THE RITUAL OF BARROWS ANt) CIRCLES. 233 



spirit, escaped from a fleshly incarceration may appear as a 

 luminous, pulsatory, rapidly revolving system of electrons. That 

 would be less alluring than hands, and lips, and eyes. We could 

 not caress a rapidly revolving sphere, how tender soever the 

 thoughts it might express by etherial undulations. 



And so, like those of long ago, we visit the sepulchre with our 

 flowers and our prayers ; and we treasure at home a priceless 

 reliquary. The Parentalia and the Feralia are repeated on All 

 Souls' Day. 



The method of rendering a portion of the body incorruptible 

 by incineration is so simple and satisfactory that it is strange it 

 was not earlier conceived and more widely practised. The wealth 

 and resources of the Egyptian led on the contrary to embalmment, 

 entombment, and the triply coffined mummy. Elsewhere and for 

 the most part it was thought sufficient to preserve the skeleton 

 from which putrescible matter had, in various ways, been 

 removed. This led to what has been called " dual interment," 

 but the more comprehensive term, dual disposal of the dead body, 

 is to be preferred. 



Among the Patagonians the flesh was stripped from the 

 bones, which were then hung up on trees to dry and 

 whiten in the sun. At the end of a year, they were carried off and 

 interred in the ancestral burial ground, and sometimes a cairn of 

 stones was raised over the grave. 



Among the Iroquois the bodies of the dead were fastened to a 

 scaffolding or to trees, and when only the bones remained these 

 were removed either to the former abode of the defunct or to a 

 small adjacent house specially prepared. After the lapse of a 

 number of years it was customary to collect such skeletons from the 

 whole community and consign them to a common resting-place. 



Among the Correguajes the dead body was carried to the 

 woods, and was left there until the flesh had been removed by 

 beasts of prey. The bones that remained were then taken home, 

 the next of kin carrying the skull. 



Among the Society Islanders, dead bodies were placed on a 

 platform, railed in with bamboo. When the flesh had vanished, 



