INTER M E N T. 1 6 g 
honour. The Caribs (till put to death their (laves on the 
deceale of their mailers. This deteftable culiom was 
conveyed from thefe iflanders to the Mexicans and Peru¬ 
vians, and even to the Natches on the Miffidippi. See 
Burial, and Funeral Rites. 
As to the duty of decently providing interment for de- 
ceafed friends, Ariftotle aflerted, that it was more juft to 
affift the dead than the living. Plato, in his Republic, 
does not forget, amongft other parts of juftice, that which 
.concerns the dead. Cicero eltabliflies three kinds of juf¬ 
tice ; the firft refpe&s the gods, the fecond the manes or 
dead, and the third men. Thefe principles feem to be 
drawn from nature ; and they appear at lead to be necef- 
fary for the fupport of fociety, fince at all times civilized 
nations have taken care to bury their dead, and to pay 
their laft refpefts to them. 
We find in hiftory feveral traces of the refpeft which 
the Indians, the Egyptians, and the Syrians, entertained 
for the dead. The Syrians embalmed their bodies with 
myrrh, aloes, honey, fait, wax, bitumen, and refinous 
gums; they dried them all'o with the i'ntoke of the fir and 
the pine-tree. The Egyptians preferved theirs with the 
refin of the cedar, with aromatic fpices, and with fait. 
Thefe people often kept fuch mummies, or at lead their 
effigies, in their houles; and at grand entertainments they 
were introduced, that by reciting the great aftions of 
their anceltors they might be better excited to virtue. 
The Greeks, at fil'd, had probably not the fame vene¬ 
ration for the dead as the Egyptians. Empedocles, there¬ 
fore, in the eighty-fourth Olympiad, reftored to life Pon- 
thia, a woman of Agrigentum, who was about to be in¬ 
terred. But this people, in proportion as they grew ci¬ 
vilized, becoming more enlightened, perceived the necef- 
fity of eftabliffiing laws for the protection of the dead. 
At Athens the law required that no perfon (liould be in- 
> terred before the third day ; and in the greater part of the 
cities of Greece a funeral did not take place till the fixth 
or feventli. When a man appeared to have breathed his 
lad, his body was generally waffied by his neared relations, 
with warm water mixed with wine. They afterwards 
anointed it with oil ; and covered it with a drefs com¬ 
monly made of fine linen, according to the cuftom of the 
Egyptians. This drefs was white at Medina, Athens, 
and in the greater part of the cities of Greece, where the 
dead body was crowned with dowers. At Sparta it was 
of a pufple colour, and the body was furrounded with 
olive-leaves. The body was afterwards laid upon a couch 
in the entry of the houfe, where it remained till the time 
of the funeral. At the magnificent obfequies with which 
Alexander honoured Hepheftion, the body was not burned 
until the tenth day. 
The Romans, in the infancy of their empire, paid as 
little attention to their dead as the Greeks had done. 
Acilius Aviola, having fallen into a lethargic fit, was fup- 
pofed to be dead; he was therefore carried to the funeral 
nile; .the fire was lighted up; and, though lie cried out 
he was Hill alive, he perifhed for want of fpeedy abidance. 
The prsetor Lamia met with the fame fate. Tubero, who 
had been prsetor, was faved from the funeral pile. Afcle- 
piades a phyfician, who lived in the time of Pompey the 
: Great, about one hundred and twenty years before the 
Chriftian era, returning from his-country-houfe, ohferved 
near the walls of Rome a grand convoy and a crowd of 
people, who were in mourning, abiding at a funeral, and 
lh owing every exterior bgn of the deeped grief. Having 
afked what was the occafion of this concourfe, no one 
made any reply. He therefore approached the pretended 
dead body; and, imagining that he perceived dgns of life 
in it, he ordered the byltanders to take away the dam- 
beaux, to extinguilh the fire, and pull down the funeral 
pile. A kind of murmur on this arofe throughout the 
whole company. Some faid that they ought to believe 
the phyfician ; while others turned both him and his pro- 
feffion into ridicule. The relations, however, yielded at 
length to the remondrancesof Alclepiades; they coufented 
Vol.XLJSIo* 74-i- 
to defer the obfequies for a while ; and the confequemre 
was, the reftoration of the pretended dead perfon to life. 
