Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/772

* BURIAIi. 688 BURIAL. who left the corpses to birds of prey, or that of the Hindus, who consij^nied them to tho river Ganges — the general tendency of mankind has always been to bury the dead out of sight of the living. 'arious as the methods of accomplish- ing this end liave been, they resolve themselves into three great classifications: (1) Inhumation, or the consigning of the body to the earth; (2) incineration, or the burning of the body and the burial of the ashes; and (3) the embalming of the body. It is natural thai the lirst and sim- plest of these methods should have prevailed among savage and semi-civilized i)eoi)lcs, as, for example, during the states of the early and late stone ages, when the dead were simply hiid away in cases in crevices. In civilized communities the methods of burial varied with country, race, and religious practices rather than with periods of civilization, and the same race sometimes altered its customs tlirough the inlluence of re- ligious change or foreign conquest. BAiiVLOXi.. The earliest burial practices of civilized nations seem to have originated in Baby- lonia. Inhumation was the rule, and cremation practically unknown. The bodies were often placed on the ground or near the surface and a mound raised over them. Sometimes they rested on a wooden board, were wrapped in a mat of reeds or palm-fil)res, and were placed on the side or back or doubled up in a sitting posture. The custom then arose of placing the body in an earthen dish or jar, or in two jars fastened to- gether by bitumen at the mouth. The dead were buried in their garments, with their stall' and signet ornaments. wea])ons and utensils. The priests were called in to burn incense, sprinkle water, and conjure the evil spirits. There were professional mourners also, lamenting and sing- ing dirges, who followed the bier to the grave. Tile cemeteries were laid out in regular streets, but the .se]nikhral vaults were extremely simple. No stately tombs or mausoleums have been found in Babylonia. The belief in the after life and its material existence is sliowu by the practice of taking to the grave food of all sorts, and water. Offerings and libations to ancestors were com- mon. Jfotwithstanding the fearful floods and the primitive character of the brick vaults, the care- ful methods of dosing the graves and of under- draining them have kept these Babylonian ceme- teries in remarkable preservation. EcYPT. The earliest P^gyptians buried their dead in earthen jars like the Babylonians, but at a very early date religion decreed the preserva- tion of the body liy eml)alniing and the construc- tion of a tomb of considerable size. Of the four elements composing man, the body, the double or ka, the soul or hi, and the spiritual flame or khu, each had to be provided for in the burial arrangements. On the preservation of the body dcpende<l the continued existence of the other til fee elements. The 'double' lived always with the mummy, and consumed the ollerings period- ically brought to its reception chamber. The soul and the spirit returned after a long period from the other world to renew contact with their for- mer envelope. Portraits of the deceased were placed in the tomb so that they could still be rec- ognized by theni, even if the mummy were in- jured or destroyed. The clearer conce|)tion of the after-life in its material aspect held by the Kgv])- tians made them develop fully what is found only in germ in Babylonia. Immediately after death. the priest came w-ith his assistants to take entire charge of the body and funeral. He closed the eyes of the deceased; Iianded his body over to the embalmers; saw to the preparation of the mausoleum with its paintings and images — if the deceased were well-to-do; engaged the mourners to parade the streets at stated intervals with loud lamentations, and directed the exhibition of family grief and the prejia rations for the pro- cession, ileanwhile the embalming had been pro- ceeding. First the viscera and heart were re- moved, stutl'cd with unguents, and jilaccd in four jars; the brain, also, was set aside to dry, and ttie body placed to soak for seventy days in liquid litron or natron. Phci;nicia. The Phoenicians imagined the soul to be a restless and jiitiable double, abiding either near the body of the decea.sed or in a gloomy under-world. The body was not fully embalmed, but was anointed and enveloped in linen bandages impregnated with substances to retard decomposition. Bodies were placed in natural grottoes or artificial chambers, or else laid in the bare earth; though they were com- monly inclosed in collins or sarcophagi, some- times of anthropoid shape, in imitation of Egypt. Around the dead were objects of daily use and ornaments. The cippus or stele to mark the tomb developed often into a monument or chapel, especially in Hellenistic times. The early He- brew custom is shown by Abraham's purchase of the cave of JIachpelah, and their occasional use of embalming in the ca.se of the kings is proved by II. Chron. .xvi. 14. Pebst.. Among the Persians, especially the stricter following of the ilagi, the ritual forbade the consigning of the body to earth, water, or fire, as these elements would thereby be polluted. The less strict Persians coated the liody with a thick layer of wax and then buried it. The stricter devotees exposed it in the open to birds and beasts of jirey. and the more thoroughly it was cmisumcd by them the better the omen. The bones were then placed in an urn or a rock-cut tomb above the ground level. The soul, after dwelling near the body three days, dejiarted on the morning of the fourth for the place of judg- ment. If the soul had been sinful it was accom- panied over tainted plains by an evil wind and preceded by a hideous female, emblem of its evil deeds; and after being condemned in the eternal judgment liall was cast over a bridge into the abyss. The rigliteons soul, preceded by a beauti- ful maiden typifying its good deeds, passed safely, at the end of its luminous journey, into paradise. Greece. In the .-Egean civilization the prehis- toric stage is represented by some graves near Troy (Hissarlik), where the bodies were buried in simjile trenches or iu terra-cotta jars with utensils in stone and bone. The JIyeen«an Age is best represented by th(? royal tombs found by. Schliemann at JIycena These were rectangular trenches cut in the rock to a depth of 10 to l(i feet, and closed by stone slabs. They were al- most chambers, and held more than one body. The bodies, which may have been slightly em- balmed before burial, wore all their most beauti- ful jewelry and ornaments or arms, and even had gold face-masks. A seuliitured stele marked the site at the ground level, and the entire group was surrounded by a stone inclosure. These tombs and the other two Mycenojau types, those