14 DEATH AND RESURRECTION. 



bility to be used for making fire in an- 

 other world. Beside the grave a sleigh 

 was placed upside down, evidently in 

 order to provide a vehicle for the de- 

 ceased, and we may assume that rein- 

 deers were slaughtered at the funeral. 



The essentia], fundamental thought 

 in this conception which causes the un- 

 cultivated peoples in our days to treat 

 their deceased in the same way as the 

 ancients did, is the belief that the body 

 contains something which the soul can- 

 not do without in the future life. Soul 

 and body are and remain a unit even 

 beyond the grave. As death means a 

 violent tearing apart of these two fac- 

 tors, the soul cannot be wholly satis- 

 fied without its natural relationship to 

 the body. 



It is evident, therefore, that to the 

 ancient world life in the lower regions 

 seemed dismal and repulsive. Achilles 

 would rather be a day-laborer on earth 

 than king of the hosts in Hades. Life 

 there passed in a shadowy inactivity 

 amidst all wealth, a desolate emptiness 



