‘in’ cwartor 
owing hair, and wept over them 
half‘an hour; and:thew buried’them with their usual so« 
lemnities/”. The Abi eee ena enn 
race, immediately strip the: from the bones of thosé 
killed in Ghiganceainnys and carry them to their pro- 
per: ies) « i ‘a German ‘missionary; 
relates, that he saw’ seven skeletons thus'brought'to a 
g on kettles; and most like coy va bein er 
: mth leg 
von a fa~ 
beads and feathers, which-are cleaned once‘a year. Difs 
ferent members of the family are thus placed'in a sit- 
ting posture in a pit.or ‘excavation, with their weapons 
implements; and the’pit-is coveredover. But 
itis farther the» office ‘of ,some matron! of ‘the tribe to 
‘open the pit every year, and to clean ‘and clothe the ske- 
letons. : Sestectitaeesnt horses killed:on' the'occasion, 
that. the deceased: may ride on them in the next world, 
are placed around thesnouth of the »pit, supported- on 
stakes. ' y ’ oy Fi 
Among the: Gabres‘or Parsees of India; the ‘boilyis 
exposed on the ground,:and.a dog enticed to take: 
some certain: morsel out of'the mouth, which, on being 
accomplished; is deemed ‘a favourable omen. But it is 
otherwise should the animal refuse ; and during this 
peviod of expectation, prayers are pronounced by the 
priests. - The oe ee then consi ‘to'the!sepulchre, 
whichis described: to be’ “ an object of the most dread- 
ful and of the most horrid prospect in the worldyand 
much more frightful thar a field: of! htered men.” 
Bodies-are-'seen in all different stages of decay, either 
undergoing the decomposing process of nature, or bleed- ' 
ing and mangled ‘by-the vultures surrounding the walls, 
para swith’ human flesh rr on to 
incapable. of taking ‘flight: A day or two after be-— 
es aru relatives are: said to’ examine 
v eye has:beenlost, Snape see tte 
t one, a per une led. ‘is aviticipa- 
tale SetGhamegmnnninetc te 
-It has been the general:practice of most nations of the © 
globe, to. burm or ‘inter: with persons deceased 
JPUNERAL. 
those things that were most tisefu] or interesting to them Funeral: 
. in-the tomb of “el we or-opulent persons.’ 
37 
invlife. -o The ruder tribes; as well as the more civilized, 
haveentertained an infinity of arid contradictory 
sentiments regarding the’ state-of the soul after death ; 
‘some’ believing that it‘hovers long around the body ; 
that-it ‘is'immediately transferred to regions of bliss ; 
that it has’ a long journey ‘to aceémplish ; or that it 
subsists'in an intermediate condition, uncertain of re- 
ward/or punishment, until all mankind shall be judged. 
Ancient nations often buried treasures of t value 
Thirteen hun- 
dred'years after the decease of David, we'read that a high 
priest of Jerusalem took thrée thousand talents from hi 
*sepulchre, to bribe Antiochus to raise the siege of the 
city. Now there are sometimes found in the tombs of the 
ancient*Tartars, whole sheets and plates of solid’ gold. 
TherJukati of ‘Siberia inclose provisions in the coffin, Sacrifices of 
ly’ ** that the deceased may not hunger on the mankind 
road to’ the dwelling of souls.” His favourite riding 
horse is*accoutred, and led to the place of interment “ the dead. 
along with a mare. Two holes are dug under a tree, 
incone of which the deceased is deposited, and his horse 
being killed‘is buried in the other, while the mare is also 
killed; butisdevoured by the guests. ‘Thearms, domestic 
implemerits, and feminine articles of the deceased, have 
been either interred in the same grave, or consumed on 
the'same funeral pile. But by a more’ barbarous custom, 
as if the destruction of inanimate substances, or the pre 
servation’ of them for the’use of the'deceased, were alike 
inadequate; the sacrifice of living’animals, as we have 
seen;‘und even of human’ beings,’ has been’ in generat 
hentia tt Slaves and’ captives were murdered at’ the 
/of the funeral pile of the ancients, and consumed by 
the'same fire that reduced the body to-ashes ; and wives 
were mercilessly put to'death, that they might accom~ 
pany the souls of their husbands to those regions, which 
were supposed ready to receive them. But so-remark- 
able’and unnatural a ceremony in funeral rites demands: 
further illustration, especially as, instead of expirmg 
with the name of the Greeks and Romans, we find it 
still existing at the present day. 
~» Matikind, in the early stages of society, have inferred, 
that a future state bears an intimate resemblance to their 
condition in the world they inhabit ; that they have the 
same necessities, and the same propensities’ and en- 
joyments. Hence’ the ‘horse is killed, and the slave 
or ‘the wife’ murdered, that ‘their souls, transferred 
along with his own, might contribute to the use: of the 
owner. By certain refinements, however, which can 
only be‘diseovered in the sanguinary disposition of man, 
a sacrifice was deemed requisite, to appease the manes of 
the dead ; and in this mixed character, the shedding of 
the blood of man and animals must be viewed.’ As the 
sentiments of a nation changed, the’ actual immolation 
ceased’;| but, as happened among the Romanis, the com- 
batsof gladiators at a funeral pile were substituted, where-~ 
in‘one‘or both commonly perished. “And with theChinese’ 
there is a figurative'sacrifice, in the ‘images of men and 
animals consumed at the time of the ohsequies. Yet itis 
not long since this was introduced; for an emperor of that * 
nation, whose reign terminated in 1661, ordered 30 per- 
sons to be:sacrificed'to the manes of a favourite queen, 
and directed that’ her ‘body, deposited’ in'a valuable ‘cof 
fin, shotild*be burnt, along with a prodigious’ quantity 
of precious materials.’ Likewise, when an: er; 
the same’ people died 
attendants; proposed to sacrifice themselves on her tomb, 
which-the emperor‘her'son, “2 wise and’ politic prince; 
1 
of Voluntary 
in 1718, four youthful females, her “ce 
