THE RITUAL Of BARROWS AND CIRCLES. ^35 



A Parsi cemetery, "the tower of silence," is a circular area, 

 enclosed by a high wall of brick or mud, within which dead bodies 

 are exposed until their flesh has been removed by birds of prey. 



Indeed, on our own Continent, the ancient practices of dual 

 disposal are still followed. In some of the isles of Greece, 

 primary receptacles, built of brick, are occupied by an endless 

 succession of bodies, and are cleared out at stated seasons, when 

 a grand funeral takes place, accompanied with much processional, 

 ceremony. 



In some parts of Italy, more particularly at Naples and 

 Casamicciola of which I speak from personal observation in 

 1889, a dual disposal of the dead is thoroughly carried out. Just 

 beyond the Neapolitan walls are three Campi Santi. One of 

 them is occupied by a number of private mortuary chapels, 

 belonging to aristocratic or rich families. These buildings are 

 not oriented. Within each of them, opposite the entrance, is an 

 altar. A flight of stone steps leads to a crypt which is much 

 larger than the chapel above. The floor of the crypt is covered, 

 to a considerable depth, with pozzolana, a volcanic dust which has 

 the property of absorbing flesh from bones. The surface of the 

 pozzolana is marked out into oblongs and a dead person is 

 buried in one of these divisions, and a little stick is pushed in 

 which bears, on a label, the initials of the name of the defunct. 

 All round the crypt, against the wall, are small metal receptacles 

 which rest on shelves, presenting the appearance of a colum- 

 barium. At the primary disposal after the usual service at the 

 church, the body is borne in a shell on which are spread the 

 dead person's garments, which sometimes clothe his effigy. 

 Until recently it was the custom to carry the body on a bier, 

 exposed to the gaze of all ; but this was forbidden by law. At 

 the end of an indeterminate time, but usually of two years, it is 

 the duty of the next of kin, after mass has been said at the altar 

 of the chapel, to exhume the body, to take up the now bare 

 bones with his hand, and to deposit them in one of the metal 

 receptacles, to which is attached a suitable title and description. 

 This is the secondary disposal. 



