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[[underline]] Chapter III. [[/underline]]   45.

ever, that the late Dr. Davidson Black expressed the opinion to Mr. Wenley and me that among the bones which we found, one was possibly the femur of a female. According to Dr. Li, the two sets of bones exhibited different degrees of fossilization, the process being more advanced in the case of the male (pp. 24, 26). Many of the bones in both lots were stained with red pigment (p. 15).
   Here again our lack of precise information prevents us from forming any definite conclusions. Despite the rumor mentioned above, the two sets of bones seems not to have been found closely associated in the first place. Moreover the difference in the degree of fossilization suggests, though it does not prove, that the two individuals may have been buried at different times. Possibly the bones found by Dr. Li represent a secondary interment quite unconnected with the first.
   On the other hand they may have been those of a favorite concubine (scarcely a principal wife), buried with her master. Recent discoveries have shown that during Shang times great numbers of human victims were buried with important persons. The practice appears to have become nearly but not quite extinct by the middle of the Chou period; it also seems then to have tended to assume a voluntary character somewhat like that attributed, not always correctly, to the Indian [[underlined]] satī [[/underlined]] (25). Hence the presence of a second skeleton, and that too
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   (25) 
      De Groot, [[underlined]] op. cit. [[/underlined]], Vol. II, Bk. I, p. 723 and note 3, points out that the character [[underlined]] hsün [[/underlined]] [[CHINESE CHARACTER]], used in ancient writings to denote the burial of human beings with the important dead, bears in the [[underlined]] Shu Ching [[/underlined]], Sect. [[underlined]] I hsün [[/underlined]] [[CHINESE CHARACTERS]], the meaning "to desire", "to seek".
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of a female, in connection with the interment might, on [[underlined]] a priori [[/underlined]] grounds alone, almost be expected.
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