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ture in the following order: A number of men march in file, carrying pasteboard figures of slaves, elephants, lions, tigers, &c. Others follow with flags, censers filled with perfumes, and tables of sweetmeats; while melancholy and plaintive airs are played on drums, bells, and other instruments. Immediately after the musicians follows the coffin, which is carried under a canopy of violet-coloured silk, neatly embroidered and covered with network. The eldest son, clothed in a canvass frock, having his body bent and leaning on a staff, follows near the coffin; behind him are his brothers, two and two, leaning on crutches, as if unable to support themselves; and the procession is closed with the mother and daughters, carried in close chairs, and all the other relations and friends of the deceased, in mourning. They all make great show of sorrow on this occasion, and deafen the spectators with their doleful cries; but M. Grosier observes, their lamentations are so methodical, that a European might easily suppose them to be merely the effects of art.

When they arrive at the place of interment, the coffin is deposited in a tomb appropriated for it; and at a small distance there are several temporary halls, with tables covered with provisions, and served up with great splendour to the mourners and attendants. The repast is sometimes followed by fresh marks of homage to the corpse, but these are generally dispensed with, and the company content themselves with complimenting the eldest son; who, however, answers only by signs. But if the deceased were a grandee of the empire, his relations do not leave the tomb for a month or two, but reside in apartments prepared for them, and renew their homage daily. The magnificence of these funerals is proportioned to the wealth or dignity of the deceased. That of one of the emperor's brothers was attended by upwards of sixteen thousand people, and each individual had a particular office assigned him in the ceremony.

Some of the Chinese have carried their filial attachment so far as to retain their fathers' bodies for three or four years in their own houses; and impose upon themselves a number of humiliating duties, using no other seat, during the day, but a stool covered with white serge, and no other bed but a plain mat, made of reeds, which is usually

placed near the coffin. The generality of them have such a profound veneration for the burying-places of their ancestors, that no consideration can induce them to travel into remote parts of the world; and they seem to despise those of their countrymen who, for the sake of trade or other causes, go to reside in Sunda, or the adjacent islands, Decause they imagine that these men must leave their bones in unhallowed ground.

Mountains and solitary places remote from towns are generally chosen for the interment of the great, and some of their sepulchres are very magnificent. If a tomb be erected in a valley or plain, a large heap of earth is raised over it, as a tumulus, and covered with white plaster, so that no wet can penetrate the tomb below. In the vault an altar is erected, and covered with meats, incense, lighted tapers, and figures of slaves and animals, which are supposed to be serviceable to the dead in another state. And if the defunct held any considerable office, his most virtuous actions are engraved on marble and fixed up in front of the tomb; while a number of figures, representing officers, eunuchs, horses, stags, camels, lions, and elephants, are ranged round in different rows; and groves of aged cypresses preserve an awful and melancholy gloom about them, which is certainly calculated to make a deeper impression on the contemplative mind than the costly decorations of funeral monuments in Europe.

In

Each family of respectability has a large building, called the hall of ancestors, erected on some part of their estates, which is common for all the branches of that family. this hall a long table is set against the wall, on which are painted the figures of their ancestors, who have rendered themselves illustrious by their talents, or filled some office under government with honour to themselves. Sometimes, however, it contains only the names of men, women, and children, belonging to the family, with their ages and dignities, inscribed upon tablets.

In spring, the relations assemble at this hall; and the wealthiest of them prepare a banquet which seems to have been originally designed for the dead; for they never touch any of the viands till an offering has been made with due solemnity. But exclusive of these annual enter. tainments, the Chinese consider themselves obliged to

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visit the real tombs of their ancestors, once or twice ayear; when they begin by plucking up the weeds and bushes that surround the sepulchre, and conclude by placing wine and provisions upon it, which serve to dine their assistants. The poorer class of people, who have no hall to honour their ancestors, are satisfied with fixing up their names in the most open part of their houses.

MECHANISM.

CURIOUS CLOCK AT STRASBURGH.

AT Strasburgh there is a clock of all others the most famous, invented by Conradius Dasipodius, in the year 1571. Before the clock stands a globe on the ground, showing the motions of the heavens, stars, and planets. The heavens are carried about by the first mover, in twenty-four hours. Saturn, by his proper motion, is carried about in thirty years; Jupiter in twelve; Mars, in two; the Sun, Mercury, and Venus, in one year; and the Moon in ore month. In the clock itself there are two tables on the right and left hand, shewing the eclipses of the sun and moon from the year 1573 to the year 1624. The third table in the middle, is divided into three parts. In the first part the statues of Apollo and Diana shew the course of the year, and the day thereof, being carried about in one year; the second part shews the year of our Lord, and the equinoctial days, the hours of each day, the minutes of each hour, Easter day, and all other feasts, and the dominical letter. The third part hath the geogra phical description of all Germany, and particularly of Strasburgh, and the names of the inventor and all the workmen. In the middle frame of the clock is an astrolabe, shewing the sign in which each planet is every day; and there are the statues of the seven planets upon a round piece of iron, lying flat; so that every day the planet that rules the day comes forth, the rest being hid within the frames, till they come out by course at their day; as the sun upon Sunday, and so for all the week. And

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