118 ON THE ORIGIN OF CREMATION, 
ry of consecrations, the emperor appears carried aloft by an 
eagle *. Or, perhaps, the figure here exhibited is rather to be 
viewed as the emblem of his soul. 
Y. The soul itself was thus supposed to be purified from the 
contamination which it had contracted in its embodied state. 
The ancient Gymnosophists of India, of whom the Brachmans, 
now called Bramins, formed one sect, and the Germanes, Her- 
muines, or Sermanes, another, were wont to burn themselves 
alive +; although, in our day, they require this sacrifice of 
their wives only. ‘That they ascribed some peculiar virtue to 
fire as thus applied, might be inferred from the language of 
that Indian, who, when he cast himself into the flaming pile at 
Athens, said to the astonished spectators, “ Thus I make my- 
“ self immortal {.” But perhaps the inference is confirmed 
by the account which Porrnyry gives of the reason of this act 
of suicide. Having observed, that they who are about to de- 
vote themselves in this manner, first coolly receive from those 
around them the commissions which they wish them to carry 
to their friends in the other world; he subjoins, “ They cast 
“ their body into the fire, that they may separate the soul from 
“ it in a state of the greatest possible purity.” This at least 
seems to be the natural meaning of the words of Porpuyry ; 
wuel 70 capes mugadorres, Oxws Oy nabugurarny cmonelacr ToD caput 
ros yy spoyny ||. 
Lucran, when speaking of the self-devotement of Hercuxss, 
which he attributes to mere ostentation of fortitude in suffer- 
ing, 
* V. Havercamp. Nummophylac. Reg. Christin. p. 100, 101. 
+ Oavarw BE taxvtss arodidiarr xe0, xalimte xel cs Tov Iiday yuouvoroPigai parciw Mer, 
Ciem. Avexanpn. Stromat. Lib. iv. p. 351. 
} Nic. Damascen. V. Hydriotaph. p. 3. 
|| De Abstinentia, lib. iv. sect. 18. 
