CHAPTER I.THE HISTORY OF CREMATION.

Ye in the age gone by,Who ruled the world—a world how lovely thenAnd guided still the steps of happy menIn the light leading-strings of careless joy!Before the bed of deathNo ghastly spectre stood—but from the porchOf life, the lip—one kiss inhaled the breath,And the mute, graceful genius lowered a torch!Schiller:The Gods of Greece.

Ye in the age gone by,

Who ruled the world—a world how lovely then

And guided still the steps of happy men

In the light leading-strings of careless joy!

Before the bed of death

No ghastly spectre stood—but from the porch

Of life, the lip—one kiss inhaled the breath,

And the mute, graceful genius lowered a torch!

Schiller:The Gods of Greece.

Primeval man most likely disposed of his dead by carrying them into the woods or leaving them anywhere above ground, a prey to animals of all kinds. But soon the organs of sight and smell took offense at the mutilated and decayed corpses, and they were buried. With the increase of population it became necessary to render the dead innocuous to the living, and then, perhaps, cremation was originally resorted to as a means of protecting the living from the effects of corruption.

In the early stages of the world’s history, when there was plenty of available land, interment was of course a very cheap process, and therefore often resorted to by the poorer classes, but persons of intelligence and education always preferred incineration as the better method of disposing of dead bodies.

A ROMAN COLUMBARIUM.

In the gradual growth among scientists of the beliefthat cremation is preferable to the present system of inhumation, is seen another instance of modern civilization borrowing the ideas of the far-distant past.

The pendulum by which the world’s age is measured swings in an immense arc. Now, after thousands of years, the views of the leaders of human thought are swinging back to that expressed by some of the earliest peoples.

Incineration is a most ancient practice. It has always been a matter of difficulty to ascertain the origin of ancient customs. In the case of cremation the historians have not been able to discover the date when it was first practiced. The history of ancient cremation, however, can be traced to nearly 2000 years before Christ. Incineration is regarded by some authors as the outcome of the sun-worship of the Phœnicians. Their solar god (Helios)—the Melikertes of the Greeks—was represented by them as burning himself, whereby they wanted to indicate the ever-returning solar year. Among the ancient nations, the sun was especially revered and worshipped by the Persians, Egyptians, and the Sabian Arabs. At Heliopolis, Phœnicia, and Palmyra, Syria, there were celebrated temples consecrated to the sun. In some of the countries mentioned, horses which were, on account of their celerity, regarded as symbols of the sun were sacrificed to this celestial body.

Some authors ascribe the origin of cremation to the self-immolation of Hercules. Dr. Le Moyne, the founder of the first crematorium erected in the United States, asserted that the first authenticated case of burning the dead was the proposed incineration of Isaac, and that, although it was not consummated, it was fully authorized by the Deity. In consequence heargues that cremationists stand in the shadow of the Lord, and that any one who opposes them commits a sacrilege.

I do not believe that incineration, as some of its antagonists have imputed, had its origin in a heathen religion, but I am quite certain, from existing evidence, that it was originally resorted to upon sanitary grounds, and as a means to protect the living against corruption.

It may be possible that incineration owes its origin to the ancient nomadic tribes that burnt their dead and carried the ashes with them. Among agricultural peoples, those who died in war, and while hunting, were sometimes consigned to the flames, either because the grave would not protect them from wild animals, or because it was desired to return the ashes to the relatives, who would keep them sacred.

The origin of incineration, as appears from what I have said, is surrounded with a great deal of obscurity. It is, however, an established fact that the Orient was the birthplace of cremation.

The Egyptians first buried their dead, then embalmed them, and, according to Walker, at a period not stated, abolished embalming and substituted burning. They performed incineration by placing the corpse in an amianthus receptacle, which, remaining intact, kept the bones apart from the fuel.

The tombs of the Assyrians, discovered on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, furnish us with unmistakable evidence of the fact that the burning of the dead was not unknown to them. The same applies to the Babylonians. The tombs of both peoples when explored were found to contain urns holding human bones and ashes; these urns were often very large, being sometimesof sufficient size to admit the body of an adult. The Persians either burned their dead or dissolved them inaqua fortis. Yet they also practiced burial in deep sepulchres that had niches in which the bodies were deposited upon slabs.

The Hebrews commonly interred their deceased, but incineration was likewise practiced. The Mosaic code prescribed that those who transgressed the laws of wedlock and chastity should be put to death by fire. In I. Moses xxxviii. 24, we find the first evidence of this. The third book of Moses, xx. 14 and xxi. 9, also bears testimony to this fact. Thus we see that cineration was looked upon by this people of antiquity in the early period of its history as a punishment for offenders against the married state and chastity. It is barely possible (deductions one may draw from certain passages in the books of Moses) that the ancient Jews first stoned these disobedients, then burned their bodies publicly, and finally erected a so-called mound of infamy over their remains.

