Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/861

 FUNERAL RITES 825 oneself with mud or pigment, arc almost universal examples of the one ; while wringing the hands, tearing the hair, shaving the head, beating the breast, are common examples of the other. The New Zealanders daub themselves with reJ pigment and gash their bodies with broken shells. The Hawaians gash themselves, knock out front teeth, cut off a finger joint or an ear, and on the death of a king the nation feigns universal madness, and murders, robs, and commits all manner of crimes, as a ceremonial expression of a sorrow which has driven them frantic. Singing laments, playing plaintive music, dancing funeral dances, are not unusual expressions of grief, though it is probable that the music continuously kept up at the wakes of the Celts and other nations was meant to ward off evil spirits. The most interesting funeral rites, however, are those which express men s ideas of the present state, and their solicitude for the present welfare, of the deceased. There is no nation which does not believe that the soul con tinues to exist after its separation from the body, in another world like the present, but invisible. Many of the funeral rites of the nations are determined by the belief that death is a journey of the soul from this world to that other, and are meant to provide necessary entertainment for the dead on the way, or even after arrival. Meat, drink, weapons, light, musical instruments, horses, money, servants, wives, are among the most usual things buried with the body. The Gonds even leave toothpicks with it. The Aztecs laid a waterbottle beside the dead to be used on the way to Mictlan, the land of the dead. The North American Indian buries with the dead a kettle and provisions, bow and arrows, a pair of moccasins, with a spare piece of deerskin to patch them if they wear out, and sinews of deer to sew the patches on with. The Laplanders lay beside the corpse flint, steel, and tinder to supply light for the dark journey. The Chippewaa light fires on the grave for four nights after the funeral, for guidance on the journey, which they think lasts four days. The Karens give the deceased at the grave explicit instructions as to the relations of things in space being reversed in the next world. Taking a stick, they throw it to the north and say that is the south, and taking another, they throw it to the south and say that is the north. The Mexicans gave several slips of paper to the deceased, to serve as passports, taking him in succession past a precipice, a serpent, and a crocodile. The obolus which the Greeks put in the dead man s mouth to pay Charon, and the coin the Irish place in his hand, are well known. It is a fine touch of the Greonlanders to bury with a child a dog to guide him, for they say a dog will find his way anywhere. The North American Indian buries his &quot; medicine&quot; with him to take him to the happy hunting- grounds. The Norse warrior had his horse and armour laid in the grave with him that he might ride to Valhalla in full panoply. Graver sacrifices, of animals, wives, and slaves, for the permanent use of the deceased in the next world, have pre vailed at one period or another among most nations of Asia, Africa, and America. They are conspicuously absent from the Semitic peoples, though even among them a trace is found in the Arab custom of leaving the dead man s camel to die on his grave. Of human funeral sacrifices, Hindu suttee is the best known instance. The Fijiaus strangle wives, slaves, and friends to attend the deceased. The Dyaks of Borneo make head-hunting a main business of this life, under the impression that every person whose head they secure will serve them in the next. A kind of suttee by symbol still survives in certain nations when the sacrifice itself is abolished. The Chinese make paper images of sedan bearers and the like, and fly them in the wind over the grave, thus despatching them after the dead man to serve him ; and the Japanese, with whom at one time it was the custom for 20 or 30 slaves to kill themselves by &quot;hari- kari&quot; with the dead, substitute images in modern times; and the Quakeolths of North America rested the widow s head on the burning corpse, and then dragged her out half dead. Treasure buried with the dead was meant also for their use. In Madagascar as much as 1 1,000 dollars were laid in the tomb of a prince. The principle that lies at the root of those sacrifices is the prevalent belief in object souls as well as animal souls. The soul of the warrior rode upon the soul of his horse, and wielded the soul of his weapon. Many of the primitive funeral rites seem dictated by a certain awe or fear of the ghost, and a wish to get it well away. Lane mentions a practice among modern Egyptians of turn ing the corpse round and round so as to make it giddy, that it might not know where it was going. For the same end, apparently, the Santals carry the body three limes round the pile. The Karens walk round the bier in opposite directions three times, each time exchanging candles they have in their hands, and then bid the ghost depart in peace, and to make more sure of his departure, destroy the village where the death occurred. From a similar desire to con fuse the ghost, the Greeulanders take the body out by a window instead of the door, and the Siamese break out a new opening in the wall to take it through, and then carry it three times round the garden. The Siberians fling a red- hot stone after the corpse, and the Brandenburg peasants pour out a pail of water after it, to prevent it returning. The Pomeranians leave some straw behind in the graveyard that the soul may rest contented there ; while the Bongos on leaving the burial place shoot arrows at a votive stake they erect on the grave, and leave the arrows sticking in the wood. The Australians take off the nails of the corpse and tie its hands, lest it scrape its way out again. The affectionate commemoration of the deceased takes many forms, from simply mourning for a definite period up to periodical funeral feasts, the erection of memorial images, the preservation of the relics as instruments of super human power, and the worship of the Manes. The natives of Dahomey keep up intercourse with the departed by killing a slave from time to time, whose soul is supposed to go to the dead with the news of the living. The Guinea negroes used to keep the bones of their friends in chests and go occasionally and hold conversation with them. The Mandan women in North America take food year by year to their dead kinsfolk, whose skulls have been preserved in circles of 100 on the prairie. Funeral feasts prevail exten sively in America, Africa, and Asia, and arise partly, like our own anniversary dinners, from a simple desire to do honour to the dead, but partly also from the belief that the dead participate in the good cheer. They are not merely commemorative but communion meals. Funeral games were probably, like the elaborate dressing of the dead in Brazil and other places in the robes of their patron saints or deities, merely designed to show respect. To come now to the more cultured peoples, the Greeks either buried or burnt their dead. The body was anointed, crowned with flowers, dressed handsomely and usually in white, laid out in a bed of state with an obolus in its mouth for Charon and a honeycake for Cerberus. These offices were performed by the female relations. The kinsfolk gathered round the bed, and lamented and tore their clothes and hair. On the third day after death the body was carried out by the friends in a coffin, usually of earthen ware, before sunrise, men walking before it, women, at tended by the hired mourners, behind, and was buried out side the town. A monument with inscription was raised over the grave. All who took part in the funeral needed to be purified before they could again enter the temples of the gods. Funeral sacrifices were offered on the third, ninth, aiuAhirtieth days after. On the lust of these days stated IX. i CM.