NOTE 4.—­Rashiduddin relates that the escort, in carrying Chinghiz to his burial, slew all whom they met, and that forty noble and beautiful girls were despatched to serve him in the other world, as well as superb horses.  As Mangku Kaan died in the heart of China, any attempt to carry out the barbarous rule in his case would involve great slaughter. (Erd. 443; D’Ohsson, I. 381, II. 13; and see Cathay, 507-508.)

Sanang Setzen ignores these barbarities.  He describes the body of Chinghiz as removed to his native land on a two-wheeled waggon, the whole host escorting it, and wailing as they went:  “And Kiluken Bahadur of the Sunid Tribe (one of the Khan’s old comrades) lifted up his voice and sang—­

’Whilom Thou didst swoop like a Falcon:  A rumbling waggon now
trundles thee off: 
O My King! 
Hast thou in truth then forsaken thy wife and thy children
and the Diet of thy People? 
O My King! 
Circling in pride like an Eagle whilom Thou didst lead us,
O My King! 
But now Thou hast stumbled and fallen, like an unbroken Colt,
O My King!’” (p. 108.)

["The burying of living men with the dead was a general custom with the tribes of Eastern Asia.  Favourite servants and wives were usually buried in this way.  In China, the chief wives and those concubines who had already borne children, were exempted from this lot.  The Tunguz and other tribes were accustomed to kill the selected victims by strangulation.  In China they used to be buried alive; but the custom of burying living men ceased in A.D. 1464. [Hwang ming ts’ung sin lu.] In the time of the present Manchu Dynasty, the burying of living men was prohibited by the Emperor Kang-hi, at the close of the 17th century, i.e. the forced burying; but voluntary sepulture remained in force [Yu chi wen].  Notwithstanding this prohibition, cases of forced burying occurred again in remote parts of Manchuria; when a concubine refused to follow her deceased master, she was forcibly strangled with a bow-string [Ninguta chi].  I must observe, however, that there is no mention made in historical documents of the existence of this custom with the Mongols; it is only an hypothesis based on the analogy between the religious ideas and customs of the Mongols and those of other tribes.” (Palladius, p. 13.)

In his Religious System of China, II., Dr. J. J. M. de Groot devotes a whole chapter (ix. 721 seqq.), Concerning the Sacrifice of Human Beings at Burials, and Usages connected therewith.  The oldest case on record in China dates as far back as B.C. 677, when sixty-six men were killed after the ruler Wu of the state of Ts’in died.