040 



THE CENTURY BOOK OF FACTS. 



going to hell, and to secure his admittance 

 to Paradise. The body is arrayed in the most 

 splendid garments that the family can afford. 

 In one hand is placed a fan, and in the other 

 a prayer written on a piece of paper, which is 

 a letter of recommendation to open the gates 

 of Heaven. The coffin is a very solid, sub- 

 stantial case. The corpse when put in it, is 

 laid in a bed of lime or cotton, or covered with 

 quicklime, and the edges of the lid are closed 

 with mortar in the groove, so that no smell 

 escapes. The nature of the site for burial is 

 regarded as having an important influence on 

 the prosperity of the living, the people fearing 

 ill luck, disease, and accident if the dead are 

 not satisfied with the site of their graves. The 

 selection of propitious sites is made by geoman- 

 cers, a class of quacks who pretend to super- 

 natural wisdom. When the day of burial 

 arrives, which is if a satisfactory place for 

 the tomb has been found the nearest lucky 

 day to the third seventh day after death, the 

 friends assemble at the house. An offering of 

 cooked provisions is laid out near the coffin. 

 This is intended to occupy the attention of the 

 spirit of the dead, which is supposed to linger 

 near the body, or any other vagrant spirits that 

 may be hovering around, and keep them from 

 doing any mischief or harm to the living. All 

 mourners are dressed entirely in white, and 

 they assemble about the coffin and in turn 

 prostrate themselves before it, a band of music 

 playing meanwhile. The procession is then 

 formed, the coffin -going first, borne on an un- 

 wieldy bier carried by sixty-four men, or even 

 more. A man goes before the procession and 

 scatters paper money, to buy the good will of 

 any stray, tricky spirits that may be prowling 

 about. Immediately after the coffin, in a sep- 

 arate sedan, is borne the ancestral tablet of the 

 deceased with the offering of food. Different 

 figures, banners, and tablets are also carried, 

 according to the means and rank of the family. 

 When the grave is reached the coffin is let 

 down, and lime is abundantly mixed with the 

 earth thrown in upon it. Crackers are then 

 fired, libations are poured out, prayers are re- 

 cited, and finally paper molds of houses, clothes, 

 horses, money, and everything that the dead 

 man can possibly want in the land of shadows, 

 are burned. The origin of this latter custom 

 is unquestionably the idea that everything that 

 had been enjoyed or used in this life would be 

 desired in the other. The ancient custom was 

 to burn a man's household belongings, to kill 

 upon his grave his favorite horse, hound, or 

 bird, and sometimes his chosen servant, that 

 their shadows might go with him into the life 

 beyond. After the funeral the elaborate dishes 

 that have been borne to the grave are carried 



back, and the mourners feast upon them. 

 Bodies are in some instances kept in or about 

 the house for many years, and incense is 

 burned before them morning and evening. 



Delphi, Temple at. The edifice known 

 to have existed at Delphi, Greece, at the be- 

 ginning of the historic period, is said to have 

 been the work of two architects named Tropho- 

 nius and Agamedes. In 548 B. C., this temple 

 having been destroyed, the Amphictyoijs un- 

 dertook to build another for the sum of three 

 hundred talents, of which the Delphians were 

 to pay one fourth, and the remainder was to 

 be contributed by other cities of Greece. The 

 temple is said to have been of the Doric order 

 without, and the Ionic within. The front 

 was built of Parian marble, and the sculptured 

 decorations were rich and beautiful. The 

 arches above the entrances were adorned with 

 representations of legends of mythology, and 

 similar adornments were carved on the panels 

 of the walls. Images and statues in brass 

 and marble enriched the interior, and the 

 golden shields taken at Marathon, and also in 

 battles with the Gauls, adorned the architraves. 

 The attempts of the Persians, in 480 B. C., 

 and of the Gauls, in 279 B. C.,to rob the tem- 

 ple, were both, it was said, prevented by the 

 miraculous interference of Apollo, and the 

 sacred character of the place long protected it 

 from other would-be plunderers. It was, how- 

 ever, eventually plundered by Sulla, arid again 

 by Nero, who silenced the oracle. It was re- 

 stored by Hadrian, and then despoiled of 

 many of its most beautiful works of art by 

 Constantine the Great, and finally destroyed in 

 the latter part of the fourth century. 



Sinai. The exact position of Sinai, the 

 mount on which God gave to Moses the Ten 

 Commandments and the other laws by which 

 the Israelites were bound, is a matter of some 

 dispute, but it is probably to be found in the 

 mountains occupying the greater part of the 

 Arabian peninsula, lying between the Gulf of 

 Suez and Akabah. This mountain mass is divis- 

 ible into three groups a northwestern, reach- 

 ing, in Mount Serbel, an elevation of 0,340 

 feet ; an eastern and central, attaining in Jcbel 

 Katherin a height of 8,160 feet, and a south- 

 eastern, whose highest peak, Um Shaumer, is 

 the culminating point of the whole Sinaitic 

 range. Serbal, with its five peaks, looks the 

 most magnificent mountain in the peninsula 

 and is identified with Sinai by the early Church 

 Fathers, Eusebius, Jerome, Cosmas, etc. ; but 

 the requirements of the Hebrew narrative are 

 not met by it, and even as early as the time of 

 Justinian, the opinion that the Serbal was the 

 Sinai of Moses had been abandoned, and to a 

 ridge of the second or eastern range that honor 