But as we follow Hebrew history, we soon find that cremation was transformed from a humiliating act of punition to the highest honor, to a distinction that was only accorded to royalty. The first king of Israel was cremated after the battle with the Philistines in Mount Gilboa, where he and his three sons fell. The Holy Bible relates how, when the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead heard of that which the Philistines had done to Saul (I. Samuel xxxi. 12): “All the valiant men arose, and went all night, and took the bodies of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, and came to Jabesh and burnt them there.”

And verse 13 of the same chapter informs us: “Andthey took their bones (ossilegio) and buried them under a tree at Jabesh and fasted seven days.”

Asa, king of Judah, was also consigned to the funeral pyre, as we glean from II. Chronicles xvi. 14: “And they buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had made for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odors and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries’ art;and they made a very great burning of him.” Of Asa’s grandson, King Jehoram, it is said that his people cremated him not like his fathers, because he had furthered idolatry.

On the other hand, Isaiah xxx. 33 refers to a large pyre that was kept alight to consume the bodies of the deceased: “For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large; the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it.”

Jeremiah (xxxiv. 5) prophesied of Zedekiah, another king of Judah, that he would be burned with the same honors that attended the cremation of his predecessors. And in Amos vi. 10, we find the following, which also points to incineration: “And a man’s uncle shall take him up, and he that burneth him, to bring out the bones out of the house,” etc.

The last passage cited and the one mentioning the Vale of Tophet, are construed by some writers as meaning that the ancient Jews had recourse to cremation in great plagues;id est, for hygienic reasons.

Now, although these quotations plainly show that the Israelites of old did execute incineration, we also learn from them that the practice was never general; at first confined to criminals, at last to kings.

It is impossible to determine when the custom ofburning the dead originated among the Hindoos. It was always connected with religious observances, and known to the people of India since the earliest times. It was restricted to certain classes or castes: mainly to Brahmins and warriors. The merchants, mechanics, and the tillers of the soil were interred. Children under two years of age were barred from cremation, and had to be buried in the earth. Some religious sects, however, were an exception from this rule and executed cineration indiscriminately—for instance the believers in Vishnu. When a Hindoo died away from home, or when his body was lost and could not be found, his relatives instituted a symbolical ceremony. They gathered 360 leaves of a certain shrub and as many woolen threads. They were under the impression that the human body consisted of 360 parts. Of the threads and leaves they formed a figure, somewhat resembling the human form, which was wound round with a strip of the hide of a black antelope, which had also been previously wrapped closely round with woolen thread. This figure was then besmeared with barley-meal and water and burnt as an effigy of the missing body.

From India cremation extended to Europe, and was adopted by all Indo-Germanic peoples. This was proven by Prof. Jacob Grimm in an oration on the burning of the dead, delivered before the Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin, in 1849, in which the famous scholar highly commended the ancient custom.

In old tombs on the island of Malta, urns of a kind of clay containing ashes, lachrymatories, several mortuary lamps (some of excellent workmanship), and the model of a mummy, formed of a green semi-transparent substance, were found. This discovery demonstratesthat the orientals who inhabited this isle of the Mediterranean in the earliest times were in the habit of cremating their deceased.

The Thracians were the next to embrace burial by fire. Of themHerodotusrelates that they exhibited the corpse publicly for three days, brought many offerings, and bewailed the deceased. At the termination of the period stated, they cremated the body and then buried the ashes and bones. After they had erected a mound over the remains, they played gymnic games.

From Asia, by way of Thrace, cremation reached Greece. Among the Greeks burial was originally exceedingly primitive, as we learn from a law that compelled passers-by to place a handful of earth upon the breast of every unburied corpse. Interment undoubtedly preceded cremation in Greece.Heraclitusadvanced the theory that everything in existence was created from fire. Therefore he argued that all corpses must be burned to free the soul from all material matter, and to return it to its primitive elements. According toEustachiusHercules burned the body of Argius, the son of Likymnios, 1500 years before Christ. He had promised the father to return the youth, but when the latter fell in mortal combat, nothing remained for him but to cremate Argius and to bring home with him the ashes to the sorrowful parent. Hercules was unquestionably the first to cremate himself. When he was tormented by the pangs of approaching death, he built a pyre and ordered his servant to ignite it. When the servant failed to set the wood afire, Hercules descended from the pyre, kindled it himself and again mounted it to await his fate.

Plinywas disposed to attribute the origin of incinerationamong the Greeks to their custom of burning the dead on the field of battle, to render them secure from the revenge of the enemy.

