Just as a matter of curiosity, is there a translation of the illustration in chapter 54 of Roughing It? I had assumed that it represented a laundry tag. Mark notes that many Chinese, in Virginia City, were employed in the laundry business and always attached a tag or bill to cleaned clothing. I asked a friend, from mainland China, but she was unable to provide a clear translation. She did think that it probably represented or was possibly found as part of a shrine. Mark also spend some time in this chapter discussing how the Chinese deal with their dead. -- There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. http://bscottholmes.com