Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/403

 BUR

a freehold eftate of 300 1. a year, clear of all incumbrances. Stat. 9 Ann. c. 7.

BURGMOTE {Cyd.)— The word is alfo written burgemoius, burgimotus, bur^motus, and burgemaic, from htrgb, oppidum, and .wieff, or gemote-, convenius. Du Gauge, Gloff. Lat. T. 1. p. 648. Spelm. Giofl". p. qz. voc Eurgemotus. The butgmote, by the laws of kinrr E;'gar, was to be held thrice in the year a . By thofe of Henry I. twelve times b .— [ a Leg. Edgar. Reg. c. 10. ap. Bro?npt. b Leg. Plen. I. C.7. Vid. Du Gmge°Glo{T.Lnt. T. 1. p. 648.]

BURGOMASTER of Greenland, in zoology, a whimfical name given by the Dutch failors to a fpecies of larus or fea gull, com- mon on that and many other coafts. 'Tis known among au- thors by \hc name of marthiezze. Seethe article M a rtinezze.

BURGOO, a fea-faringdifh, made of whole oatmeal, or greets, boiled in water till they burft; then mixed with butter. DitSl. Ruft. T. z. voc. Oatmeal.

Burgoo, otherwife called loblolly, is held by Cockburn very pro- per to correct that thicknefs of humours and coftivenefs to which the other diet of failors much difpofes them. Yet the burgoo victualling is the leaft liked of all their provifions, by reafon of the fcanty allowance of butter to it. The fame au- thor thinks it mia;ht be worth the consideration of thofe to whom the care of the feamen is committed, to contrive to ren- der this food more agreeable to them. Cockburn, Treat, of Sea D if- §. 17. p. 32, feq.

EURGRAVE {Cyd.) — The burgraves were originally the fame with what we otherwife call tajlellam, or comites cajlellani ; but their dignity was confiderably advanced under Rudolph of Hapfburgh ; before his time they were ranked only as counts, and below the princes, but under him began to beefteemed on a footing with princes. Schurzfl. Epift. 37. A£t. Erud. Lipf. Supp. T. 3. p. 510.

In fome parts, the dignity is much degenerated, efpecially in the Palatinate. There were formerly, according to Leti, fifteen families who enjoyed the title of burgraves, thirteen of which are now extinct a. But this is differently reprefented by others b .— [ a Zrf/, Leterre, &c. P. 1. p. 74, Si 251, Mcm.de Trev. Sept. 1702. p. 74- b Vid, Com. Did. des Arts, T- 1. p. 147. Limn. Jur. Imp. 1. 4. c. 4. Trev. Di£t. Univ. T.i. p. 1289.J

In Bohemia, the title burgrave is given to the chief officer, or he that commands in quality of viceroy.

In Pruffia, the burgrave is one of the four chief offices of the province.

InGuelderland, the burgrave of Nimeguen is prcfident of the ftates of the province.

BURGRAVIATE, the office or dignity of burgrave. Seethe article Burgrave, Cyd. and Suppl.

The word is alfo ufed to denote the territory or diftricl: of a burgrave.

•BURGWARD, Burgwardus, or burgwardium, in middle age writers, the fame with bulwark. Du Cangc, GloiT. Lat. T. 1. p. 652. See the article Bulwark, Cyd. The name is alfo extended to the town, and even the country about fuch a fortrefs. It is formed from the Teutonic burg, town, and ward, cuftody, keeping.

BLTRIAL, the act of interring a dead body, and depofiting it in the ground.

Burial and baptifm are parochial rights, and belong not to cha- pels of eafe, unlefs by ufurpation. Kcnn. Paroch. Antiq. p. <;qc, feq.

Weftminfter abbey is the burial- place of moft of our Englifh. kings a. Mabillon has a difcourfe on the burial of the antient kings of France b. — [*Dugd. Monafi. Abr. p. 1 5, feq. b Mem. Acad. Infer. T. 4. p, 369.]

The defire of burial has been ftrong in moft ages c, and the denial of it reputed the laft: and fevered of punifhments ; yet the Cynics appear to have defpifed it ; and Pliny ranks the concern for it in the number of weaknefles peculiar to man d. — [ c Potter, Arch. Gnec. 1. 4. c 1. T. 2. p. 161, feq. d Plin. Hiff.Nat. 1. 7. J

Yet it is faid, we find fometbing like it in fome fpecies of brutes. Naturalifts afiure us, that elephants, paffing by the corpfe of others, gather grafs, and break branches off trees with their trunks, wherewith they cover the dead e. Diogenes the Cynic being asked on his death-bed, how he would be buried, anfwered, Throw me naked into a ditch. His friends repre- fented, that he would be liable to be dragged out and devoured by the beafts and birds : Lay a good ftick by me then, an- fwered the ph'ilofopher, that I may drive them away. This, it was told him, could be of no fervice, fmce he would not have fenfe to ufe it : Then, faid he, I fhall have no fenfe of their de- vouring me f. — [• Phil. Tranf. N" 326. p. 64. f Cic. Tufc. Quasft. I.e.]