Be that as it may, certain it is that incineration never became the only mode by which the inhabitants of Hellas disposed of their deceased; except in Athens, where it was practiced exclusively for some time. Suicides, those who had been struck by lightning, and unteethed children were not cremated, for it was the prevailing opinion that the pure flames would have been defiled by them.

GREEK FUNERAL URN.

Homer, that incomparable Hellenic poet (There is, I know, a dispute whether the name Homer stands for one person or for a number of bards. As far as I am concerned, I believe that Homer was an individual, a poor mendicant perhaps, wandering all over Greece, singing or reciting his heroic epics, and living on the grace of an admiring public. No collection of bards could have possibly written the Odyssey and Iliad, which are so uniform in character throughout.), has preserved for us, in immortal verse, the records of the Trojan war, in which we find many instances of cremation chronicled. The recent explorations of Dr. Heinrich Schliemann on the site of Troy have demonstrated beyond a doubt that the poems of Homer rest on a basis of actual fact.

During the war that was fought for Helen the beautiful, it was customary among the Greeks and Trojans to reduce to ashes the bodies of those who had beenslain in battle. Line 69 of the first book of the Iliad proves that the Greeks burned their dead for sanitary reasons.

The bodies of cowards, criminals, and slaves were not incinerated, but left unburied, a prey for the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. Agamemnon, the king, addressing his warriors warns them (videPope’s translation of the Iliad, B. II, L. 466) that, during battle:—

“Who dares, inglorious, in his ships to stay,Who dares to tremble on this signal day,That wretch, too mean to fall by martial power,The birds shall mangle, and the dogs devour.”

“Who dares, inglorious, in his ships to stay,

Who dares to tremble on this signal day,

That wretch, too mean to fall by martial power,

The birds shall mangle, and the dogs devour.”

Incineration was denied Ajax, one of the greatest Grecian heroes, because he had slain himself in a fit of indignation. Hector’s defiance of the Greek princes (Iliad, B. VII, L. 85) shows that it was also the custom among the Trojans to burn the dead. There is further evidence of this in the truce, between Priam and Agamemnon (videIliad, B. VII, L. 898 and 450), for the purpose of burning the dead of both armies. Homer’s narration of the burning of Patroclus, Achilles’ friend, gives such an accurate description of the method then in use, that I will be pardoned for quoting it here. The passage to which I refer occurs in the twenty-third book of the Iliad, and is as follows:—

“They who had the dead in chargeRemained, and heaped the wood and built a pyreA hundred feet each way from side to side.With sorrowful hearts they raised and laid the corpseUpon the summit. Then they flayed and dressedBefore it many fatlings of the flock,And oxen with curved feet and crooked horns.From these magnanimous Achilles tookThe fat, and covered with it carefullyThe dead from head to foot. Beside the bierAnd leaning toward it, jars of honey and oilHe placed, and flung, with many a deep-drawn sigh,Twelve high-necked steeds upon the pile.Nine hounds there were, which from the tables of the princeWere daily fed; of these Achilles struckThe heads from two, and laid them on the wood,And after these, and last, twelve gallant sonsOf the brave Trojans, butchered by the sword;For he was bent on evil. To the pileHe put the iron violence of fire,And, wailing, called by name the friend he loved.* * * * *...They quenched with dark red wineThe pyre, where’er the flames had spread, and whereLay the deep ashes: then, with many tears,Gathered the white bones of their gentle friend,And laid them in a golden vase, wrapped roundWith caul, a double fold. Within the tentsThey placed them softly, wrapped in delicate lawn;Then drew a circle for the sepulchre,And, laying its foundations to encloseThe pyre, they heaped the earth, and, having rearedA mound, withdrew.”

“They who had the dead in charge

Remained, and heaped the wood and built a pyre

A hundred feet each way from side to side.

With sorrowful hearts they raised and laid the corpse

Upon the summit. Then they flayed and dressed

Before it many fatlings of the flock,

And oxen with curved feet and crooked horns.

From these magnanimous Achilles took

The fat, and covered with it carefully

The dead from head to foot. Beside the bier

And leaning toward it, jars of honey and oil

He placed, and flung, with many a deep-drawn sigh,

Twelve high-necked steeds upon the pile.

Nine hounds there were, which from the tables of the prince

Were daily fed; of these Achilles struck

The heads from two, and laid them on the wood,

And after these, and last, twelve gallant sons

Of the brave Trojans, butchered by the sword;

For he was bent on evil. To the pile

He put the iron violence of fire,

And, wailing, called by name the friend he loved.

* * * * *

...They quenched with dark red wineThe pyre, where’er the flames had spread, and whereLay the deep ashes: then, with many tears,Gathered the white bones of their gentle friend,And laid them in a golden vase, wrapped roundWith caul, a double fold. Within the tentsThey placed them softly, wrapped in delicate lawn;Then drew a circle for the sepulchre,And, laying its foundations to encloseThe pyre, they heaped the earth, and, having rearedA mound, withdrew.”

