7?uneraP pPaai/. 195 



In Egypt, Basil is scattered over the tombs by the women, 

 who repair to the sepulchres of the dead twice or thrice every 

 week, to pray and weep over the departed. In Italy, the Peri- 

 winkle, called by the peasantry fiov di morto, or Death's flower, 

 is used to deck their children who die in infancy. In Norway, 

 branchlets of Juniper and Fir are used at funerals, and exhibited 

 in houses in order to protecft the inhabitants from the visitation 

 of evil spirits. The Freemasons of America scatter sprays of 

 Acacia {Robinia) on the coffins of brethren. In Switzerland, a 

 funeral wreath for a young maiden is composed of Hawthorn, 

 Myrtle, and Orange-blossom. In the South of France, chaplets of 

 white Roses and Orange-blossom are placed in the coffins of the 

 young. 



The Greeks and Romans crowned the dead with flowers, and 

 the mourners wore them at the funeral ceremonies. It should be 

 mentioned that the Romans did not generally bury their dead 

 before the time of the Antonines. The bodies of the dead were 

 burnt, and the ashes placed in an urn. 



The funeral pyre of the ancients consisted of Cypress, Yew, 

 Fir, and other trees and shrubs. The friends of the deceased stood 

 by during the cremation, throwing incense on the fire and libations 

 of wine. The bones and ashes were afterwards collected, cleansed, 

 mixed with precious ointments, and enclosed in funeral urns. 

 Agamemnon is described by Homer in the ' Odyssey,' as informing 

 Achilles how this ceremony had been performed upon him : — 



" But when the flames your body had consumed, 

 With oils and odours we your bones perfumed, 

 And wash'd with unmixed wine." 



Virgil, in describing the self-sacrifice, by fire, of Dido, speaks thus 

 of the necessary preparations : — • 



*' The fatal pile they rear 

 Witliin the secret court, exposed in air. 

 The cloven Holms and Pines are helped on high ; 

 And garlands in the hollow spaces lie. 

 Sad Cypress, Vervain, Yew, compose the wreath, 

 And every baleful flower denoting death." 



The repast set apart by custom for the dead consisted of 

 Lettuces and Beans. It was customary among the ancients to 

 offer Poppies as a propitiation to the manes of the dead. The 

 Romans celebrated festivals in honour of the spirits of the departed, 

 called Lemuria, where Beans were cast into the fire on the altar. 

 The people also threw black Beans on the graves of the deceased, 

 or burnt them, as the smell was supposed to be disagreeable to the 

 manes. In Italy, at the present day, it is customary to eat Beans 

 and to distribute them among the poor on the anniversary of a 

 death. 



The pracftice of embalming the bodies of their dead, which 

 was universal among the ancient Egyptians, had its origin, accord- 



o — 2 



