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[[underline]] Chapter II. [[/underline]]   32.

the vertical side of the pit two transverse layers, one slightly above the skull, the other just beneath it. Both were about 3.5 [[underline]] cm. [[/underline]] wide. Their edges were colored red to a depth of something less than a centimeter, while they otherwise consisted of some very dark material. Both layers were much softer than the surrounding earth. The one below the skull was practically  in contact with the latter's occipital area, and was horizontal; the other was arched over it at a distance of about 5 [[underline]] cm. [[/underline]] above the facial region (see sketch, fig 8). 
   The impression which my examination of these two layers gave me was that they were the remains of some moderately pliable material, probably organic, such as thick hide or possibly matting; and that they had been used at the time of the burial to protect the body from direct contact with the earth. Both had obviously been thickly coated on each side with red pigment, presumably identical in nature with that appearing on the other objects associated with the interment.
   The Chinese spectators commented upon the absence of a coffin. As is well known, there has long existed in China a strong prejudice against simple inhumation of an unprotected body. True coffins seem however not to have come into use until late in the Chou period. [[superscript footnote indication]] (17) At
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   (17)
      [[Underline]] Cf. [[/underline]] Dr. H.G. Creel, [[underline]] The Birth of China [[/underline]], Lond., 1936; ref. on p. 176.
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first they appear often if not regularly to have been made of leather, not of wood as at the present day. [[superscript footnote indication]] (18) But since leather is scarcely
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   (18)
      We are told in the [[underline]] Li Chi[[/underline]] 礼记, for example, that the inner coffin ([[underline]] kuan [[/underline]] 棺 of the Son of Heaven is made of the hide of the water ssŭ (水兕华). The latter may be merely an-
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