...They quenched with dark red wine

The pyre, where’er the flames had spread, and where

Lay the deep ashes: then, with many tears,

Gathered the white bones of their gentle friend,

And laid them in a golden vase, wrapped round

With caul, a double fold. Within the tents

They placed them softly, wrapped in delicate lawn;

Then drew a circle for the sepulchre,

And, laying its foundations to enclose

The pyre, they heaped the earth, and, having reared

A mound, withdrew.”

These lines are from William Cullen Bryant’s translation of the Iliad, and give one a very good idea of the cineration of a warrior. In times of peace the favorite animals of the deceased were placed with him on the funeral pile, and he was covered with costly robes and rugs. Not infrequently the pyre was decorated with an abundance of flowers, and rich folks had their trinkets and jewels thrown into the fire. The weapons of warriors were consumed with them. The extravagance at funerals finally became so great amongthe Greeks that special laws had to be enacted to put a stop to it. Solon ordained, for instance, that no more than three robes and one bull should be placed upon the cremation pyre. After the bones were placed in an urn, the Greeks covered it with the fat of the animals that had been slaughtered at the funeral ceremonies, to protect it from the influence of the atmosphere. Many of the celebrated men of Greece were cremated: Solon, Alcibiades, Timoleon, Philopoemen, Plutarch, Pyrrhus, and many others.

According to Pindar (Ol. 6, 23, Nem. 9, 54), during the combat of the Seven against Thebes, funeral pyres were burning at each of the seven gates of the city, to consume those slain in battle. The heathens, as they are called, were not to be charged with any lack of respect to their departed dead. On the contrary, the most tender sentiments conceivable were attached to the practice of cremation. There was a Theban regulation that no one should build a house without a specific repository for the dead.

Æneas and the other Trojans, who escaped with him from the burning city of the hundred gates (as Priam’s capital was sometimes called), introduced cremation (Virgil’s Æneid, B. IV, 7) into Carthage, if it did not exist there previous to their arrival. It is possible that the inhabitants of Carthage, which was one of the Phœnician cities in Africa, derived the practice from the mother-country. At all events, the tragedy of love, in which Æneas was involved, ended with the suicide of Dido, who cremated herself.

The eleventh book of the Æneas gives a description of an incineration among the ancient inhabitants of Latium.

Self-cremation seems to have been one of the favorite means of disposing of one’s self in ancient times, especially among the royalty and aristocracy. Both tradition and history report of many women, friends, and servants who, of their own free will, mounted the funeral pyre with the departed head of the family. Besides Hercules and Dido, already mentioned, Sardanapalus, the last king of the Assyrians, burned himself in the year 600 before Christ, because the Tigris had destroyed the fortifications of besieged Nineveh, and the following also mounted the pyre for the same purpose: Marpessa, Polydora, and Cleopatra (Vide Pausanias, 4, 2), three noble women of Messenia, and Euadne, the wife of Capaneus, who threw herself into the flames which consumed her husband. The pyre of Sardanapalus, we are told, was very large and contained many rooms, which were elegantly furnished, and in which the royal treasures were heaped up, before the king entered them with his women, while his servants set the pile on fire. It is well known that the widows of India, until very recently, perished of their own free will in the flames that consumed their husbands.

Herodotus states that the women of the Thracians, in Eastern Europe, who were probably of Germanic origin, frequently disputed among themselves as to which of them should be allowed to ascend the pyre together with the deceased husband. Œnone, the lawful wife of Paris, whom he had forsaken to live with Helen the beautiful, forgot all her grievances at the sight of his misfortune. When the man, whom she had formerly loved so ardently, wounded by the arrow of Philoctetes, fled to her into the Ida, she refused to cure him; but when the greedy flames, after death,devoured his form, she voluntarily ascended the pyre to intermix her ashes with his. Thus are the ways of the world; the noble deed of the faithlessly deserted wife is hardly ever mentioned, but frivolous Helena was made the subject of many works of art, and leads an immortal life in the songs and poems of man.

CREMATION IN CALCUTTA.

The ancient Etruscans practiced cremation, both before and after Etruria became a Roman province; they, no doubt, adopted it from the Greeks, who were first their rulers and afterward their close neighbors. Thetombs of Etruria were rich in art; the urns in which the ashes of the dead were kept were either of alabaster or baked clay, the latter often being decorated with tasty paintings.

