GOVERNMENT. — RELIGION. — FUNERAL RITES. 319 



minority of the ruling prince, and unless lie is endowed with perj^etual childhood, or there has 

 been a succession of juvenile kings, it is diificult to reconcile the experiences of the various 

 travellers who have visited Lew Chew in the long intervals of scores of years. The literati, as 

 in China and Japan, compose the higher and ruling classes, and, as in these countries, are pre- 

 pared for official position by a diligent study of the doctrines of Confucius and Mencius. In 

 fact, the young men belonging to families of rank are ordinarily sent to China to complete their 

 education, and fit them for their positions as officers of the government. The exclusive policy 

 of Japan is that also of Lew Chew, and was rigidly adhered to until dissolved by the intercourse 

 of the Americans under Commodore Perry. The system of espionage pervades the whole 

 government from the administration of the highest to the lowest official. Most of the higher 

 classes seem to have little else to do than to watch every word and movement of the people, and 

 form a large body of indolent non-producers, who live idly upon the hard tasked laborers of the 

 lower classes, who are treated with all the rigor of social servitude. The country is supposed 

 to have been conc[uered, centuries ago, by a Japanese prince of Satsuma, to the successor of 

 whom it is believed to be tributary, although there are some relations not well understood with 

 China. 



The religion of Lew Chew is, as we have before stated, the generally prevalent Buddhism of 

 the east, with a mixture of various idolatries peculiar to the island; there are, however, not 

 many temples in Lew Chew, and those which exist do not attract a very large or a very 

 devoted class of worshippers. As in China and Japan, a general skepticism or religious 

 indifference seems to exist, particularly among the literati, or higher classes. The Bonzes, or 

 priests, however, are treated with greater reverence in Lew Chew than in most oriental 

 countries, though they have the same forlorn look, and go about, with their shaven crowns and 

 fusty garments, like similar miserable mendicants in China. 



Great reverence is paid to the dead in Lew Chew, where they are put in coffins in a sitting 

 postm-e, and, being followed by the friends and relations and a procession of women in long 

 wh ite veils which cover their heads and faces, are interred in well built stone vaults, or tombs 

 constructed in the sides of the hills. After the body has been interred for a period of seven 

 years and all the flesh is decayed, the bones are removed and deposited in stone vases, which 

 are placed upon shelves within the vaults. The poor people place the remains of their dead in 

 earthen jars, and deposit them in the crevices of the rocks, where they are often to be seen 

 broken and disarranged. Periodical visits are paid by the surviving friends and relations to 

 the burial places, where they deposit offerings upon the tombs. On the first interment of the 

 rich dead, roast pigs and other articles of food are offered, and after being allowed to remain for 

 a short time, are distributed among the poor. 



During the explorations of the island of Lew Chew, which were so effectively prosecuted by 

 the Kev. Mr. Jones, Mr. Taylor, Drs. Pahs, Greene, and others, under the direction of the 

 Commodore, and which resulted in the obtaining of so much new information in regard to a 

 singular people, of whom little has been previously known to the world, there were many 

 specimens obtained of their various fabrics and of their natural productions, and particularly 

 of their botany, which have been brought to the United States for the investigation of the 

 scientific and the interest of the curious. 



The purposes of the Commodore in regard to the island had been so far effectively carried out. 

 The building for the storing of coal had been completed, the temple appropriated for the 



