed, was no lefs than a refufal, on
the part of the oracle, to hold out the hope o f her being blefled
with a fecond huiband. Till this circumftance had been explained
to us by the keeper o f the temple, it was concluded that
the old lady had been muttering imprecations againft us for disturbing
her in the midft o f her devotions.
After two days’ fail from Tien-Jing we arrived at a city o f the
third order* called Tchien-Jhien. The furface o f the interjacent
country had continued the fame uniform plain, without a
pebble in the fo il: the extent o f cultivation by no means extraordinary
; and the few fcattered villages o f mean houfes indicated
* For the convenience o f collecting and diftribu,ting the taxes raifed in kind, the
diftriCts, and cities within them, are divided into three claffes, diftinguifhed by the
adjuncts foo, tchoo, Jbien. The Jhieri is aniwerable to the tchooj the tchoo to the foo;
and the f 00 to the board pf revenue in the capital.
3 s 2 no