90 
THE MODERN CEMETERY. 
Herman August Hagen, Evangelinus Apostolides 
Sophocles, and Count de Pourtales, the friend of 
Agassiz. 
Among the few names mentioned there must not 
be ^ omitted those famous sons of Massachusetts, 
Charles Sumner and the poet Longfellow, whose 
graves attract many a pilgrimage. 
A red granite Runic Cross marks where Prof. 
Horsford, Leif Ericsson’s champion lies. William 
Ellery Channing’s grave draws many visitors, while 
such names as Eanny Eern and Rufus Choate lead 
numbers interested in their lives and works to visit 
their last resting places. 
On the road to the chapel, which is situated on 
a commanding knoll, the monument to Nathaniel 
Bowditch is passed as well as the family lot of Bish- 
op Lawrence. Nearly opposite the chapel is the 
grave of Col. Robert Gould Shaw, whose memory 
is held in grateful remembrance by the colored peo- 
ple. Not far off is the monument erected to the 
memory of Benjamin Eranklin. The most recent 
addition to this galaxy of notables is the last of the 
New England coterie of literary giants, Oliver 
Wendell Holmes, who now lies buried beside his 
wife. 
Funeral Customs of Ancient Nations. 
The nations in their childhood had different 
ways of disposing of their dead. 
In Egypt we find them embalming the remains 
of their departed and placing them in immense 
tombs — Pyramids — or we discover whole cities of 
the dead under the ground in the mountain sides. 
Monuments all through Asia, proof against the ef- 
fect of time, bear evidence that a great many na- 
tions resorted to the burial of the bodies of their 
dead. The Persians placed their dead in the open 
air to be disposed of by the animals of the night. 
To them earth and fire were sacred, so that they 
could not use these two common elements for such 
purposes. 
Of the Indo-European races a great many used 
the burning process with more or less funeral rites. 
The Celts and Latins had the funeral-pile, but not 
to a great extent, the burying of the body was a 
more common practice among them; but the Teu- 
tonic race loved the funeral-pile, it was part of their 
religion, it was sacred to them. 
Slaves were left unburned, but the free man 
must go the right road from the funeral-pile to the 
land of souls. It was considered dishonorable to 
subject the body to the ravages of worms. 
In “the Odyssey,” Odysseus meets one of his 
friends in the other world, walking around unable 
to find Hades’ house, and he complains bitterly to 
Odysseus that his body is left unburied, and 
implores him to burn it when he goes back. 
The old Greek view of the funeral-pile is fur- 
thermore seen in the story of how old king Priam, 
unable to get possession of the body of his beloved 
son Hector, burns Hector’s clothes as a substitute 
for the body. 
Charles Keary says in “The Mythology of Ed- 
das:” “In the tenth century an Arab traveller, Ibn 
Haukel in his Kitab — el Meshalik na — i Memalik, 
(Book of Roads and Kingdoms), tells about how he 
visited the Russ or Varings in the centre of Russia, 
(near Kief) to which they have given their name. 
They were a Gothic race. 
A Russ was speaking to his interpreter and Ibn 
Haukel asked what he said. “He says,” was the 
answer, “that as for you Arabs, you are mad, for 
those who are the most dear to you and whom you 
honor most, you place in the ground, where they 
will become a prey to the worms; whereas with us 
they are burnt in an instant and go straight to Par- 
adise.” 
The Teutonic race has composed a hymn of un- 
told beauty in honor of the sacred funeral-pile in 
the myth “The Funeral of Balder,” where we see 
Balder placed in his ship on the funeral-pile, his 
wife Nanna throwing herself at his body in a grief 
which burst her heart, and she is placed by his side. 
We see gods and elves and dwarfs, warriors and gi- 
ants, all forces from heaven and earth gathered ar- 
ound this burning ship; costly trinkets are thrown 
in the fire, and the god Thor makes it holy with his 
hammer-sign. 
It was as a whole very common to put the ship 
of the dead warrior on the funeral-pile and burn 
his body in it. He was then supposed to go in his 
ship to the land of Paradise after the burning. 
In the old Teutonic poem “Brynhildskvide, ” 
Brynhild is placed in a car hung with costly weav- 
ings upon the funeral-pile, and after the burning 
she rides to the land of the souls in this car. 
Still no nation seems to have clung to the burn- 
ing of the dead as part of their creed more than did 
the old Greeks, the nation of the highest standing 
in art and literature among all nations in the an- 
cient world, the nation never yet surpassed in love 
of all that is beautiful. NICO bech-MEYER. 
One of the most celebrated Roman sculptors has 
now almost completed the sepulchral monument for 
the Pope, ordered by himself. It is of Carrara mar- 
ble. On the cover of the sarcophagus lies a lion, 
with one paw on the papal tiara. On the right is a 
statue of Faith, holding in one hand the Holy Scrip- 
tures and in the other a torch. On the left is a sta- 
tue of Truth, holding the arms of the Pope. Under 
the lion, on the face of tomb, is a Latin inscription. 
