Page:An Indian Study of Love and Death.pdf/73

Rh turned their faces away from thee, and thou art alone with thy good deeds.”

The ﬁrst brand is lighted and given to the eldest son, who goes round the pyre seven times, and then touches the lips of his father with ﬁre, signifying the resuming into the soul of that energy heretofore made manifest in citizenship. And now is lighted the funeral ﬁre, as the last act of personal service to be rendered by children to their dead father. As this blazes up, amidst the silence of the kinsmen, the ministering priest will recite the Vedic prayer:—