Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/394

364 expense, an aperture for the mouth was extremely necessary. This necessity gives, I think, the explanation of the perforations in the masks formed of metal. These masks were replicas in metal of the wax ones of deceased ancestors which, when not in use, were preserved in the atrium, and had to be perforated for use at funeral processions.

But still the questions remain—Why were the masks not removed from the face when their purpose was over, and why were they sometimes deposited near the corpse without being actually upon the face? The answer seems to be that they were intended for the benefit of the previously deceased ancestors. Ghosts must at one time have been believed to be as curious as human beings. They must have been credited with an ardent desire to see what their descendants were like. To satisfy this natural and worthy curiosity the mask was deposited in the tomb somewhere—it did not much matter where.

If this explanation seems forced and unlikely, it must be borne in mind that originally every action of a funeral rite was primarily designed for the sake of the dead, though in some the living might also have a share. The care taken to wash the body, to clothe it with due honour, to make sufficient lamentation, to construct a dry, well-built sepulchre, was intended to propitiate the ghost and make him as comfortable as possible. Though in the funeral feast the relations and friends participated, the deceased and those that had pre-deceased him had their share too. Speaking of the Scythians, Herodotus (bk. iv. § 73) expressly says that at funeral feast the dead man received his portion. Among the the Votiaks to this day, when the corpse is conveyed on a cart or a sleigh to the grave, a great quantity of all sorts of eatables and drinkables are brought there as well. A feast is then held over the grave. Both the deceased and those that have died before him are specially invited to come forward and partake. Before leaving, part of the provisions