The ancient Latins, in turn, borrowed the practice of incineration from the Etruscans. According toMazois, some cinerary urns, found in the neighborhood of Alba Longa, prove that the custom of burning the dead was current among the original population of Latium long before any recorded epoch of Italian history, for the place in which those urns were detected was covered entirely over with dense layers of lava, which apparently came from the mountain Albanus, a volcano, the eruptions of which have long been buried in oblivion. The urns mentioned are especially noteworthy, because many of them bear pictures of the habitations of the earliest residents of Latium, which shows that cremation was known to them at that time. Such a hut of the aborigines of Latium was preserved for a long time in the capitol at Rome and was regarded with great reverence. It is but natural that the Latins, on becoming the founders of Rome, should have introduced incineration into their new home. Pliny asserts that the burning of the dead was not customary among the Romans of old, but Virgil describes it as a usage that existed long before the foundation of Rome, and Ovid affirms that the body of Remus was committed to the flames.

Cremation was not in general favor among the Romans until towards the termination of the republic. Pliny relates that Sylla (78B.C.) was the first of the patrician Cornelians who wanted his body to be burned; most likely because he feared that his remains would bedealt with as those of Marius had been treated, whose body was exhumed by the order of Sylla, and thrown into a glutted general grave. During the decline of the republic and the period of the empire, till the accession of the Christian emperors, incineration was very popular in Rome; it was not only general in the capital, but also in the provinces. Julius Caesar, Antonius, Brutus, Pompejus, Octavius, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, and Plinius were cremated. The ashes of Tacitus, the model of historians, who was likewise consigned to the flames, were cast to the winds in the middle ages by Pope Pius the Fifth, in order to punish the heretic. Just think of it! a pontiff outraging a scholar’s remains to punish him! Caligula and Tiberius were only partially burnt, because they had been tyrants.

At Nero’s obsequies it was but with difficulty that the train achieved complete cremation. The Roman aristocracy looked upon partial cineration as a great disgrace, which adhered to the respective family a long time. Yet this infamy was often meted out to the poor and unfortunate, as we shall see later on.

During plagues cremation was compulsory in the city of Rome.

It is not my intention to describe in detail the funeral rites of the ancient Romans, because a description of cremation as practiced by them may be met with in every encyclopædia. Moreover, a very good account of incineration, as customary among the Romans of old, may be found in Lord Bulwer Lytton’s “The Last Days of Pompeii.”

It was the fashion at Rome to pour fragrant oils and balsams over the corpse before the pyre was ignited, and to cover it with Cyprus boughs. Previous to cremation,the corpse was enveloped in asbestos, to keep the ashes of the body separate from those of the funeral pile. At times locks of hair were sacrificed to the deceased. At last one finger of the defunct was amputated, to make certain that death had taken place. Everything being ready, the nearest relative present unclosed the eyes of the deceased, and then lit the pyre with averted face. While the flames rose to heaven, the favorite animals of him who was now being consumed—dogs, doves, and even horses—were flung into the fire. Costly robes and arms of the dead were consigned to the same fate. During the early period of Roman history, prisoners of war were also committed to the flames.

The amount of spices, oils, and balsams destroyed at incinerations was enormous. Pliny reports that Nero used up more myrrh, incense, and other aromatics at the cremation of Poppsæa than could be produced by entire Arabia in one year.

While cremation was practiced in Rome, at the time of the empire, the mourning garments were white; but when incineration was displaced by interment, the raiment of the bereaved assumed a black hue, sombre as death itself.

The deceased poor of Rome (especially the women and slaves) were treated shamefully after death. Martial avers that invariably one pile had to serve for a large number. In times of pestilence, thousands were so disposed of. A cremation-ground was provided for the indigent in a wretched suburb upon the Esquiline Hill, which was inhabited by the outcasts of society, the lowest prostitutes, executioners, necromancers, and so forth. These localities were calledculinæby the people,the literal translation of which is “roast-places.” The attendants were police-slaves, whose hair had been shaved off, and who wore a brand on the bare pate. These, hurrying to and fro, placed the emaciated dead poor upon one of the many funeral piles; hardly singed by the fire, they were taken from it and thrown into a universal ditch. To every ten male corpses one female body was added, which facilitated the cineration by means of the great quantity of adipose tissue which it contained. The funerals of the poor were generally held at night.

The urns of the rich were of marble, bronze, and sometimes of gold or silver; those of the poor were of baked clay or glass. Glass urns, enclosed in others of lead, were discovered at Pompeii. The urns were generally deposited in a tomb at the roadside or placed in the pigeon-hole of a columbarium.

These columbaria, surrounded by beautiful gardens, were situated on the Via Appia, Aurelia, Flaminia, and Lavicana. The Appian Way was a favorite resort of the fashionable Roman world; here, daily, ever-changing life was seen; here the traveller took leave from the remains of his ancestors; here, too, lovers met and unfortunates took refuge.

