Cuar. XVII.) COFFINS KEPT IN HOUSES. 327 
the following beautiful and appropriate language: 
—‘ Here and there, as if dropped at random upon 
the sides of the hills, were clumps of pine trees, 
and peeping through their thick foliage, the roofs of 
houses and temples diversified the scene. Amongst 
many of the beautiful groves of trees which here 
invite the wanderer to repose, spots are selected as 
the resting-places of mortality; and gazing on 
those tranquil scenes, where the sweet clematis and 
fragrant flowers help to decorate the last home of 
man, the most careless eye cannot fail to mark the 
beauties of the grave.” 
In the Shanghae district I have frequently visited 
large houses which seem to have been built by the 
rich expressly as mausoleums. In these houses I 
generally found a coffin in one of the principal 
rooms, and an altar, with all the trappings of idola- 
try, where incense on high days is burned to the 
memory of the deceased, and various other cere- 
monies are gone through by the relatives, These 
houses or temples are generally surrounded by a 
pine wood, and sometimes the body is buried out of 
doors — the altar and records only being kept in 
the temple, where a servant with his family is 
always placed to look after them. 
When the English first established themselves at 
Shanghae, some of them had thoughts of taking 
houses in the country that their families might en- 
joy retirement and fresh air. One day towards the 
end of 1843, I accompanied a gentleman of my ac- 
x4 
