122 ON THE ORIGIN OF CREMATION, 
inclined to think, that, at an early age, the cremation of the 
body might have been immediately meant as an act of expiatory 
sacrifice. Of this, however, it must be acknowledged, we have 
no direct evidence. But the want of this evidence is not a de- 
cisive proof that the conjecture is totally unfounded. The ori- 
gin of the practice itself being buried in the obscurity of ve- 
ry remote ages, almost beyond the period of fabulous history ; 
it is by no means surprising, that we should be as much at a 
loss in regard to the primary design. On a subject of this 
kind, even the feeble voice of conjecture ought not to be with- 
held, as no other can be heard; nor should it be totally disre- 
garded, because at times mere conjecture has eventually led to 
the discovery of truth. 
It is highly probable, that this custom had its rise in the dis- 
tant regions of Scythia, if not in Hindostan. As we learn 
from the earliest accounts of the inhabitants of this interesting 
peninsula, which have reached our times, that even when these 
were written, they not only burnt the dead, but that the living 
often devoted themselves to the flames; it may afford ground 
for conjecture that the latter practice preceded the former. 
Those who viewed it as a signal act of piety for a man to cast 
himself into the funeral-pile, and as a complete atonement for 
all the transgressions of his past life, though they could not ri- 
val him in intrepidity, might, like those who affect liberality in 
their latter wills, wish to imitate him as far as possible, by de- 
voting the mortal part to the fire after the extinction of life. 
It may perhaps be supposed, that this act of self-dedication 
to the flames was originally meant as a consecration to the sun. 
Yor, though the Persian fire-worshippers objected to cremation 
as a profanation of their deity, we are not warranted to con- 
clude, that all who concurred with them in worship entertain- 
ed the same idea. While we know that some of the ancient 
, Brachmans 
