BURIAL. 



the N.E. of it is a ver)- ftronp^ fortrefs, named Afeer, or 

 Afeti^ur. It has a confuierable trade in fmi: cottons, white 

 and paintfd, plain, and mixed with gold and filvc-r, for vtils, 

 (havvls, handkerchiefs, &c. ; 135 miles N. of Auningaljad, 

 and 6:5 S. of Deliii. N. lat. 21° i./. E. long. 76^ 22'. 



BuRHANPOiiR, a town of Hindoftan, in the county of 

 Bengal i 10 miles S. of Moorlhedabad, and ico miles N. of 

 Calcutta. 



BURIAH, a river of Hindollan, which ntns into the 

 JuTinah, 20 irilcs S. of Delhi. 



BURIAL. The aA of interring a deccafcd petfon. 

 Of l!ic viirious modes of bnrial winch have prevailed in 

 the world, it was Cicero's opinion, (De Leg. ii. 22.) that 

 inhumation was the oldcll : and the records of hiltory un- 

 doubtedly cormborate th.e notion. Burning, and inclofing 

 the remains in nrns, were perhaps never found expeditnt, 

 till national animolities h.id given rife to inhuman treatment 

 of the dead. 



The common confent of mankind, from the beginning of 

 time to the profent moment, has concurred in the propriety 

 and decency of interment : it is a natural aft infpircd by 

 humanity ; a practice, which has been continually ubferved 

 by enemico in time of war ; and but rarely denied in any 

 country, but to thofc who have violated either the laws of 

 God or nature. The duty of fepukure, and inftances 

 of the difcharge of it, continually occur in Scripture. 

 David palTcs high encomiums on the men of Jabez-Gilead 

 who refcued the bones of their king and prince from the 

 enemy's walls, and committed them to their family vault. 

 (2 Sam. ii. 5.) It is part of the praife of Tob't that he 

 went about burying his murdered countrymen, at the hazard 

 of his life. And Jeremiah threatens it as the greateft of 

 punifhments, that tlie wicked fhould be deprived of burial, 

 and left on a dunghill: (Jrr. viii. 2.) or as it is emphati- 

 cally cxprefTed, buried witli the burial of an afs. Herodo- 

 tus tells us, (Euterpe, xc.) th.it in Egypt, if either a native 

 or a foreigner was loinid either dellroyed by a crocodile, or 

 drowned in the water, the city nearelt which the body was 

 difcovertd was obliged to embalm it, and pay it every re- 

 fpeftful attention, and afterwards di-polit it in fome confe- 

 crated place. Ifxus brings it as a proof that Cleon was not 

 the fon of Aftyphylus, becanfe he neither buried him, nor 

 performed his fiincrcd exequies. (Orat. de Hereditate Afty- 

 phyh.) A law of Athens compelled the bmial of a dead 

 body found by accident, and pronounced the refufer im- 

 pious. Servius on Virgil (jEn. vi. 176.) fays, writers on 

 moral duties place the duty of interrmg the dead among- 

 the lirlh It was profanation for a pvieft to look on a dead 

 body, but the height of impiety to leave it unburicd. The 

 Athenians carried their attention to the dead beyond the 

 grave ; and Solon, by an exprefs law, forbad any refleftions 

 on their charaftcr. On this law Plutarch thus comments : 

 *' Piety fliould induce us to reverence the dead ; juftice 

 fliould prevent us from intermeddling with the affairs of thofe 

 who no longer txill ; and policy fhould lead us to prevent 

 the perpetuity of enmity." (Solon, p. 89. E.) Demoilhenes 

 extends the caution Hill further: not even any provocation 

 from furvivors of the family fhould urge us to any refleftions 

 on the dead ; (In Leptonein, p. 298.) and every citizen was 

 at liberty to bring an aflion againll the abufive party. (Ul- 

 pian in loc. Demofthcnes in Bosotos. p. 58S. Suidas.) The 

 Cynics, however, feem to have regarded burial with con- 

 tempt ; and Pliny (H. N. l.vii.) ranks concern about it 

 amongd the wcaknclTes peculiar to man. 



