ally burnt their dead; considering fire as the means of purification, while the Persians, shrank from such an act, regarding fire, according to Herodotus, as a deity. Other nations, looking upon the earth as the universal mother, returned into her bosom the remains of their dead, fortunately ignorant of the deduction that as we brought nothing into the world so we can take nothing out of it, and regarding it therefore as a sacred duty to bury with the departed his most useful weapons and most beautiful ornaments. This belief seems to have been almost as general as the hope of a resurrection, and even among the Jews we find a trace of it in the words of Ezekiel (ch. xxxii. p. 27). "And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell with their weapons of war."
In tombs of the Stone age the corpse appears to have been almost always, if not always, buried in a sitting position, with the knees brought up under the chin, and the hands crossed over the breast.[1] This attitude occurs also in many Asiatic, African, and American tombs. M. Troyon, quotes the following passage from a work published by André Thévet, in 1575; "Quand donc (speaking of the Brazilian aborigines), leurs parents sont morts, ils les courbent dans un bloc et monceau dans la lict où ils sont décédés, tout ainsi que les enfants sont au ventre de la mère, puis ainsi enveloppés, liés et garrottés de cordes, ils les mettent dans une grande vase de terre." M. Troyon adds, "Chez certains Indiens, les mères, après avoir donnè à l'homme, avant de l'inhumer, l'attitude qu'il avait dans le sein maternel, epanchent leur lait sur la tombe. Cet usage des mères, qui assimile l'homme après sa mort au petit enfant qu'elles nourrissent de leur lait, s'est conservé, sauf l'attitude, il est vrai, jusqu'au commencement de ce siècle, dans le centre de l'Europe, dans la vallée alpestre des Ormonts;" making this last statement on the authority of M. Terrise, who was himself an eye-witness of this extraor(unary custom.
Making allowance for the marine animals, such as the seals and oysters, the cockles, whelks, &c., the fauna thus indicated by the remains found in the Swiss lakes, agrees remarkably with that which characterises the Danish Kjökkenmöddings, and belongs evidently to a far later age than that of the celebrated stone hatchets, which were first made known to us by the genius and perseverance of M. Boucher de Perthes.[2]
- ↑ See for Denmark, Worsaae's Antiquities, Eng. Edit. p. 89. To judge from Mr. Bateman's excellent volume just published, "Ten years diggings in Celtic and Saxon Gravehills," the same position was, to say the least of it, very common in early British Tombs, in which also the corpse was generally deposited on its left side. It would be very interesting if some Archæologist would tabulate all the accounts of ancient graves, showing the ornaments and weapons which have been found with different methods of interment.
- ↑ Whether the Drift race of men were really the aboriginal inhabitants of Europe, still remains to be ascertained. M. Rütimeyer hints, that our geographical distribution indicates a still greater antiquity for the human race.
