THE "EARTHLY TABERNACLE." 765 



of quickly disposing of the cast-off human garment ; and, again, 

 the habit of the ancient Persian, who invited wild beasts to the 

 feast, and considered their speedy acceptance a special honor ; 

 most repulsive of all, some tribes of Tartars, and the Fans, an 

 African people, who take upon themselves the delicate task of 

 disposal — with pleasure, it is said. With this latter group must 

 also be placed the ancient Irish and Briton, and many South 

 American Indians. Most interesting of the practices of " living 

 sepulchres " is that of the Parsees of India, whose famous Towers 

 of Silence are well-arranged buildings where the necessary work 

 is done quickly and unseen of men, by vultures " sent by God/' 

 as they say, and the bones preserved in one great central well 

 together. 



The most widely extended fashion of forcibly resolving the 

 body into its elements is by burning, which has been in use almost 

 from the beginning of man's life on this planet, and is to-day rap- 

 idly growing into favor with enlightened peoples. Before the ad- 

 vent of Christianity it was the nearly universal practice. The 

 Greeks and Romans, the Etrurians, Hindoos, Siamese, Germans, 

 Scandinavians, and Saxons, and many Indian tribes of the West- 

 ern world, all burned their dead with more or less ceremony, and 

 some of them do still. Certain Australians put the body in a hol- 

 low tree, and make of that a funeral pile ; the Gualala of Califor- 

 nia burn the departed to prevent their becoming grizzly bears ; 

 and the Semels, another tribe, glorify their chiefs by great pyres 

 heaped with finery and valuables, sometimes several hundred 

 dollars' worth. 



To the cremationists must be added many peoples of Asia, 

 among whom the fashion is still in full vigor. Some races, both 

 savage and civilized, sacrifice the living on the funeral pile, the 

 victims being, of course, the helpless wives and servants. Most 

 of them are merciful enough to strangle or otherwise kill the 

 doomed ones, but it was reserved for the " mild and gentle Hin- 

 doo " to invent and carry out the most cruel and brutal custom 

 on record. 



Of the races who let Nature do the work at her leisure, per- 

 haps the most striking are those who wall up the door and leave 

 the deceased in possession, since this comes the nearest we can 

 hope to get, to taking our riches with us. Such were the ancient 

 Peruvian Incas, whose palaces were closed and deserted with all 

 their treasures in them, although the dried and preserved body 

 took its place with its ancestors in the Great Temple of the Sun, 

 and the dying Eskimo left in his snow hut, with food and light 

 at hand, free to depart when he chose. 



Unique among men is one who saves his friends trouble by 

 burying himself. The aged Australian, feeling death approach, 



