126 ON THE ORIGIN OF CREMATION, 



Iliad. *. ver. 220. 



Plato informs us, that the ancient Greeks hired female 

 mourners, whose office it was to bewail the dead, and to make 

 libations *. 



It may be also observed, that they evidently wished that the 

 wine, used on this occasion, should as nearly as possible re- 

 semble blood. Thus, in the account given of the funeral of 

 Hector, we find it expressly mentioned that the wine with 

 which the remains of the fire were extinguished, was dark-co- 

 loured. 



TlgooTOv [a\v Kara irvgKUtrjv vfiztrctv cuOotti oivu 



H6i<r<x,v ozoffffov tirtfrfce wgog p,zvo<;. 



Ibid. a. ver. 791. 



Now, this is the very language which the same illustrious 

 poet had employed to denote the libation by Chryses, the 

 priest of Apollo, on the joints of the hecatomb, which he of- 

 fered as an expiatory sacrifice for the Greeks. 



«Jg IKl 0%'C*JS yigWi EST/ UitfOTU OIVOV. 



Ibid. a. ver. 462. 



I have already adverted to the Indian practice of casting 

 frankincense on the funeral fire. As the use of incense has 

 from time immemorial been an established rite in sacrifical 

 worship, it appears that it was not unknown to the Greeks and 

 Romans, in celebrating the obsequies of the dead. Kirchman 



has 



* 'lipeket, tl 7tPo<r(pa\TO\ni<; vpo t»; i*(pog«s tS? vsxgov, x.ou £y;gprg<f7«$ fitTXirlfAXtptivoi. PtAT. 



Minoe, Oper. ii. 315. Kirchman supplies some observations on this singular rite. De 

 Funer. p. 370. 