These columbaria were subterranean chambers which served (as I have already explained) to hold the ashes of the deceased, the urns being deposited in arched recesses, hewn out in the rock for the purpose. These niches resembled pigeon-holes; hence the name, columbarium. The rare beauty of these columbaria, which may yet be seen in the Eternal City, led Nathaniel Hawthorne, our great romancer, to exclaim that hewould not object to being decently pigeon-holed in a Roman tomb.

CREMATION IN SIAM.The late queen and her little daughter on the pyre.

Campana discovered columbaria between the Porta Latina and the Porta San Sebastiana, which are memorialsof the time of Augustus. They contain not less than 400 inscriptions on marble, commemorative of the dead, and many urns of marble and terra cotta.

In the city of the Caesars the ashes were placed in upright urns, while in Greece the urns lay horizontally on the ground, and were covered with rugs. In Greece the ashes were preserved in beautiful mortuary chambers in the houses, a custom that also obtained at Rome to a certain extent.

The great contrast between the cremation of the opulent and the poor finally led to the re-introduction of earth-burial, which, however, strangely enough, was coincident with the decline and fall of the once mighty empire.

The last Roman funeral piles expired in the fourth century, while the Indo-Germanic nations practiced cremation till late in mediæval times.

The Germanic tribes and the Celts (according to Tacitus and Diodorus of Sicily) burned their dead without exception. The testimony of these historians is confirmed by Ovid (Met., Lib. III, v. 619–620), who adds that cremation was highly esteemed by these peoples.

Tacitus (videGermania, Lib. 37), writing one hundred years before Christ, relates that the ancient Germans preferred a plain funeral to funereal pomp. Only the bodies of celebrated men were cinerated with some ostentation on pyres built of certain costly kinds of wood. They neither ornamented their funeral piles, nor did they use spices at cremations. The arms of every warrior, however, and sometimes the battle-horse, were burnt with him. An unadorned mound was raised over the ashes, and nothing was left to mark thespot where one of their kin had been laid to rest. Criminals were not cremated, but put to death, in various ways; traitors and deserters were hanged to convenient trees, and cowards drowned in swamps.

The Thuringians burned their dead as late as the seventh century; the Anglo-Saxons down to the end of the eighth century. The Swabians, Franks, Lombards, Ostrogoths, Alemanni, and Burgundians disposed of their deceased by fire till 740A.D.Winfrid, or Boniface, the so-called apostle of the Germans, in a letter refers to the custom of fire-burial among the Saxons. Charlemange, who brought about the conversion of the Saxons by fire and sword, made a special enactment against incineration. The custom of cremation was so deep-rooted among the Saxons, that the death-penalty had to be set upon its consummation in order to cause its abolishment.

The ancient Lithuanians and the forefathers of the present Prussians were wont to consign their dead to the flames. When the ancient Prussians were defeated by the knights of the Teutonic order in the year of our Lord 1249, their vanquishers caused them to promise in writing that they would henceforth, after cremating their deceased with horse, armor, and weapons, collect the remains and bury them within the churchyard, according to Christian usage. There is evidence to show that cineration of the dead was extant in Western Prussia until after 1300A.D.

Cinerary urns, containing ashes, were discovered near Dantzig, Prussia, and in Silesia.

In the course of forming a vineyard in the neighborhood of Wasserbillig, near Trier, numerous graves were laid bare, in some of which urns were found with theremains of cremated bodies; in others, skeletons. In the former case the cinerary urns (videSanitary Record) were surrounded by chalkstone slabs; one of the skeletons was contained in a sarcophagus composed of fourteen roof-tiles. Nine of them had the stamps of the manufacturer, the same names being given as those of the manufacturers who furnished material for the erection of the Roman church which forms the basis of the cathedral of Trier, and for the Roman thermal baths at St. Barbara. Judging from these circumstances, it is assumed that the tombs date from the middle of the third century. In one of the graves a small urn with the representation of a face was found.

In Trier itself, a large glass urn, with cover and handles, was recently unearthed. It is a relic of the Romans. When opened it was found to contain bones. Beside this urn five vases of baked clay and several ornamented lamps were found.

The ancient Swiss were in the habit of cremating their defunct, till the year 56 before Christ.

Julius Caesar reports that the Gauls burned their dead with sumptuousness.

Several ancient glass urns, containing calcined bones, were recently found between two round stones, in the vicinity of Chatenet, France.

The Slavonians observed incineration from the earliest times to the end of the fifteenth century. When one of their kings died, everything he might need on awakening in paradise was placed with him on the pyre. Beside intoxicating drinks, weapons, horses, falcons, male and female servants, and his wives, his entire household—comprising the minister of state, secretary,mate at drinking, and physician—was cremated with him.

