254 On the Funeral Ceremonies of the ancient Hindus. [No. 1, 



bones, be joined with the third (other bones) in glory ; having 

 joined all the bones be handsome in person ; be beloved of the 

 gods in a noble place. "* The bones should then be washed and 

 deposited in an urn, or tied up in a piece of black antelope skin. 

 The urn or bundle is then to be hung from the branch of a sami 

 or palasa tree. Should the bones belong to a person who had per- 

 formed a Soma sacrifice, they should be burnt again ; otherwise 

 they should be buried. For the latter purpose, an urn is absolutely 

 necessar}% and after placing the bones into it, it should be filled up 

 with curds mixed with honey, and then covered over with g 

 As'valayana recommends an urn with a spout for females and one 

 without it for males. Two mantras are given, one for pouring 

 the mixture, and the other to be addressed to its droppin 



Subsequently a proper place having been selected, a funeral pro- 

 cession should proceed to it in the morning, and the chief mourned 

 should begin the operations of the day by sweeping the spot with a 

 piece of leather or a broom of palasa or sami wood. Then, yoking a 

 pair of bullocks to a plough, he should dig six furrows running from 

 east to west, and, saluting them with a mantra, deposit the 

 urn in the central furrow. The bullocks should now be let loose 

 by the south side, and water sprinkled over the place with an 

 udumvara branch or from a jar. The covering of the urn is 

 then removed, some aromatic herbs, sarvaushadhi, are put into the 

 urn, and subsequently closed with pebbles and sand ; each of the 

 operations being performed while repealing an appropriate mantra. 

 A mantra should likewise be pronounced for every one of the opera- 

 tions which follow, and these include, first, the putting of brieks 

 around the urn ; 2nd, the throwing thereon some sesamum seed 

 and fried barley ; 3rd, placing some butter on an unbaked plate on 

 the south side ; 4th, spreading there some darbha grass ; 5th, sur- 

 rounding the tumulus with a palisade of palasa branches, and 6th, 

 crowning the whole by sticking on the top a flowering head of the 

 nala reed — arundo karka. The operator then anoints his body with 



