FUNERAL CUSTOMS OF THE WORLD. 809 



which was distinctively the land of embalming was Egypt. This 

 subject is so vast that it is possible to refer 'to but two or three 

 points. One is the peculiar custom of judging the dead, before a 

 monument might be erected or other honor paid to their memory. 

 A writer on this subject says : " The judges who were to examine 

 into the merits of the deceased met on the opposite sides of a lake. 

 . . . When the judges met, all those who had anything to object 

 against the deceased person were heard ; and, if it appeared that he 

 had been a wicked person, then his name was condemned to per- 

 petual infamy, nor could his dearest relatives erect any monument 

 to perpetuate his memory. This made a lasting impression upon 

 the minds of the people, for nothing operates more strongly than 

 the fear of shame and the consideration of our deceased relatives 

 being consigned to infamy hereafter. Kings themselves were not 

 exempted from this inquiry ; all their actions were canvassed at 

 large by the judges, and the same impartial decision took place as 

 if it had been upon the meanest of the subjects." This trial, 

 which is described in the Book of the Dead, was a foreshadowing 

 of the trial of the soul by Osiris and his brother judges, before it 

 might be received into the Elysian Fields or the Pools of Perfect 

 Peace. The requirements for passing this latter ordeal were very 

 much the same as those set forth in the Sermon on the Mount : 

 to care for the fatherless and the widow; to give food to the 

 hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothes to the naked, oil to the 

 wounded, and burial to the dead ; to be faithful to the king, and 

 loving to wife and child. 



Another point deserving of notice was the strange custom of 

 placing the mummy in the seat of honor in the banquet hall. 

 This had a twofold office: (1) To warn the living of the fate in 

 store for them, like the memento mori of the Romans ; (2) to show 

 honor to ancestors. So it came to pass that of all lands in the 

 world, Egypt so rich in obelisk and pyramid and needle ; Egypt, 

 whose air does not destroy, but preserves is also the richest in 

 these mute memorials of the once-living dead. What a marvel- 

 ous thing it is that we may to-day gaze upon the very face and 

 form of the Pharaoh who would not let Israel go, of him who 

 built the treasure cities of the plain ! 



The third method of disposing of the dead is by burning 

 cremation, as it is now called. Many nations have practiced 

 burning, the best instances being the Greeks and the Romans. 

 Among the Greeks both methods were employed burning and 

 burying ; but gradually burning came to be the popular mode, the 

 reason being that fire was supposed to purify the celestial part of 

 man by separating it from the defilements of the body, and thus 

 enabling it to wing its flight to purer realms. More than the 

 Greeks the Romans were devoted to the process of cremation, al- 



