Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/31

 CHAP. 11. THE WORSHIP OF THE DEAD. 25- beneath the soil, manesque sepidti, says Virgil. Be- fore the tomb there was an altar for the sacrifices, as before the temples of the gods.' We find this worship of the dead among the Hel- lenes, among the Latins, among the Sabines,^ among the Etruscans ; we also find it among the Aryas of India. Mention is made of it in the hymns of the Reg- Veda. It is spoken of in the Laws of Alanu as the most ancient worship among men. We see in this book that the idea of metempsychosis Lad already passed over this ancient belief, even before the religion of Brahma was established; and still beneath the worship of Brahma, beneath the docti'ine of metemp- sychosis, the religion of the souls of ancestors still subsists, living and indestructible, and compels the author of the Laws of Manu to take it into account, and to admit its rules into the sacred book. Not the least singular thing about this strange book is, that it has preserved the rules relative to this ancient beliei^. whilst it was evidently prepared in an age when a belief entirely difierent had gained the ascendency. This proves that much time is required to transform a human belief, and still more to modify its exterior forms, and the laws based upon it. At the present day, even, after so many ages of revolutions, the Hindus continue to make offerings to their ancestors. This belief and these rites are the oldest and the most persist- ent of anything pertaining to the Indo-European race. This worship was the same in India as in Greece and ' Virgil, ^n., IV. 34. Aulus Gellius, X. 18. Plutarch^ Rom. Quest., 14. Eurip., Troades, 90; Electra, 613. Sue- tonius, Nero, 60. • Varro, De Ling. Lat., V. 74.