296 
ANCIENT JE\TS.-“JiUIlYING ALIVE. 
kind of bier resembles our coffius, that used by the people of Nalii 
might possibly be of the same kind. 
Funeral Rites among the ancient Jews. 
W HEN any person was dead, his relations and friends rent their clothes, 
which custom is but faintly imitated by the modern Jews, who only 
cut off a bit of their garment, in token of affection. U was usual to bend 
the dead person’s thumb into the hand, and fasten it in that posture 
with a string ; because the thumb then having the figure of the name 
of God, they thought the devil would not dare to approach it. When 
they came to the burying-place, they made a speech to the dead, in 
the following terms : “ Blessed be God, who had formed thee, fed 
thee, and maintained thee, and taken away thy life. O dead f he 
knows your numbers, and shall one day restore your life, &c. Then 
they spake the eulogium or funeral oration of the deceased, after which 
they said a prayer, called “ the righteousness of judgment then turn- 
ing the face of the deceased towards heaven, they called out, “ Go in 
peace.” 
Burying alive. 
This was the punishment of a vestal who had violated her vow of 
virginity. The unhappy priestess was let down into a deep pit, with 
bread, water, milk, oil, a lamp burning, and a bed to lie on. But this 
was only for show ; for, the moment she was let down, they began to 
cast in the earth upon her till the pit was filled up. Some middle-age 
writers seem to make burying alive'the punishment of a woman-thief. 
This barbarous custom has even been used in Scotland under the 
feudal tyranny. Mr, Matheson, minister of Kilmuir Easter, in Rosst 
shire, mentions, that, in the year 1751, as labourers were digging a 
bank of earth near Miln-town, they found a human skeleton sitting 
in an erect posture, on a seat seemingly made for that purpose. 
Many credible persons authenticate this as a fact known to themselves. 
Tradition says, that several persons have been buried alive, in this 
and the neighbouring parish, by the direction of a cruel and arbitrary 
landlord, who was proprietor of these lands in the beginning of the 
last century.” Lord Bacon gives instances of the resurrection of per- 
sons who have been buried alive. The famous Duns Scotus is of the 
number, who having been seized by a catalepsis, was thought dead* 
and laid to sleep among his fathers, but raised again by his servants^ 
in whose absence he had been buried. Bartholin gives ah account of 
a woman, who, on recovering from an apoplexy, could not believe but 
that she was dead, and solicited so long and so earnestly to be buried; 
that they were forced to comply, and performed the ceremony at 
least in appearance. The famous emperor Charles V. after his abdi- 
cation, took it into his head to have his burial celebrated in his life- 
time, and assisted at it. 
Ancient Tombs. 
In many nations it has been customary to burn the bodies of the 
d€ad,‘aud to collect the ashes with pious care into an urn, which was 
