20 Field Museum of Natural History — Anth., Vol. XII. 



of the Filipino by the Borneo custom. 1 On both sides, we encounter 

 almost the same kinds of Chinese ceramic wares, the same veneration 

 for them, and a similar basis of folklore and mythology associated with 

 them, so that the belief in an interdependence seems justifiable. The 

 one fact stands out clearly: Chao Ju-kua, a reliable author of the Sung 

 period, himself a member of the imperial house, relates the export of 

 pottery to Borneo and the Philippines (in the case of Borneo also that 

 of celadons) at his time, the beginning of the thirteenth century, a 

 trade which may have set in at a much earlier date. This pottery can 

 but have been the contemporaneous pottery of the Sung period, and we 

 are, for this reason, entitled to look to the Philippines for Sung pottery. 

 As the pottery found in the caves is, in all probability, older than that 

 now possessed by the natives, there is the greatest likelihood of identi- 

 fying this burial pottery with the productions of the Sung period. The 

 investigations of the antiquities of the Philippines are in their begin- 

 nings, and further results and more tangible material must be awaited 

 before definite verdicts can be arrived at. The pottery fragments must 

 be carefully gathered and examined ; it is obvious that they will be pi 

 immense value in helping to make out the periods of these burial places. 

 The terminus a quo is given by the eleventh century. The small vessel 



1 The subject of jar-burial remains one to be investigated. It is still practised 

 in China among the Buddhist priesthood and, according to the observations of W. 

 Perceval Yetts (Notes on the Disposal of Buddhist Dead in China, Journal R. 

 Asiatic Society, 191 1, p. 705), occurs throughout the region of the Middle and Lower 

 Yangtse. The same author informs us (p. 707) that the earthenware tubs required 

 for this purpose resemble those commonly used for holding water or for storage of 

 manure. "Occasionally two ordinary domestic tubs (kang) joined mouth to mouth 

 are made to act as a coffin, though usually tubs specially manufactured for funeral 

 purposes are obtained. These are made in pairs, and are so designed that the rim 

 of the lid of the uppermost tub fits closely over the rim of the other, producing 

 a joint easily rendered airtight by the aid of cement. A pair thus joined together 

 forms a chamber resembling a barrel in shape." Most of these vessels are said to 

 come from the kilns of Wu-si in Kiangsu Province. The ancient earthenware 

 coffins, however, considered by Mr. Yetts in this connection, must be separated from 

 these burial jars, as they are pre-buddhistic in origin; such a pottery coffin with 

 green-glazed lid attributed to the T'ang period, is in the Chinese collection of the 

 Field Museum. E. Boerschmann (Die Baukunst und religiose Kultur der Chinesen, 

 Vol. I, P'u t'o shan, p. 175) states that the cremation and preservation of Buddhist 

 priests in large urns of glazed pottery is generally practised; that in the pottery kilns 

 of all provinces such jars are made up to 1.50 m in height and shipped far away, 

 and that a district on the Siang River in Hunan, a little north of the provincial 

 capital Ch'ang-sha, is a well-known place for their production. The jars are mostly 

 glazed brown, concludes Boerschmann, and adorned with reliefs alluding to death, 

 e. g. two dragons surrounding a dragon-gate and a pearl in the entrance, indicating 

 that the priest has passed the gate of perception and reached the state of perfection. 

 This information sheds light on the fact that it was dragon-jars which were utilized 

 on Borneo for purposes of burial. 



An interesting practice of jar-burial is revealed by Paul Pelliot (Le Fou-nan, 

 Bulletin de l' Ecole francaise a" Extrime-Orient, Vol. Ill, 1903, p. 279) from a passage 

 in the Fu-nan ki, written by Chu Chi in the fifth century A. D. It relates to the 

 kingdom of Tun-sun, a dependance of Fu-nan (Cambodja), which seems to have 

 been largely under the influence of Brahmanic India. Over a thousand Brahmans 



