BRONZES OF HSIN-CHENG HSIEN—BISHOP 465 
the diggers, which irretrievably ruined so many of the finest speci- 
mens. In other cases vessels of similar types, but of varying sizes, 
were stacked one upon another in regular gradation, “like a pa- 
goda,” as one particularly intelligent informant put it. This fact 
would seem to lend additional plausibility to the view that the 
earth covering them had accumulated gradually and not as the re- 
sult of a cave-in or even of the heaping up of a mound by human 
hands. 
But one inscription is known to have been found, and that merely a 
brief dedicatory one of a few characters, on the lip of a wine vessel, 
and possessing no definite historical significance. 
One of the noticeable things among many in this group of bronze 
objects is the very great number of bells both great and small. Of 
the latter there were, I understand, 17, ranging in size from about 
1 foot to 18 inches over all, with a projecting handle above, cast 
in one piece with the rest of the bell. There were also several much 
larger ones, the biggest approaching 4 feet in height. Of these I 
saw four on the occasion of my second visit to Chéng Chow. They 
were really magnificent objects, superior in their proportions, their 
dignity, and the quality of their decoration to anything of the kind 
that I ever saw before—really a revelation of the ancient bronze 
founder’s skill and good taste. It is interesting to note, in this 
connection, that in the year 642 B. C. the ruler of the state of 
Chéng Chow is recorded to have utilized a gift of metal tendered 
him by the king of Ch’u to cast three great bells. 
Scarcely inferior in prominence, and of even greater interest in 
many ways, were two pairs of great bronze vases, of fine propor- 
tions and beautifully decorated. One rested upon square bases sup- 
ported on the, backs of two couchant animals, apparently con- 
ventionalized tigers, while the handles surely represent bulls; on the 
four corners, lower down and likewise cast in the full round, appear 
what are unmistakably rams with spiral horns; the characteristic 
form of a ram’s head is most happily rendered. Both of these 
magnificent vessels were frightfully damaged by the diggers, one 
even having its couchant tiger base completely knocked off (cf. 
pl. 4, fig. 1). The other large pair, just mentioned, were very 
similar, and, though less elaborate in design, form in some ways 
even more remarkable examples of the founder’s art; these also were 
shockingly injured in digging out. 
Another noteworthy piece was a beautifully proportioned cauldron 
of tripod form, nearly three feet across. It had one side, unfor- 
tunately, completely smashed in where a digger had driven his 
pickaxe into it in order to wrench it out of its earthen matrix. Near 
it was a two-piece “steamer” of large size, rectangular in shape, 
with four legs; the lower portion to hold the boiling water; while 
