smaller mounds at the base of the larger ones, filling up the angles where they meet. The slope of the tumulus is not regular, but is broken up by terraces, on which are placed in rows, at intervals of a few inches, curious cylinders coarsely made of baked clay shaped in a mould, and measuring from one to two feet in height and from six to fourteen inches in diameter. They are buried in the earth, their upper rims being just level with the surface. The number of these cylinders is enormous, amounting in the case of some of the larger misasagi to many thousands. Their object can scarcely yet be said to have been definitely ascertained. One purpose was no doubt to prevent the earth of the mounds from being washed away by rain; but the Japanese tradition which connects them with an ancient custom of burying alive a number of the servants of a deceased monarch in a ring around his grave, is probably founded in fact.
It is related that in the 28th year of the Emperor Suinin (B.C. 2 of the popular chronology), his brother died. All his attendants were buried alive round the tumulus in a standing position. For many days they died not, but day and night wept and cried. The Mikado, hearing the sound of their weeping, was sad and sorry in his heart, and commanded all his ministers to devise some plan by which this custom, ancient though it was, should be discontinued for the future. Accordingly, when the Mikado himself died in A.D. 3, workers in clay were sent for to the province of Izumo, and made images of men, horses, and various other things, which were set up around the grave instead of living beings. This precedent was followed in later times, and some of the figures still exist. The Ueno Museum in Tōkyō contains several specimens, and one (of a man) has been secured for the Gowland collection now in the British Museum. The cylinders above described are similar to these images in material and workmanship, and it is probable that they served as pedestals on which the images were placed, though in view of their immense number, this can hardly have been their only use.
The misasagi vary greatly in size. One in Kōzuke, measured by
