7 6 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The sentiment, however, did not begin nor does it end with ns. 

 So far back as we find traces of man upon earth, so far also do we 

 discover signs of his treatment of the empty " cage " ; and down to 

 this year of grace 1890 the customs of humanity are as varied, 

 as curious, and as interesting as at any period in the world's 

 history. 



In glancing over the subject, we find a noteworthy fact, that, 

 whether the " garment no more fitting " be buried or burned, 

 mummified, cast away, or eaten, some part of it is in almost every 

 case preserved. With many peoples the chosen relic is the skull, 

 which in Australia is made into a drinking-cup and kept for a 

 memento as well as a common convenience by the next of kin ; 

 in some parts of Polynesia the skull of the " dear departed " is 

 hung around the neck of a widow by a cord, and worn during 

 the rest of her life ; and in one of the Kingsmill Islands it is 

 oiled, decorated with flowers, and daily presented with food. 



In some races the affectionate care of the survivors extends to 

 all the bones, which are distributed among the friends, each one 

 of whom mourns over his one bone as if it were the whole body. 

 Again, they are arranged in various fanciful ways : tied in a 

 bundle and painted red, by one tribe ; packed in a basket deco- 

 rated with beads with the skull for a lid, by another ; hung 

 from the roof, or placed in an urn, or wrapped in .bark and 

 carried with the tribe ; or, finally, painted in stripes and dried 

 in smoke. 



Alexander the Great — as history tells us — was preserved in 

 honey, and some of the royal Britons in wax ; but the most famous 

 embalmers, as we all know, were the Egyptians. Would they 

 have taken so much pains, I wonder, if they had suspected they 

 were preparing curios for the museums of impertinent nations 

 yet unborn ? Perhaps the most peculiar mode devised by man is 

 the preservation of rich Thibetans in the form of cakes. The 

 empty " hut," being reduced by fire to ashes, is mixed with wheat- 

 flour and kneaded into cakes of graduated size, piled in a pyramid, 

 and deposited in a small tower of suitable form. 



Nearly all people cherish, in one way or another, the bones of 

 their friends, and they may be conveniently divided into two 

 great classes — those who take measures to dispose of the more 

 perishable covering, and those who leave the work to the slower 

 processes of Nature. Among the first named are some exceed- 

 ingly strange customs : as that of the Caribs, who hang the empty 

 case in water infested by extremely voracious little fishes, and in 

 a few hours draw up the skeleton perfectly cleaned, paint it red, 

 and hang it under the roof of the hut ; and, perhaps even less 

 agreeable, that not long ago in vogue among the Thibetans and 

 others, of keeping a race of sacred dogs for the special business 



