Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 8.djvu/173

 Rh From these examples of transition we may turn to those in which the funeral propitiations are made to a substituted image.

The Mexicans practised cremation: and, when men killed in battle were missing, they made figures of them, and after honoring these burned them and buried the ashes. Here are extracts from Clavigero and Torquemada:

In Africa kindred observances occur. While a deceased King of Congo is being embalmed, says Bastian, a wooden figure is set up in the palace to represent him, and is daily furnished with food and drink, Parkyns tells us that among the Abyssinians mourning takes place on the third day; and, the deceased having been buried on the day of his death, a representation of the corpse does duty instead. Of some Papuan-Islanders Earl states that, when the grave is filled with earth, they collect round an idol and offer provisions to it. Concerning certain Javans we learn from Raffles that after a death a feast is held, in which a man-shaped figure, supported round the body by the clothes of the deceased, plays an important part.

These practices look strange to us; but a stranger thing is that we have so soon forgotten the like practices of civilized nations. In Monstrelet's "Chronicles," book i., the burial of Charles VI. of France is described thus:

"Over the coffin was an image of the late king, bearing a rich crown of gold and diamonds, and holding two shields, one of gold, the other of silver; the hands had white gloves on, and the fingers were adorned with very precious rings. This image was dressed with cloth of gold," etc. .. . "In this state was he solemnly carried to the church of Notre-Dame."

This usage was observed in the case of princes also. Speaking of the father of the great Condé, Madame de Motteville says, "The effigy of this prince was attended (servit) for three days, as was customary:" forty days having been the original time during which food was supplied to such an effigy at the usual hours. Monstrelet describes a like figure used at the burial of Henry V. of England; and the effigies of many English monarchs, thus honored at their funerals, are said to have been preserved in Westminster Abbey till they decayed.

With these reminders before us, we ought to have no difficulty in understanding the primitive ideas respecting such representations. When we read that the Coast negroes in some districts "place certain earthen images on the graves;" that the Araucanians fixed over a tomb an upright log, "rudely carved to represent the human frame;"