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in force only three days march along the road. I then attempted to reach Yuchow and Juchow, against the advice of the missionary who had taken flight from there and reached Honanfu, but could find no carters willing to transport my food and bedding and camera. On a short ride down the road towards these towns I met farmers in flight before the robbers who were to be seen a mile or so away. It would have been folly to have persisted further in trying to penetrate a regional already deserted by all white men and by such respectable Chinese as would not join forces with the bandits.
     At Hei Hsih Kwan, a station on the Honanfu line, I made a day's trip among the tombs of the Sung Imperial family. (1) My first impression of the giant monolithic figures which line the avenue to the tumuli was disappointing, but I found afterward that they were in truth superior to the other gigantic grave sculptures of China with the exception of the famous horses at the tomb of T'ai Tsong of T'ang at Sianfu. (2)
     I had not expected the wealth of evidence which I found proving the necessity for excavation on this site. Ancient walls could be traced among the crops, with mounds at the angles where ornamental pavilions or watch towers had once stood. Many statues were visible five or six feet deep in earth that had washed over them in consequence of the tilling of the soil. The grave tumuli themselves were of unbaked brick, not earth and rubble as had been reported to me, and were truncated pyramids in the case of graves of Imperial consorts and true pyramids in the case of the Emperors. They were arranged in pairs, the lower mounds of the Empresses being always on a northwest axis
(1) Chavannes: Plates CCCIV - CCCXII
(2) Chavannes: Plates CCLXXXVIII - CCXC