BUR 



UCIl 



Iy solicitous about the interment of their 

 deceased friends,since they were strongly 

 persuaded that their souls could not be 

 admitted into the Elysian fields till their 

 bodies were committed to the earth ; and 

 if it happened that they never obtained 

 the rites of burial, they were excluded 

 from the happy mansions for the term of 

 an hundred years. For this reason it 

 was considered as a duty incumbent upon 

 all travellers, who should meet with a 

 dead body in their way, to cast dust or 

 mould upon it three times, and of these 

 three handfuls one at least was cast upon 

 the head. The ancients likewise consider- 

 ed it as a great misfortune, if they were 

 not laid in the sepulchres of their fathers; 

 for which reason, such as died in foreign 

 countries had usually their ashes brought 

 home, and interred with those of their 

 ancestors. But, notwithstanding their 

 great care in the burial of the dead,there 

 were some persons whotn they thought 

 unworthy of that last office, and to whom 

 therefore they refused it : such were, 

 1. Public or private enemies. 2. Such as 

 betrayed or conspired against their coun- 

 try. 3. Tyrants, who were always looked 

 upon as enemies to their country 4. 

 Villains guilty of sacrilege. 5. Such as 

 died in debt, whose bodies belonged to 

 their creditors. And 6. Some particu- 

 lar offenders, who suffered capital pun- 

 ishment. ' 



Of those who were allowed the rites of 

 burial, some were distinguished by par- 

 ticular circumstances of disgrace attend- 

 ing their interment : thus persons killed 

 by lightning were buried apart by them- 

 selves, being thought odious to the gods; 

 those who wasted their patrimony forfeit- 

 ed the right of being buried in the sepul- 

 chres of their fathers ; and those who 

 were guilty of self-murder were privately 

 deposited in the ground, without the ac- 

 customed solemnities. Among the Jews, 

 the privilege of burial was denied only to 

 self-murderers, who were thrown out 

 to rot upon the ground. In the Christian 

 church, though good men always desired 

 the privilege of interment, yet they were 

 not,' like the heathens, so concerned for 

 their bodies, as to think it any detriment 

 to them, if either the barbarity oCunene- 

 niy, or some other accident, deprived 

 them of this privilege. The primitive 

 Christian church denied the more solemn 

 rites of burial only to unbaptised persons, 

 self-murderers, and excommunicated per- 

 sons,whocontinuedobstinate and impeni- 

 tent, in a manifest contempt of the 

 Church's censures. 



The place of burial among the Jew-} 

 was never particularly determined. \Ve 

 find they had graves in the town and 

 country, upon the highways, in gardens, 

 and upon mountains. Among the Greeks, 

 the temples were made repositories for 

 the dead in the primitive ages, yet the 

 general custom in later ages with them, 

 as well as with the Romans and other 

 heathen nations, was, to bury their dead 

 without their cities, and cniefiy by die. 

 highways. Among the primitive Chris- 

 tians, burying in cities was not allowed 

 for the first three hundred years, nor in 

 ci lurches for many ages after, the dead 

 bodies being first deposited in the atrium 

 or church-yard, and porches and porticos 

 of the church: hereditary burymg-piaces 

 were forbidden till the twelfth century. 



BLBIALS, in law, persons are to be buri- 

 ed in woollen,or their representatives shall 

 forfeit 5/. and affidavit is to be made there- 

 of before a justice, under a like penalty. 



BURIALS, as practised by the military, 

 differ in some respects according to the 

 rank of the deceased The funeral ot a 

 field-marshal is saluted with three rounds 

 of fifteen pieces of cannon attended by six 

 battalions and eight squadrons : that of a 

 general with three rounds of eleven pieces 

 of cannon, four battalions and six squad- 

 rons : and so on, decreasing in honour, 

 till tn at of a private, which >s attended by 

 one serjeant, and thirteen rank and file, 

 with three rounds of small arms. The 

 pall is to be supported by officers of the 

 same rank with that of the deceased. The 

 order of march to be observed in military 

 funerals is reversed with respect to rank. 

 Tor instance, if an officer is buried in a 

 garrison-town, or from a camp, it is cus- 

 tomary for the officers belonging to the 

 other corps to pay his remains the com- 

 pliment of attendance . in winch case the 

 youngest ensign marches at the head, im- 

 mediately after the pall, and the general, 

 if there be one, in the rear of the com- 

 missioned officers, who take their posts in 

 reversed order, according to seniority. 

 The battalion, troop, or company, follow 

 the same rule. 



B I/RLE SQUE, a jocose kind of poetry, 

 chiefly used in the way of drollery and 

 ridicule, to deride persons and things. 



BURMANMA, in botany, so named, 

 in honour of John Burgmann ; a genu> of 

 the i'exandriaMonogy ma class and order. 

 Natural order of Liliaceous Flowers. Co- 

 ronariae, Linnaeus. Bromelix, Jussieu. Es- 

 sential character ; calyx prismatic colour- 

 ed, trifid; angles membranous; peials 

 three; capsule three celled,straight; seeds 



