BRONZES OF HSIN-CHHNG HSIEN—BISHOP 461 
field work, what with his industry, his cheerfulness, and his quick- 
ness to learn. 
On my return to Chéng Chow I found that Gen. Chin Shih-chang 
was still away; so I wrote direct to His Excellency Gen. Wu Pei-fu, 
telling him about the first-rate importance of the discovery and ask- 
ing permission to give it further and more intensive study. Feeling 
confident of a favorable reply, my associates and I hastened back to 
Peking and began to prepare for a return to the scene of activity. 
We were not disappointed; for within a very short interval there 
came a most cordial telegram from General Wu, inviting us to 
come back and carry on whatever investigations we might wish, and 
stating that he had issued instructions to his subordinates on the 
scene to give us whatever help we might need. A very few days 
later saw us back in Hsin-chéng Hsien, equipped to make a careful 
and detailed study of the site. 
I found that it had been dug almost entirely over while I had 
been away, the various vertical shafts having been extended to form 
one large pit (cf. pl. 2), while the work of excavation had been 
pushed much farther to the north. Nothing, however, in the way 
of bronze vessels had been found. On the other hand, much had 
come to light regarding the details of the interment. It was with 
the greatest eagerness that I set to work, with the help of my two 
associates, both as keenly interested as myself, to make a study of 
the site as it then lay exposed. My work consisted in securing photo- 
graphs, in making a plane-table survey of the site and its immediate 
surroundings, and in taking copious notes, based partly on my own 
personal observations and partly on such evidence as I could gather 
from those who had either witnessed or had actually taken part in 
the work of excavation. 
It would be hard to say with any assurance, from what I saw 
personally, whether there had ever been a vault or funeral chamber 
of any sort over the body, for nearly all that portion of the site had 
been dug away before my first visit. The impression I formed, 
however, on various grounds was that there had been in all likeli- 
hood something of the kind, and that, further, it was of wood, no 
doubt in imitation of the contemporary dwelling house, and therefore 
with a pitched roof. There is also, I think, reason to believe that this 
structure did not collapse under the weight of the mound heaped 
over it, but that rather the seepage of mud caused by the yearly 
summer rains gradually choked its interior, completely embedding 
the contents in a matrix of the same yellow clay of which the 
mound itself was composed. Had there been a collapse of the struc- 
ture the bronzes, for instance, would surely have been discovered 
partly overturned and in more or less disarray, whereas the fact 
