Chap. HE. 



ENGLISH GEAVE-YARDS. 



57 



the tops of the huge coffins were used as supports 

 for their mosquito curtains. " What a traveller's 

 story ! Beggars with mosquito curtains, — the living 

 sleeping with the dead ! " Even so, gentle reader ; 

 we are now in China. 



In a country like England we pride ourselves 

 upon our civilization and good taste. But let us 

 fancy a Chinese traveller paying us a visit and 

 writing a description of our grave-yards. How 

 different would his pictures be from those which 

 I have now given, and how horrified would he 

 be with our barbarism and want of taste ! " The 

 English," he would say, " do not respect their 

 dead ; they crowd them into churchyards in 

 densely populated towns, and plant no pine-trees 

 or wild flowers about their graves. In many in- 

 stances they even dig them up before they are 

 fully decomposed, in order to make room for 

 others ! Their children look upon such places 

 with dread, and will not pass them willingly after 

 nightfall." Such would be his reflections, or at 

 least would have been a few years ago. Let us 

 hope that in a very short period the good sense 

 of the people and the energy of Government will 

 do away with such relics of barbarism. 



But what does it matter, says some stern moral- 

 ist, where one is buried — whether in the deep sea, 

 the crowded city, or amid the beauties of nature 

 on the hill-side ? I do not argue the point, but my 

 taste leads me to prefer the customs of the Chinese, 

 where one can sleep in peace after being buried, 



