The tomb itself or rather the shrine before the tomb is approached by two stately avenues, where the dogs are relieved of their lonely watch by two horses, two dromedaries and two elephants!
In a pagoda we saw the mammoth sea horse and on his back the memorial tablet written in characters none but a scholar’s spectacles could decipher!
The gate with its marvelous locks, certainly antedating Pharoah, opens and we gaze at its ornaments of dragons’ heads, a sort of mask, as we enter, to the central court, where we look up at the walls and mount them to get the view and see the four corner towers of brilliant workmanship and colors.
Descending, we approach the central shrine by steps of very fine sculpture and artistic form and are told by our retinue of attendants that curiosity can go no farther nor veneration for that matter, as the key is lost!
The grave itself is beyond all this stone and wood arabesque; it is without the wall, a simple heap, or mound of earth!
“Dust to dust,” after all, poor old Manchurian warrior of long ago!
But as it is autumn in the park, we gathered the red berries and the men ornamented the jinrickshas with them and we ride home across the plain in a glory of red that out lasts all. The sun is a perfect disk magnified by the perspective of the plain into a gigantic size, worthy of Manchuria, and there is the Japanese flag! May it bring better days to this land of toil and patience! That is the heart’s wish for this colossal country of Manchuria!
Over the mountains sky high, over the plains of Moukden, over more mountains, and you approach the city of Dalny. There seems a stupendous realization of Nature in it all, the scene is perfect. Dalny, to use a histrionic term again, is the “curtain raiser” of Port Arthur.
The war cloud seems still hovering over it. If you are accustomed to the birthplaces of national significance you feel it in the air. The place has a somber air. Built to be a pillar of Russia’s all conquering power, it was to pass in a few years in an awful avalanche of disaster to another!
Across these streets men fought their way and others fled in terror!