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0149	Innermost Asia : vol.2
極奥アジア : vol.2

these were usually provided with small niches at the sides for the accommodation of funerary images
and the like.⁴ Considering that the same enclosures also hold tombs of the simpler type, there is
no reason to attach chronological significance to this variation in the plan. In three of the tombs
examined, Ast. ii. 2; vi. 1, 4, the walls of the chamber bore roughly executed paintings representing
possessions and pleasures such as the soul of the dead there buried was obviously desired to enjoy
in a transmundane existence. In other tombs the back wall of the chamber was occupied by a
hanging of painted silk. In the tombs i. 2, 6 and v. 2, which had been disturbed and conse-
quently left open to the access of air for some time, only the scantiest indications of such hangings
had survived. In ix. 2, however, the only intact tomb, the hanging was still in its place and
shows, as now recovered, Ast. ix. 2. 054 (Pl. CIX), the figures of Fu-hsi and his consort Nü-wa in
embrace, with their lower serpentine bodies entwined.⁵

There is every reason to assume that in all tombs the dead were originally placed within coffins, Bodies
in conformity with those Chinese notions concerning the dwelling proper for the body which appear placed in
to have been strongly held throughout the historical period.⁶ But only in the undisturbed tomb coffins.
ix. 2 were the coffins of its three occupants found as originally deposited. In a few others scanty
remains of coffins had been left behind by the plunderers; in all the rest they had taken care to
carry away all the wood of the coffins, so useful as fuel in a tract where timber is very scarce. The
coffins of ix. 2 were of simple construction, fastened only with wooden nails,⁷ and had sheets of silk
and cotton canvas spread over them, supplemented in the case of the principal burial by a painted
silk showing Fu-hsi and Nü-wa. Before recording observations concerning the treatment of the
bodies as buried it is important to note that in all the tombs, with one or two exceptions where the
contents had suffered very badly, two or three bodies were found. This is fully explained by
the fact, referred to in the funerary inscription of Ast. v. 1 and discussed by M. Maspero in a special
note, that it was a ritual obligation to bury the wife in the same tomb as the husband.⁸ In ix. 2
the two smaller coffins undoubtedly housed women; in the other instances also one, or where
three bodies were found in the same tomb two of them, had the appearance of being those of females.

Turning to the bodies themselves, it is noteworthy that in several cases where they were Shrouding
fairly well preserved, such as in i. 6; ix. 1; ix. 2. a, b, there was clear evidence that the dead had of bodies.
not been laid out, the legs being left just as they were when death rigor occurred. The hands
of most of these bodies which were not too badly damaged held Vajra-shaped pieces of wood, which
had been originally covered with torn fabrics.⁹ Observations of special interest relate to the
dressing of the dead. As outside coverings shrouds of plain silk and cotton were placed over the
bodies; these were found on practically all the corpses that had not undergone too much stripping
or battering.¹⁰ In these cases it was observed that the outer shroud of silk had been painted, where
it covered the front portion of the head, with the representation of two faces in profile, on a scale
less than life-size.¹¹ In respect of the clothing of the dead beneath these shrouds two different
types of treatment can clearly be distinguished. The more frequent offers a special archaeological
interest. It consisted of wrapping around the body rag-like pieces of miscellaneous fabrics, mostly
silks, whether plain, coloured or figured, and cottons; these in some cases could still be clearly

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