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[[underline]] Chapter XIII. [[/underline]] 268.

was situated, far below us, the village of P'i-tzŭ Wan, we could see many Mongols, most of them on horseback but some mounted on camels.
  On October 1st Mr. Tung and Mr. Ch'iu went again to the yamên to ask i^[[f]] any word had come from Gov. Yen.  Meanwhile Mr. Wenley and I, with Kuang-lien to help us, made further trial of that much dissected loess country, southwest of Ta T'ung, which we had visited the previous spring (see pp. 240 [[underline]] sq. [[/underline]] ).  We spent much of the day riding through the deeply eroded gullies abounding there, and saw protruding from their steep banks numerous burials---human bones and portions of decayed wooden coffins---exposed by landslides.  Some of these we examined; but none appeared to be ancient or to offer anything of interest to us.
  On our way back to our inn we rode through the town, which we found bustling with preparations for the Mid-Autumn Festival (corresponding more or less to our All Souls' Day), due next morning according to the old Chinese lunar calendar.  We also noted on this occasion, suspended from the piers of the city's south gate, several little wooden cages or crates designed to hold the heads of decapitated criminals; one of them still contained a dried human skull. [[superscript]] (241) [[/superscript]]
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[[superscript]] (241) [[/superscript]] This custom, no longer practised in the coastal areas, is still sometimes found in the interior of China.  Ordinarily a decapitated criminal's head is stitched roughly back in place and buried with his body.  In case of more heinous offences, however, it is exposed to public view, in one of the aforementioned crates; the culprit's ghost, according to old Chinese ideas, being doomed thereupon to wander about in the spirit world without a head.
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  On returning to our quarters, Mr. Tung and Mr. Ch'iu told us that no word had yet come from the governor; but that the magistrate saw in that fact no reason why we should feel impatient or discouraged.  Late the same afternoon we revisited the shop of the potter whose acquaintance we had made earlier in the year (see page 230), and showed him some of our new finds of potsherds; but he again declared emphatically that so far