The Slavonian woman was invariably burned with the corpse of her husband; but notvice versa, the husband with the remains of his wife. When a bachelor died, single women were substituted for spouses. The chronicles that have descended to us from the monks affirm that these women longed for such a death, because they hoped to secure eternal blessedness thereby.

Large mounds, called Kurgani, were erected over the ashes of the cremated. These mounds may be seen to-day in the boundless steppes of Russia, where they afford a rest for the eyes from the monotonous scenery.

Eckehardt relates that, when Germany was invaded by the Hungarians in 925A.D., he witnessed the intruders cremate the bodies of the slain upon rack-wagons.

The Bohemians practiced cremation as late as 1000A.D.

The Arab Ibn Forszlan, who was ambassador from his native land to the Russians in the year of our Lord 922, states that he attended the cineration of a man of rank, on the banks of the Volga River. Previous to the cremation the deceased was interred, till the robes of state requisite for the ceremony were finished. Then the ship of the dead was drawn ashore, the defunct owner placed upon a bench, which had been covered with gorgeous rugs, and supplied with food, intoxicating beverages, and a number of slaughtered animals. Thereupon a young girl, who had voluntarily offered herself for incremation (probably to be the companion of the deceased in the other world), was led aboard and—after singing a long chant to the people and drinkinga goblet of mead—strangled and stabbed at the same time. Then the ship was deserted, and set afire by the nearest relative, who performed this sad office with averted face. Thereupon every one present threw a burning piece of wood upon the vessel, which was soon consumed. A mound was erected on the site on which the ship had stood, in the centre of which a plank was placed, bearing the name of the departed.

Old German chroniclers mention the cremation of Attila, the king of the Tartar Huns, who was burned while sitting—fully armed—upon his war-horse. It is still an undecided question whether incineration was general among the Huns, or only a royal honor.

The Scythians and Sarmatians of old reduced their dead to ashes, as also did the Kurds, till 1205A.D.; and the Esthonians till 1225.

Cremation was likewise practiced by the ancient Scandinavians,—more especially by the Norwegians and Swedes than by the Danes. The national Scandinavian epic, the Edda, mentions the funeral piles of Sigurdh and Brynhilde.

The ancient Britons disposed of their dead by fire. Some workmen engaged in excavations in the bail within the boundaries of the old Roman city at Lincoln lately came across a crematorium and a sarcophagus. In the latter ten urns were found, which contained ashes and calcined bones. The urns were of different sizes and shapes, and were all provided with saucer-shaped covers. Only one of them, however, was extracted perfect. The interior of the sarcophagus was lined with long, thin bricks, that perished on being exposed to the air.

The Mexicans of antiquity also cinerated their deceased.

Incineration was practiced in India since the most remote ages, and is now as much in vogue in this country as it was in the earliest times. At Calcutta, Bombay, Madras,—in fact, all over India,—cremation is executed daily.

The Vishnavites burn their dead; the worshippers of Siva bury them, deliver them up to beasts of prey, or throw them into the holy river Ganges. Folks who are too poor to dispose of their deceased by burning, also consign them to the waves of the holy stream. This is done at night, since it is against the law. It is not unusual to see a whole procession of corpses float down the Ganges, while crows feed on the remains.

At Calcutta, cremation is performed within the “Burning Ghât,” outside the city, in a walled enclosure which is frequented by numberless vultures and other birds of prey, near the Hoogly, as the Ganges is thereabouts called. This place is seldom visited by the British inhabitants of Calcutta; for they regard this rude cineration (properly so) far too horrible to witness.

By order of the government, a cinerator was built on the banks of the Hoogly, which is used only by a part of the Hindoo population. The Hindoos are hard to wean from their old-fashioned method of cineration (which is substantially the same as that practiced by the ancient Romans and Greeks), and, therefore, seldom make use of a cinerator, as Mr. William Eassie was informed by the sanitary commissioner of Madras, where a cinerary apparatus had also been erected. The commissioner, however, was of the opinion that if theSiemens principle of a furnace were exhibited before the educated Hindoos, they would very probably adopt it.

CREMATION AMONG THE TOLKOTINS OF OREGON.

Thanks to the efforts of the British authorities in India, imperfect cremation is a thing of the past there.

Cicero already relates that the widows of the Hindoos allow themselves to be cinerated with the remains of their husbands. Self-cremation of Indian widows does not occur nowadays; the barbaric custom has been put down by the English.

It was not before 1831 that the English government in Hindostan attempted to abolish the practice of burning widows; and up to that time, as Max Mueller observes, “women were burned wholesale, even in the immediate neighborhood of Calcutta.” But the custom was probably not exterminated before late in the sixties—1868 or 69.

