Page:Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills.djvu/118

 indictments by poor people are received without fees, fang kao (放告). Such are not received on other days unless on the 1st and 15th as the magistrate returns from worshipping at the temple.

A table hung in the yamen gives a list of cases and dates of trial.

There are three courts in a yamen. The outer, t‘ang (大堂), is the imperial court; the second, or êrh t‘ang, is the district court and the inner, hua t‘ing (花廳), is the magistrate's private court. Both when he takes his seat in the imperial court and when he adjourns the court, three guns are fired.

When a "coroners' inquest" is held a pavilion is put up for the magistrate and his retinue; his nose is filled with assafœtida, o wei (阿魏), and underlings carry incense. If the body is fresh the wu tso (仵作) simply calls out to the recorder the wounds, etc., on the body. In an important case, the magistrate himself examines what is said to be the fatal wound, chih ming shang (致命傷). If the body is decayed it is boiled in big pots, the bones are rubbed clean with cotton wool and the wounds show up on them! For such a case the wu tso has to call in experienced assistants. Some seventy or eighty different kinds of knives or instruments are brought into use; the bones of the body are counted and expected to number 360; the water-carriers are put on oath, since salt mixed with the water obliterates bruises on the bones.

If murder is suspected in a house and no traces can be seen, the room is shut up and thoroughly fumigated with mulberry leaves and the walls and floor are soaked with vinegar; then the blood will show up on the walls and even the position of the body may be clearly seen. This kind of inquest involves the expenditure of some thousands of taels and only the rich can indulge.

On returning from an inquest the magistrate in his chair goes through burning straw at his yamen entrance, to drive off noxious smells and evil spirits.

When there is a conflagration the magistrate must get up any hour of the night to assist. Underlings carry a