178 BULLETIN 139^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



In the Ramayana, when Rama, the incarnate Vishnu, distrusts the 

 fidehty of his wife Sita, and bids her to betake herself out of his 

 presence, saying, ''Thou art to me like light to a diseased eye," Sita 

 with tears in her eyes protests her purity before her husband, and 

 finding him not convinced turns to Laxman, Rama's younger brother, 

 and says, "Sumitra's son, prepare a funeral pile for me, the only 

 refuge in this disgrace; publicly disowned as a wife, I can not bear 

 to live" ; and vindicates her honor by mounting a blazing pyre, from 

 which she is rescued by Brahma, who comes to her assistance with 

 a number of minor gods, and restores her with blessing to her dearly 

 beloved Rama. 



So frequently, however, was it used as the engine of torture and 

 means of fraud that early as the days of the Jewish prophet Moses 

 words of warning were sent forth denouncing its practice. The spec- 

 ial mention of this in the Hebrew Scriptures is with regard to the 

 passing of children through fire to Moloch, which was practiced for 

 the purpose of purification and as a means of dedicating them to the 

 service of the false god Moloch, an idol worshipped by the Ammon- 

 ites, otherwise called Milcom.^^ 



These atrocious practices of cliild sacrifices arose, no doubt, from 

 the great readiness of remote antiquity to sacrifice even its dearest 

 possessions to the service of God, whose favor it looked for, and its 

 desire in return was a great wish to know that the sacrifice had been 

 acceptable and the favor found. Imagination saw in the various 

 phenomena of nature a meaning and an interpretation by which the 

 Divine attempted to communicate with them, and fire, with its mys- 

 tic nature and tongue of blue and yellow and swarthy rolling masses 

 of smoke, was the fit means of conveying the early gift to heaven. 

 This undoubtedly was the chief reason why fire came to be re- 

 garded as the most sacred element among some nations, as the 

 Romans, the Parsees, and to a certain extent also the Hindus, and 

 the fire sacrifices attained a superiority over all and developed most 

 largely in some of the ancient religions of the world. To this feeling 

 is to be attributed the practice of our Parsee brethren in burning 

 sandalwood, frankincense, and other fragrant things on their sacred 

 fire as a grateful and a sweet enjoyment for the gods, and a token 

 that it had immediately mounted up to heaven and been accepted 

 there, 



. The homa ceremonies among the Hindus derived their signficance 

 from the same cause, and I believe the practices of burning corpses 

 arose from a similar belief that the flames devoured and put the 

 body face to face with his maker; and what better way could be 

 found for the erstwhile wife and now the bereaved widow to accom- 

 pany her lord and master by the selfsame direct route ? 



"I Kings xl,7, and II Kings xxiii, 13. 