Among the carliell inhabitants of the world, neither the 

 modes nor the appropriate place of burai can now be afccr- 

 laioed. Nor does it feem that the latter, even in the middle 



8 



periods of Jevvifh hidory, was always particularly deteri 

 mined. Eor we fuid they had graves and fepulchres both in 

 the town and country, in fields, upon the highways, in gar- 

 dens, in their own houfes, and upon mountains : though 

 the general cullom feems to have been, that the dead fliould 

 be interred without the city. They appear in many cafes 

 alfo to have thought it a misfortune not to be buried with 

 their fathers. In Gcntfis (xv. if,.) when the affliftiou of 

 Abraham's pollerity was foretold, it was proniifed that he 

 fhould go to his fathers bi peace, and be lurieJ in a goo:/ clj 

 age. He afterwards pleads mofl pathetically with the fons 

 of Hcth (xxiii. 3 — ij) for the purchafe of a burial place 

 for Sarah. It was in the cave of the field of M.iclipiluh ; 

 and it afterwards received the bodies of himfelf, of Ifaac, and 

 of Jacob. 



fofcpli's body, having been embalmed, and put into a 

 cotBn, m Egypt, was brought away by the Ifraehtes when 

 they quitted the country, and buried in a plot of ground in 

 Shcchem, which Jacob had purchaledof the fons of Hamor 

 (Gen. 1. 25. Jofh. xxiv. 32.) Mofes was fecretly buried in 

 a valley in the land of Moab, (Deut. xxxiv. 6.) and no man 

 knew of his fepulchre. Eleazar, the fon of Aaron, was 

 buried on a hill. (Jofli. xxiv. 35.) Joab, in his own houl'e 

 in the wildernefs. (i Kings ii. 34.) ManafTch and Amon, 

 in the garden of Uz/a ; (2 Kings xxi. 18. 26.) and Reho- 

 boam, Afa, Jehofaphat, Joram, Amaziah, Azariah, Jotham 

 and Ahaz, in the city of David, with their fathers. " Joalh, 

 too, was buried in the city ol David," but not in the iepul- 

 chres of the kings. (2 Chron. xxiv. 25.) 



From the profane writers of antiquity we learn the prac- 

 tice among other nations : and not only from their authority, 

 but from daily obfervation, we find the high raifed Tumulus 

 continued a mark of refpeft amongft the living, and a iignal 

 honour amongft the dead in every age of which we have any 

 record. Barroivs are the moft ancient fepulchral monu- 

 ments in the world : a.nd their contents are as various as the 

 different people that occupied the globe, or the different cir- 

 cumflanees by which they were dillinguifhed. The pyra- 

 mids of Egypt are but barrows of a more folid material : 

 and the church-yard hillock of the prefcnt day is but a 

 relic of their univerfal prevalence. Homer is very particu- 

 lar in defcribing the barrow of Patroclus. It was fir'.l 

 marked out with a circle ; the foundations were then laid 

 round tlie very fpot where the funeral pile was ftill uncoolcd, 

 and the earth thrown up over them. 



Xtyavlf; d* ':o tm^a, TOa^iv xiov. II. -4^. 2<C — 2C7. 



The remains of the body were collefted in a golden urn, but 

 (which is fingular) were not lodged beneath the barrow. 



Among the dillinguifhed barrows of Greece may be 

 ranked that of Egyptus in Arcadia, which Paufanias de- 

 fcribes as not very large, and furrounded by a margin of 

 itone ; Tdj x^t^^ ^ t^^y^j ^*S^ /tpji^idi ew xi^hAw 'njifti^ofj.tvcv : 

 (Arcad. c. lO.), and which Homer admired (II. B. 603.), 

 as not having feen a finer. That of Icarus was a fmall one, 

 on a headland where he was caft away: (Paufan. Boeot. 

 c. II.) and that of Achilles in a fimilar fituation. (Odyff. 

 fi. J>6.) See B.4RR0W. 



With the Egyptians, and the ancient Greeks, (fee Plato,. 

 Minoe propc fin), ptrfons were occafionally buried^ as we 

 have already mentioned in the cafe of Joab, in their own . 

 houfcs : while in other inftances hills and rocks were not 

 only receptacles for the ancient inhabitants of Greece, Sicily 

 and Aha, but of the Perjians, and, to this day, of the Chi- 

 ntfe. The general praftice of burial, however, among the 

 ancient Perfians, is thus related by Herodotus, (Clio, cxl.) 



•♦ I will 



