﻿242 ON THE llELIGTOUS CEREMONIES 



It is only necessary to avoid taking it from another 

 funeral pile, or from the abode of an outcast, of a 

 man belonging to the tribe of executioners, of a 

 woman who has lately born a child, or of any person 

 who is unclean. 



After washing the corpse, clothing it in clean 

 apparel, and rubbing it with perfumes, such as san^ 

 dal wood, saffron or alloc v/ood, the relations of the 

 deceased place the corpse supine with its head to- 

 wards the north, (or resupine, if it be the body of a 

 woman,) on the funeral pile, which is previously de- 

 corated Mnth struno- and unstruno- flowers. A cloth 

 must be thro\ra over it, and a relation of the deceased 

 taking up a lighted brand, must invoke the holy 

 places above-mentioned, and say, '' May the Gods 

 with flaming mouths burn this corpse !" he then 

 walks thrice round the pile with his right hand to- 

 wards it, and shifts the sacrificial cord to his right 

 shoulder. Then looking towards the south, and 

 dropping his left knee to the ground, he applies the 

 fire to the pile near the head of the corpse, saying, 

 *' Namo ! lunnah /" while the attending priests re- 

 cite the following prayer : " Fire I thou wert lighted 

 by him — mav he therefore be reproduced from thee 

 that he may attain the region of celestial bliss. May 

 this offering be auspicious." 'This, it may be re- 

 marked, supposes the funeral pile to be lighted from 

 the sacrificial fire kept up by the deceased ; the sanje 

 prayer is however used at the funeral of a man who 

 had no consecrated hearth. 



The fire must be so managed that some bones may 

 remain for the subseijuent ceremony of gathering the 

 ashes. While the pile is burning, the relations of the 

 deceased take up seven pieces of wood a span long, 

 and cut them severally with an axe over the fire- 

 brands (after walking each time round tlie funeral 

 pile), and then throw the pieces over their shoulders 

 upon the fire, saying, "Salutation to thee who dost 



consume flesh." 



The 