Burial is an office or a debt of humanity. Some found this obligation on the law of nature, others on the law of na- tions, and others on the divine law s. 'Tis certain it is warranted by them all. One of the feven corporal works of mercy, recited by antient divines, is burying the dead. The primitive chriitians ventured on it at the hazard of their lives : they never fcrupled it either in times of perfec- tion, or of the plague, when the greater! dangers attended it h. [s Vid. Vitriar. Inft. Jur. Nat. 1. 2, c. 19. qu. 3, feq. Budd,

BUR

Inft. Phil. Pratt, c. 4. feft. 9. ?. 12, feq p. 324, f cq. i Singh Orig. Ecclef. 1. 23. c. 3. j. I.] K

The heathens believed, that the fouls of thofe who lay unburied, remained in a wandering ftate the fpace of an hundred years. The invention of burial among the Greeks is afcribed to Pluto, who, on this account, was deified, and made to prefide over the world of fhades ''. The Rabbins pretend, that the firft hint-was taken from birds : Adam and Eve, fay they, being utterly at a lofs what to do with the body of Abel killed by his brother ; under this perplexity, a crow was feen to throw earth and leaves over the body of one of its dead companions. This was enough for the patriarch : he went prefently and did the fame to his fon k. The Egyptians carried their dead for burial over a certain-lake ; for the paflage of which, one Charon, a farmer under one of the Pharoahs, procured a toll to be im- pofed, by which he was fpeedily enriched '. Whence the whole tradition of the ferryman of hell. Cicero refers the ori- gin of the vulgar opinion concerning hell to the antient man- " ner of burying the dead by interment : for from hence the earth became to be confidered as the laft habitation of mankind, who were here fuppofed to lead a new life under ground m . — [ ] Diod. Sicul. 1. 5. c. 15. k Vid. Fabric. Cod. Pfeudop. Vet. Teft.' T. 1. §. 38. p. 113, feq. 1 Hift. Acad. Infer. T. 2. p. 10. m Idem, ibid. p. 38.]

Among the Greeks, drowning was no burial; for which rea- fon, it was a cuftom to faften to fome part of their bodies a re- ward for him that fhould take them up, and bury them in cafe they were caft afhore \ Among us, however, thofe who die at fea are ufually buried there, unlefs they be near land : The ceremony is fhort ; the corpfe being fewed up in its hammock, or quilt, is thrown over from the ftar-board, under the difcharge of a gun. 'Tis a great difgrace to be thrown over the lar- board '.—[* Bought. Collect. N° 330. T. 2. p. 353. ° J u - bin. Dia. Mar. p. 569. voc. Mart.]

The Aiwaces, a people of Guiana, pulverize the bones of their great men, and drink them in their liquor. Some nations among the Brafilians arc faid to eat their dead, not out of hunger, much lefs defpight, but afleflion and reve- rence r. We are told of a great controverfy held before king Darius of Pel fia, on the queftion, which was the moft hono- rable kind of burial; that of the Greeks, who burnt their dead to prcferve their afhes ; or that of the Calatians, a people of In- dia, who eat the bodies of their parents, that they might in fome meafure he revived in themfelves 1. — [ p Heugbt. ibid, p. 340. 1 Trev. Dia. Univ. T.4. p. 1661. voc. Sepulture.] See the article Anthropophagia.

At the fame time that the Romans ufed to burn the bodies of their dead, the cuftom was, to avoid expence, to throw thofe of the Haves to rot in holes dug perpendicularly, called pntlatll, Phil. Tranf. N° 265. p. 645.

Among the antient Saxons, the bodies of thofe flain in the field, were not laid in graves, but on the furface of the ground, and covered over with turfs or clods of earth ; and the more in re- putation the perfons had been, the greater and higher were the turfs raifed. Ferfleg. Reftit. Dec. Inteliig. c. 7. p. 165. See the article Barrow.

The Danes and northern nations, in their fecond a°-e, buried their dead under earthen hillocks r. Sometimes huo-e pyra- mids of ftone were raifed over their bodies, many of which are ftill remaining in divers parts of England ■*. — [ ' 01. Worm. Monum. Dan.l. 1. c. 7 • P/or,Nat. Hift. Staff, c. 10. §. 63.] In Japan, Peru, Pegu, Mexico, Tartary, Siam, and the Great Mogul's dominions, they burn their dead. For the great ones, the fires are made with aromatic woods, gums, baffams, and oils '. The like method obtained among the Jews as early as Saul's time, whofebody was burnt at Jabelh, and his bones af- terwards buried". Afa was burnt in the bed which he had made for himfelf, filled with fweet odours, and divers kinds of fpices w .— [ > Hought. Collea. N° 325. p. 338. « 1 Sam. xxxi. 11, fcq. ,v 2 Chron. xvi. 14.]

They who thought human bodies were compounded of earth, inclined to have them committed to the earth: Heraclitus and his followers, imagining fire the firft principle of all things, pre- ferred burning. Potter, Archrcol. 1. 4. c. 6. p, 207. Euftathius affigns two reafons for the prevalency of burning in Greece ; the firft, that bodies being thought to be unclean after the foul's departure, were to be purified by fire : that the foul, or purer part, being feparated by the flames from the grofs in- aaive matter, might take its flight to the heavenly manfions with more freedom \ This latter opinion obtained fo much, that the Indian philofophers had not paiience to wait for burn- ing till after death ; they had recourfe to it in their life-time ; ereaing themfelves piles for the purpofe, to loofen their fouls from confinement. Calanus, who followed Alexander out of India, finding himfelf indifpofed, obtained that prince's leave to prevent the growth of his diftemper, by committing him- felf to the flames ; and Hercules, before his reception into heaven, was purified from the dregs of earth by the fame means r — [ * $putH. Declam. 10. y Patter, Archsol. Gr. I.4. c. 6. p. 2c8.] Seethe article Bun ning. The antients buried by day, as deeming the night of ill omen on account of the evil fpirits then abroad : only perfons who died in the flower of their days, were buried in the morning be- fore fun-rife. Potter, ibid. I. 4. c. 4. p. igi, feq.

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