834 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



from whom they claim descent. Men who have lost their wives sig- 

 nify their mourning by going bareheaded for six months. 



To the Ruthenians, death is a greatly dreaded visitor, and calls 

 out most demonstrative expressions of grief. They now put the pipe 

 and tobacco-box of the deceased in the grave, as in ancient times they 

 used to deposit his armor there. All the furniture is removed from 

 the place before the dead man is taken from the house, so that the 

 escaping soul shall not be held back by its attachment to the familiar 

 arrangement of the room — a custom which in itself, and in the thought 

 that suggests it, contrasts curiously with the Servian fashion. When 

 the coffin is being borne out, it is set down upon the door-step, so 

 that the walls of the house may know that one of its inmates has 

 left it. 



The custom of providing the deceased with an obolus, or a piece 

 of money to pay the ferryman over the river of death, prevails among 

 the Roumanians, who derive it from the Romans, and among the 

 Slovaks of North Hungary, who never had anything to do with the 

 Romans. Among the Slovaks, the coffin of a young girl is red, while 

 her dress is black, that being to them the color of innocence, and a 

 sprig of rosemary is put in the hand of the corpse. A lighted taper 

 is set at the head of the casket. 



Among barbarous and savage races, the diversities in funeral cus- 

 toms are endless, and often mark strange and paradoxical notions of 

 life and death. They may still be witnessed in the islands of the sea 

 and in the " Dark Continent," where civilization and foreign influ- 

 ences have hardly made a scratch, in all their pristine originality and 

 freshness. A large book would not suffice to contain the descriptions 

 of them all. We give here only a few of the hundreds of specimens 

 we might present, culled from the most recent accounts of travelers 

 and missionaries : 



Herr F. Grabowsky relates, in an account of that people, that the 

 Maanjans of Southeastern Borneo set great store upon dying in their 

 own house, and on having their funeral celebrated in their native vil- 

 lage. When the signal of death is sounded in solemn, rhythmic beats 

 on the garangtong, the village is supposed to become partially un- 

 clean, and particular observances are imposed on the people. The 

 soul of the deceased is imagined to wander about the place uneasily 

 till the funeral services are performed, and the night to be its day.' 

 Hence, every person who has to leave the place for any reason makes 

 it a point to do so before sunset ; and, if he has to go out later, he 

 avoids speaking to anybody, and every one shuns him. According to 

 the superstitions of this people, the souls return from the spirit-world 

 to the earth after seven generations ; and, if a pregnant woman craves, 

 for instance, sour fruits, it is said that a soul from the other world has 

 returned to dwell in her, in order to be born to life again. As soon 

 as the dying man has breathed his last, the mourning- women begin 



