ditches by the way-side,” as they are said to have done in “the earliest antiquity.” Probably in those days there were no way-sides, or ways at all, and people had to die as best they could.
The worship of the sun, as the prime physical agent in nature, and the elements as subordinates, is of great antiquity. Hence veneration for fire, water, earth, trees, and other objects through which man is benefited. Disrespect, therefore, to any of the elements was a crime against religion—it was sacrilege. To pollute the earth by placing a corruptible dead body in it, was a gross offence against all propriety. For a similar reason, the corpse might not be burned, nor put under water. To retain it was impossible where embalming was unknown. Here was a dilemma. What was to be done? Among the Parsees, the knot was cut by placing the body on a grating set across the top of a low tower; and there exposed to the full rays of the sun, to be absorbed into that luminary.
“When the man is dead,” says Henry Lord, “the Churchman cometh not near him by ten feet; but appointeth who shall be the bearers. Then they carry him on an iron bier; for the law forbiddeth that the body of the dead should touch wood, because it is fuel to the fire they account most holy.”
The idea of a metempsychosis, or translation of the soul into another human body, or into an animal, had its own share, too, in bringing about a system of funeral ceremonies. These latter are simple, and easily carried out.
Speaking of the Tartars of the Desert, Huc says:
“The true nomadic tribes convey the dead to the tops of hills, or the bottoms of ravines, there to be devoured by the birds and beasts of prey. It is really horrible to travellers through the deserts of Tartary, to see, as they constantly do, human remains for which eagles and wolves are contending.”
In Thibet, dogs are the sepulchres. A recent describer of that country tells us, that “the marvellous infinitude of dogs arises from the extreme respect which the Thibetans have for those animals, and the use to which they apply them in burying the dead. There are four different species of sepulture practised in Thibet; the first, combustion; the second, immersion in the rivers and lakes; the third, exposure on the summits of mountains; and the fourth, which is considered the most complimentary of all, consists in cutting the dead body in pieces, and giving these to be eaten by the dogs. The last method is by far the most popular. The poor have as their only mausoleum, the common vagabond dogs of the locality; but the more distinguished defunct are treated with greater ceremony. In the Lamaseries, a number of dogs are kept ad hoc, and within them the rich Thibetians are buried.”
Justin says of the Parthians, that, “their burial was effected by means of dogs and birds, and that the naked bones strewed the earth.”
Cicero says of the Hyrcanians that, “the people supported public dogs,—the chief men private ones, each according to his faculty, to be torn by them; and this they think the best kind of sepulture.”
Strabo says: “In the capital of Bactria they breed dogs to which they give a special name, which name, rendered into our language, means buriers. The business of these dogs is to eat up all persons who are beginning to fall into decay from old age, or sickness. Hence it is that no tomb is visible in the suburbs of the town, while the town itself is all filled with human bones. It is said that Alexander abolished this custom.”
“Amongst other curious particulars,” says Professor Wilson in his ‘Ariana Antiqua,’ “relating to this animal, it is enjoined that dogs of different colours should be made to see a dead body on its way to be exposed, either thrice, or six, or nine times, that they may drive away the evil spirit, the Daraj Nesosh, who comes from the north, and settles on the carcase in the shape of a fly.”
Supposing a native of one of those parts to come among us in England, it is not impossible that he might write home to his friends, that the great lords among the English kept great numbers of dogs, which could answer no other purpose than that of portable burying-places, which they took with them to France and elsewhere, that in case of accident they might enjoy a certain and honourable sepulture.
Henceforth let no man despise the fate of “going to the dogs.”
Dogs, however, are not the only animals whose stomachs occupy the place of our Kensal Green and Woking. Eagles and wolves are mentioned above. In the Himalaya Mountains, according to Fraser, “when a man of property dies, they take the body and bruise it to pieces, bones and all, and form it into balls, which they give to a very large sort of kites, who devour them. These birds are sacred, kept by the Lamas, and fed by them, or by people appointed for the purpose, who alone approach them; others dare not go near them, perhaps from superstitious motives, for they are held in great fear.”
The New Zealander, it is well-known, used to find a sepulchre for “the dear departed” nearer home.
Among the Hindoos this right in the corpse originally vested in the dogs and kites, has been commuted for certain offerings deposited for their special benefit in a clean separate spot. The Tartars, however, sometimes employ a kind of burial, if such it can be called, slightly more respectable than the former. “The richer Tartars,” says Huc, “sometimes burn their dead with great solemnity. A large furnace of earth is constructed in a pyramidal form. Just before it is completed, the body is placed inside, standing, surrounded by combustibles; the edifice is then completely covered in with the exception of a small hole to give egress to the smoke, and keep up a current of air. During the combustion the Lamas surround the tomb and recite prayers. The corpse being burnt, they demolish the furnace, remove the bones, which they carry to the grand Lama; he reduces them to a very fine powder, and having added to them an equal quantity of meal, he kneads the whole with care, and constructs with his own hands cakes of different sizes, which he places one upon the other in the form of a pyramid.” If this compound ever becomes a repast for the priests, it