NOTICES OP PERU. 



315 



opinion to bury a dozen bodies than one. The wealthy, how- 

 ever, are diflferently disposed of. On one side of the Pantheon 

 are four tiers or blocks of holes, about five feet high, ranged 

 in the form of a squdre, each of which is of sufficient capacity 

 to receive a corpse and its coffin. From the roof of these holes 

 being arched, the English term them ovens, though their office 

 more closely resembles that of an ice house. The mouths of 

 these stratified sepulchres are closed with a brass or copper 

 plate, cemented round with mortar ; upon them are inscribed 

 the name of the deceased, age, epitaph, &c. At the expiration 

 of five or six years, according to the term for which the grave 

 may have been leased, the bones are removed and burned. 

 Those of the common people are exhumed on the morning of 

 All Saints, and heaped up on the outside of the Pantheon walls, 

 and burned at leisure. This custom renders the Pantheon all 

 sufficient as the burial place of the whole population of Lima, 

 and it will endure for ages. 



Funerals are usually celebrated soon after twilight, and are 

 conducted with a good deal of pomp and solemnity. Every 

 person carries a lighted candle, and the hearse is followed by 

 priests chanting the requiem hymn. The corpse is left in the 

 church all night, and interred the following day by the sexton. 

 Several months afterwards, sometimes a year, the relatives of 

 the deceased invite their friends to assist in the celebration of 

 mass for the soul of the departed. The invitation runs thus : 



Jose Maria, Benito, Juan Antonio, sons of the late Don 

 Juan Maria Fernandez (may he rest in peace), supplicate you 

 to commend him to God, and be pleased to assist at the obse- 

 quies that are to be celebrated for his soul on the 28th inst., 

 at half past eight A. M., in the church of the cathedral, for 

 which favor they will remain obliged." 

 "Al Sor. Don 



The mourners will be received and taken leave of at the 

 church." 



Formerly bodies were interred in the churches and eon- 

 vents ; though the Pantheon was opened in 1800, it was not 

 generally used till after the following preamble and decree 

 were issued by San Martin. 