Cremation was practiced on the isle of Ceylon as late as 1841.

The people of Burmah cremate their rich dead, and inhume the poor or consign them to a stream. Persons of rank are embalmed before incineration, and placed on exhibition in a convent or temple for six weeks. At the funeral, the body is borne in a coffin on the shoulders of men, who are preceded by female mourners chanting an epicede. The corpse is followed by the relatives. When the slowly moving train arrives at the pyre, which is commonly six or eight feet high, the remains are placed upon it; the wood of the funeral pile is generally laid crosswise, to bring about a stronger draught of air. The pyre is set on fire by the attending priests, who pray before it until the body is destroyed; then the bones are collected and interred.According to Mr. W. Eassie, when a Buddhist priest of rank dies in Burmah, the body is embalmed in honey, laid in state for a time, and then sometimes blown up with gunpowder, together with its hearse.

Miss Feudge asserts that the inhabitants of Pegu and Laos also cremate their dead.

In Siam, cremation has undoubtedly existed since primeval times. It is a universal custom, practiced both by the common people and the aristocracy; even the kings are incinerated. Crawfurd states that in Siam the ashes are sometimes interred in the grounds surrounding the temples, and a small pyramidal mound erected over them.

When one of the Dayakkese inhabitants of Borneo dies, the body is deposited in a coffin, and remains in the house till the son, the father, or the nearest of kin can procure or purchase a slave, who is beheaded at the time that the corpse is burned, in order that he may become the servant of the deceased in the next world. The ashes of the departed are then placed in an earthen urn, which is adorned with various figures; and the head of the slave is desiccated, and prepared in a peculiar manner with camphor and drugs, and placed near it. It is said that this practice induces the Dayakkese to buy a slave guilty of some capital crime, at fivefold his value, in order that they may be able to put him to death on such occasions.

Cremation is an established and time-honored usage in Japan, now the oldest empire in the world. Here all incineration establishments are under government control, and are to be found not only in all the chief cities, but also in the provinces. The Japanese government, with shrewd appreciation of the advantages ofsanitary laws, has of late years carefully fostered the practice. Since the earliest times, cremation is universal among the Japanese.

Before the introduction of Buddhism, the Shinto doctrine was the prevalent system of faith and worship in Japan. This religion held sacred, beside a small number of domestic gods, a long series of celebrated historical personages, who were worshipped after their decease. It taught that the mikado (emperor) descended from the gods, and he was its clerical superior. This doctrine, of course, was not favorable to cremation; and that accounts for the absence of the latter prior to the introduction of Buddhism. Beginning with the year of our Lord 552, attempts were made, with varying success, to establish Buddhism in Japan. In 624, Buddhism was officially recognized; the court bestowing the title of high-priest upon two priests who had come from Hakusai. The new doctrine spread through the medium of the Chinese literature that circulated in the country; and soon temples had to be built to accommodate the converts.

In 700A.D., Dôsho, a high-priest of a temple at Nara, in the province Yamato, ordered his pupils to burn his body after death, and it was done. This was the first cremation in Japan.

Three years later, the corpse of the empress Jito was incinerated; her example was followed by 41 emperors and empresses, who occupied the throne from that period till the beginning of the seventeenth century. The last mikado whose body was burned, was Goyozei, who reigned from 1587 till 1610A.D.At this time much attention was paid to the doctrines of Confucius,which are as unfavorable to cineration as the Shinto doctrine.

In the ninth century Buddhism made considerable headway through the efforts of Kobo, a priest. Up to the fourteenth century, however, Buddhism remained the religion of the military and the aristocracy; the common people knew nothing of it. It owes its adoption among all classes of Japan, to the arduous labors of two missionaries, Shinran and Nichiren, who became the founders of great sects, and who had their corpses burned as an example for their pupils.

Cremation is fast becoming general in Japan, burial more and more obsolete. At the present time the number of bodies disposed of by incineration is very great.

The greatest number of believers in cremation are found among the Shin and Yoto sects, likewise among the Zen, Tendai, and Nichiren sects; the fewest, among the Shingon sect. Incineration is, however, not compulsory among these religious denominations. In 1868, when the shogun (commander-in-chief) was deposed by the revolutionists, when the mikado re-obtained his former authority and the power of the almost independent princes of the provinces was destroyed, the government attempted to re-establish the Shinto religion. Among other measures they prohibited incineration (July 23, 1873), claiming that it was contrary to the Shinto doctrine.

They soon discovered that it was impossible to carry out the interdiction, and, therefore, revoked it (May 23, 1875), granting thereby, as it were, religious freedom to Japan.

The young generation of the Japanese physicians and naturalists regard cineration from a sanitary standpoint,and constantly urge the government to promote its interests on hygienic grounds.

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