FUNERAL FLOWERS. 145 



Let me with fun'ral flowers his body strow; 

 This gift which parents to their children owe, 

 This unavailing gift, at least, I may bestow !" 



VIRGIL. 



From these two extracts we may gather, that it 

 was considered a duty incumbent on children, 

 to deck with flowers the bodies and places of 

 sepulture of their parents, and also on them to 

 pay similar honours to those of their offspring. 

 In the same poem as that from which the last 

 quotation was taken, we have these lines : 



" The fatal pile they rear 

 Within the secret court, exposed in air. 

 The cloven holms and pines are heaped on high ; 

 And garlands in the hollow spaces lie. 

 Sad cypress, vervain, yew, compose the wreath, 

 And every baleful flower denoting death." VIRGIL. 



This was to be the place of destruction, by fire, 

 of the self-immolated queen Dido, and we are 

 here strongly reminded of the Hindoo custom 

 of burning widows on the funeral pyre of their 

 husbands. The poet says : 



" The widowed Indian, when her lord expires, 

 Mounts the dread pile, and braves the fun'ral fires." 



CAMPBELL, * 

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