OR THE BURNING OF THE DEAD. 123 



Brachmans devoted themselves to a fiery death, we are assured 

 by Stephanus Byzantinus, from Hierocles, that they were 

 chiefly consecrated to the sun % ./Elian expressly declares, 

 that Calanus the Gymnosophist, after he had ascended the 

 funeral-pile on which he devoted himself, adored the sun which 

 shone on him ; and that this was indeed the signal which he 

 had agreed to give to the Macedonians, that they should set 

 fire to the pile "f. Lucian gives a similar account of the death 

 of Peregrinus, who, although a Parian by birth, seems to have 

 imitated the customs of the Gymnosophists, The pile being 

 kindled, " he called for incense ; which when he had received 

 " from some one, he cast into the fire. Then looking stedfast- 

 " ly towards the meridian, (for the meridian was concerned in 

 " this tragedy),, he said, O ! ye maternal and paternal demons, 

 " receive me graciously ! Having said this, he threw himself 

 " into the flames." He subjoins, " It has been lately report- 

 " ed, that, as he ascended the pyre, he saluted the rising sun, 

 " as it is said the Brachmans are wont to do j." It merits ob- 

 servation, that the Bramins of our own time daily pay their de- 

 voirs to the sun ; not considering him, they pretend, as the pro- 

 per object of worship, but as the visible representative of the 

 Supreme Being. Incense, I am assured on good authority, is 

 uniformly used by them, in the manner above described, in the 



Q. 2 inhuman 



• '£?ccy,u.civwv law tyvXov awpaiv, (pi\o<ro(pm y.ou 03o/s tyihav qXi'a §s ftxXircL x.u.ba<riau!ivav. 

 STEPH. BYZANT. VOC. B%x%fiuns. 



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 e|«7rle(y t«v Tv^av t«7; TActKihlxn. jElian. Var. Hist. .Lib. V. c. 6. 



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cian. De Morte Peregrin. Oper. ii. p. 584, — 586, 



