564 
THE SACRED FLAME. 
rites were to be celebrated, is evident from the account Xenophon 
gives of one of Cyrus’s processions to make a great sacrifice, in 
which he says, “ Next to the bulls, there were horses led, for a 
sacrifice to the sun. After this proceeded a chariot, with its 
horses adorned with scarlet trappings; and behind it, followed 
men that bore fire upon a large altar.” 
The sacred flame in these repositories was never allowed to 
go out, except, it is said, on the death of a king ; and on that 
event, it would appear from Diodorus Siculus, the fire became 
extinguished. But he may mean that portion of it only, which 
might be additionally brought forward on a monarch’s accession, 
and on his death be permitted to expire with himself, to 
give a more awful solemnity to the event. For Strabo, and 
other authors, positively imply, that the great fountains of this 
holy element in the temples were never to be extinguished. 
Such was the care taken of its purity, and to preserve it from 
any blast of air, that it was fed with wood stripped of its bark, 
and never blown with bellows ; indeed, so far from being even 
breathed upon, the priests never drew near it, without linen cloths 
over their mouths. From the smoky appearance of the vaulted 
roofs of the tombs in the rock of Nakshi-Roustam, lights must 
have been burnt there also; and, whether in lamps or on an 
altar, of course they would be kindled from the repository I 
have just described. Several ancient writers inform us, that the 
sepulchres of the Persian kings not only contained the royal 
bodies, but consecrated offerings of great value; hence it became 
necessary to watch the place, not merely on account of religious 
reverence, but to protect the accumulated treasure with a constant 
guard : and affection united with state ceremony in establishing a 
custom, that some one of the favourite servants of the deceased 
