Chap. XV. 
GRAVES VISITED. 
255 
I was once or twice in the wild mountain districts in 
the interior at the time when the natives visited the 
tombs. Even the most retired parts had their visitors, 
and it was both pleasing and affecting to see the little 
groups assembled round the graves, paying the tribute of 
affection to those whose memory they revered and loved. 
The widow was seen kneeling by the grave of her lost 
husband ; children, often very young, shedding tears of 
sorrow for a father or mother; and sometimes an old 
man whose hair was white with age was there mourning 
the loss of those whom he had looked to as the support j 
of his declining years. All were cutting the long grass j 
and weeds which were growing round the tombs, and 1 
planting their favourite flowers to bloom and to decorate | 
them. 
Near Amoy this scattered mode of interring the 
dead has been departed from, and perhaps necessarily, 
in consequence of the large population ; in the country, 
however, I sometimes found tombs in retired and inac- 
cessible parts of the hills here, as well as in the more 
southern provinces ; but these were evidently the pro- 
perty of the wealthy inhabitants. 
As the traveller proceeds northward the circular form 
of the tombs is less common, and they become more 
varied in their appearance. In Chusan, Ning-po, and 
various other places in that district, a great number of 
the coffins are placed on the surface of the ground and 
merely thatched over with straw. I met with these 
coffins in all sorts of places, — on the sides of the public 
highway — on the banks of the rivers and canals — and in 
woods and other retired parts of the country. Some- 
