The Chinese government forbids intra-mural interment. Public burial-grounds, given by government, are only used for the very poor, or for strangers dying far away from their homes, and who have not had money enough to carry them to their native places. Sometimes at the seaports, or other great places of trade, the men from some distant province will subscribe and purchase a cemetery, where those who are rich have temporary sepulture, and the poor lie till the angel shall proclaim that time shall be no more. Usually each family has its own little graveyard in its own piece of ground. Graveyards are therefore dotted over every plain. Some of them have very fine trees. It is quite unusual to see graves unshaded by the dark yew, or the feathery arbor vitæ.

We have now reached the great main highway to Peking. To-day we meet a courier with the imperial mail for the South. A most imposing personage he seems. His yellow silk sash, and his despatches rolled in yellow silk and tied across his shoulders, proclaim his dignity. Couriers travel very rapidly. At each stage a man waits, ready mounted, to receive the packages, and transfer them to the next stage. No delay is permitted.