Living in Hsi-an Fu is extremely cheap, flour being sold at eighteen to 

 twenty cash per catty, or about a half-penny a pound. Vegetables are sold at 

 correspondingly low rates, and even meat is less expensive than in most places 

 further north. Oranges, pommeloes, pears, persimmons, and grapes are 

 particularly abundant, though only the last three are actually grown in the 

 district. The two first, together with sugar-cane, bamboo -shoots, and 

 innumerable dried luxuries — cuttlefish, mushrooms, shrimps, and sharksfins — 

 are imported at comparatively low prices from the south-east and south-west. 



But in the present chapter it is proposed to deal, not so much with the 

 commercial importance of Hsi-an, as with the many interesting relics which 

 are to be found in the neighbourhood, and which bear witness to the former 

 glory and prosperity of the ancient capital. A thorough e.xamination of these 

 would demand months, at least, of patient research ; an adequate description 

 would fill several volumes ; so that we must content ourselves with making 

 mention of such objects of archaeological interest as were brought to our 

 notice, and setting down any legends or stories about them which came to our 

 ears. 



The visitor to Hsi-an, as he travels over the rolling plain from no matter 

 what direction, cannot fail to notice numerous mounds of unusual shape dotted 

 about everywhere like immense molehills, often attaining a height of at least 

 100 feet, and standing on bases of very considerable area. So remarkable are 

 they that he will instinctively seek information concerning them, and will 

 learn that they are the tombs of kings and emperors, and their wives, and of 

 scholars and sages notable in their day. But few indeed have anything in the 

 way of tombstone or epitaph to tell who sleeps beneath the tons of yellow 

 earth ; though, concerning some, fantastic legends still linger in the minds of 

 the people. Perhaps the best known of the many hundred mounds that go to 

 make the Hsi-an plain a veritable Royal Cemetery, is the one that marks the 

 burial place of Shih Huang-ti, of the Chin dynasty, the builder of the Great 

 Wall. This mound is situated some twelve or fifteen miles to the east of 

 Hsi-an and close to the small town of Lin-t'ung Hsien, famous for the hot 

 springs already described. This mound differs from the others in resembling 

 a bell-tent, much depressed, instead of a camel's hump, and in being 

 surmounted by a monument. It rises to a height of about thirty feet, and is 

 said to contain vast treasure. The story goes that e.xtraordinary precautions 

 were taken to prevent the rifling of the tomb ; special mechanism was devised 

 to secure the vault, and the workmen who constructed it were buried inside. 

 Shih Huang-ti (iie Prince Ch'eng) was hated by the literati of his age because 



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