102 ON THE ORIGIN OF CREMATION, 



duces Helen as saying, " Our houses are pure, not being defi- 

 " led by the death of Menelaus *." To this idea, of defile- 

 ment being contracted by approximation to the dead, we ought 

 undoubtedly to trace the custom which prevailed amorjg the 

 Romans, of thrice sprinkling with consecrated water all the re- 

 lations of the deceased, and all who had attended the funeral : 

 who were then said to have received expiation or lustration. 

 This ceremony was performed by a priest, after the burnt bones 

 had been put into an urn, and immediately before he gave the 

 company leave to depart, by pronouncing the words of vale- 

 diction. 



Ossaque lecta cado texit Chorinaeus aheno : 

 Idem ter socios pura circumtulit unda, 

 Spargens rore levi, et ramo felicis olivae, 

 Lustravitque viros, dixitque novissima verba. 



Virc. Mn. lib. vi. 



As a further purification, those who had attended the obse- 

 quies of the dead, after being sprinkled with water, as we learn 

 from Festus, stepped over a fire. This act was called Suffitus. 

 The house was also purified, and swept with a particular kind 

 of besom. The Ferice Denicales were certain ceremonies insti- 

 tuted with this design. The Flamen of Jupiter was laid under 

 the same restrictions as the Jewish High-priest. He was not 

 permitted to touch the dead, or even to approach a grave f. 

 The ancient Scythians themselves, though strangers to any 

 species of refinement, supposed that they necessarily contract- 

 ed defilement from the dead. Herodotus relates according- 



Euripid. Helen, vers. 1446. 

 •J- Aul. Gell. Noct. Attic, lib. x. c. 15. 