It appears that thefe examples, and feveral others of the 
like nature, induced the Romans to delay funerals longer, 
arid to ena6l laws to prevent precipitate interments. 
At Rome, after allowing a fufficient time for mourn¬ 
ing, the neared relation generally clofed the eyes of the 
deceafed; and the body was bathed with warm water, ei¬ 
ther to render it fitter for being anointed with oil, or to 
re-animate the principle of life, which might remain fuf- 
pended without manifefting itfelf. Proofs were afterwards 
made to difcover whether the perfon was really dead, 
which were often repeated during the time that the body 
remained expofed; for there were perfons appointed to 
vifit the dead, and to prove their fituation. On the fe¬ 
cond day, after the body had been wafhed a fecond time, 
it was anointed with oil and balm. Luxury increafed to 
fuch a pitch in the choice of foreign perfumes for this 
purpofe, that, under the confulfhip of Licinius Craffus and 
Julius Casfar, the fenate forbade any perfumes to be tiled 
except fuch as were the production of Italy. On the 
third day the body was clothed according to its dignity 
and condition. The robe called the prsetexta was put 
upon magidrates, and a purple robe upon confuls ; for 
conquerors, who had merited triumphal honours, this robe 
was of gold tidue. For other Romans it was white; and 
black for the lower clades of the people. Thefe dreffes 
were often prepared at a diftar.ee, by the mothers and 
wives of perlons ltill in life. On the fourth day the body 
was placed on a couch, and expofed in the veltibule of 
the houfe, with the vifage turned towards the entrance, 
and the feet near the door; in this fituation it remained 
till the end of the week. Near the couch were lighted 
wax-tapers, a fmall box in which perfumes were burnt, 
and a veffel full of water for purification, with which 
thofe who approached the body belprinkled themfelvas. 
An old man, belonging to thole who furniffied every thing 
neceftary for funerals, fat near the deceal'ed, with forne 
doineftics clothed in black. On the eighth day the fu¬ 
neral rites were performed; but to prevent the body from 
corrupting before that time, fait, wax, the refinous gum of 
the cedar, myrrh, honey, balm, gypfum, lime, afphaltes or 
bitumen of Judea, and feveral other fubdances, were em¬ 
ployed. The body was carried to the pile with the face 
uncovered, unlefs wounds or the nature of the difeafe had 
rendered it loathfome and difgufting. In fuch cafes- a 
mafk was ufed, nt3de of a kind of plalter; which has given 
rile to the exprefiion of funera larvata, ufed in fome of 
the ancient authors. This was the laft method of con¬ 
cealment which Nero made ufe of, after having caufed 
Germanicus to be poifoned ; for the effect of the poifpn 
had become very fenfible by livid fpols and the blacknels 
of the body ; but, a (hower of rain happening to fall,, it 
walhed the plafter entirely away, and thus the horrid 
crime of fratricide was difeovered. , 
The Turks have, at all times, been accuftomed to walh 
the bodies of their dead before interment; and as their 
ablutions are complete, and no part of the body efcapes 
the attention of thofe who affift at fuch melancholy cere¬ 
monies, they can ealily perceive whether one be really 
dead or alive, by examining, among other methods of proof, 
whether the fphin&er ani has lod its power of contraction. 
If this mufcle remains llill contracted, they warm the 
body, and endeavour to recal it to life; otherwife, after 
having wafhed it with water and foap, they wipe it with 
linen cloths, wadi it again with role-water. and aromatic 
fubdances, cover it with a rich drefs, put upon its head a 
cap ornamented with flowers, and extend it on a car¬ 
pet placed in the veftibule or hall at the entrance of the 
houle. 
In the primitive church the dead were waffied and then 
anointed ; the body was wrapped up in linen, or clothed 
in a drefs of more or lefs value according to circumftances, 
and it was not interred until after being expofed and kept 
fome days ia the houfe. The cuftom of clothing die dead 
X x ‘ is 
