1870.] Be Mortuis. 347 



Then jars of honey, and of fragrant oil, 

 Suspends around, low-bending o'er the pile. 

 Four sprightly coursers, with a deadly groan 

 Pour forth their lives, and on the pyre are thrown. 

 Of nine large dogs, domestic at his board, 

 Fall two, selected to attend their lord. 

 Then last of all, and horrible to tell, 

 Sad sacrifice ! twelve Trojan captives fell. 

 On these the rage of fire victorious preys, 

 Involves and joins them in one common blaze."* 



During the ceremony, decursions and games were celebrated, 

 often lasting several days, after which the ossilegium, or gathering 

 of the bones and ashes of the dead, washing, anointing, and deposit- 

 ing in urns, was performed. 



Amongst refined and civilized peoples it is possible to conceive 

 that a certain sacredness was connected with this ceremonial, and 

 that such lines as the Salve Etemum might form an appropriate 

 conclusion of such service : — 



"Farewell, soul departed ! 

 Farewell, O sacred urn ! 

 Bereaved and broken-hearted, 

 To earth the mourners turn ! 

 To the dim and dreary shore, 

 Thou art gone our steps before ! 

 But thither the swift hours lead us, 

 And thou dost but awhile precede us ! 



Salve — Salve ! 

 Loved urn and thou solemn cell, 

 Mute ashes ! — farewell, farewell ! 



Salve — Salve ! "f 



But the incremation ceremony in western and northern Europe 

 was in reality more an occasion of feasting ; the slain animals being 

 chiefly cooked and eaten by the mourners. Thus we find in Anglo- 

 Saxon barrows and graves in England abundant remains of animals, 

 especially those of the horse, which have served as feasts. 



To so high a pitch had this practice of the lyke-wake risen in 

 later times that it was severely denounced in numerous inhibitions 

 issued by the early Church.! 



Judging by the number of instances in which gold ornaments 

 have been found in graves, it seems probable that gold was the metal 

 which first attracted the attention of man. Its bright colour would 

 certainly attract even the rudest savages, who are known to be very 

 fond of personal decoration. 



Silver does not appear to have been discovered until long after 

 gold, and was apparently preceded by both copper and tin, as it is 

 rarely, if ever, found in tumuli of the Bronze age ; but however 

 this may be, copper seems to have been the metal which first became 

 of real importance to man ; no doubt owing to the fact that its ores 



* Pope's Translation of the ' Iliad,' Book xxiii. 

 t ' Last Days of Pompeii :' Lyfcton. 

 t See Rolleston in ' Archseologia,' vol. xlii. 

 VOL. VII. 2 B 



