30 SMITHSONIAN M ISCELLANEOL'S COLLECTIONS VOL. 8o 



The writer has visited the caves about Kiating and Suifu a number 

 of times, and is convinced that Mr. Torrance is right, and that these 

 are burial tombs of the early Chinese. The reasons, briefly stated, are 

 as follows : 



First, the relics found in these caves very closely resemble those 

 in the tombs of North China which belong in the Han and the Tang 

 Dynasties. The watchdogs look so much alike that one could believe 

 that they came from the same tomb. The articles found are very 

 similar, from earthenware images of houses, hmiian beings, and 

 chickens to the coins and the jade cicadas that were placed on the 

 tongues of the dead. Evidently, they were the work of the same 

 civilization. 



Secondly, the coins in the Szechuanese tombs are all Chinese coins. 

 The dates of most of them can easily be determined.' 



Thirdly, large numl)ers of these caves still have remnants of coffins 

 in them. .Some caves have ])laces for several coffins, indicating that 

 they were probably used by a family. Some of the coffins have been 

 found with skeletons in them. Uaber's "cisterns" are the places 

 where the coffins are found. 



Fourthly, the caves are so well made that they are evidently the 

 work of a people who were in a high state of civilization. 



Fifthly, we know of no tribe of aborigines in West China that is 

 accustomed either to live or to bury its dead in artificial caves of this 

 kind. 



We beliexe that the weight of evidence is strongly in favor of the 

 theory that the caves of Szechuan are Chinese burial tombs dating 

 approximately two thousand years ago. 



/Ml the images yet found in these caves are of unglazed, burnt 

 clay, of a gray color. Later the Chinese of Szechuan ceased the bury- 

 ing of their dead in caves, and buried them in tombs covered by 

 mounds. Many of the images found in the later tombs are beautifully 

 •dazed. ^ 



^Journal of llie Nortli-Cliina P.ranch of tlie Royal .\siatic Society, Vol. XLl, 

 1910, p. 69. 



^ Some diagrams are appended that the writer ha.s made of carvings on caves 

 near Kiating, and also copies of some pictures that he found on the side of a cave 

 at Song Tsui, near Li Chuang, east of Suifu. The hat worn by the man whose 

 picture is carved in the cave near Song Tsui resembles those on clay images, 

 unglazed. 



