The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1874-11-12
FUNERAL RITES.
How Ihe Dead are Disposed of by Differ
ent Peoples.

ent Peoples.
| We areso accustomed to bury our dead
that it is only by an effort that we can
| conceive of ourselves as disDosing of
| them otherwise. Yet the practice of
mankind has differed widely in this res
pect. And in every nation the tradi.
tional mode acquires a sanctity, from
| association with the most solemn and
tender moments of life, which induces
us to look with horror on any alterna-
tive method. When Darius found an
Indian tribe who ate the bodies of their
| dead, they were not less shocked at the
| idea of burning corpses than the Greeks
| IN his train were at the horrible canni-
| balism of the Indians. Even when the
breath has left the mortal frame, the
| cold remains of those we have loved
are not less dear than when they were
animated with life but custom alone
creates the direction in which that love
manifests itself, and each direction is
alike but an unavailing protest against
the inexoTable law which dissOlves the
| ashes of the departed into fleeting gases
and crumbling dust.
The Egyptians embaimed their dead
The Hebrews buried them out of their
sight. The Greeks sometimes buried
and sometimes burnt, the latter mode
gaining the ascendeney as civilization
advanced. The Persians, if we may
trust the hints of earlier and the asser-
tions of later writer's, seem to have
gathered their dead together on the top
of low building, and there left them
to the birds and winds of heaven. Bu-
rying, burning, embalming, these are
the three great alternatives adopted by
humanity for the disposal of their dead.
But there is scarcely any modification
of these methods which has not found
its adherepts /; and there is scarcely any
conceivable substitute for them which
has not been practiced somewhere. The
posture of burial las been varied, in
many places it being thought decorous
to bury in a sitting attitude. Some
Red Indian tribes expose their dead on
the branches of trees the Ethiopians
inclosed them in pillars of crystal.
Maritime nations have sometimes hon.
Ored their chiefs by laying them in state
in a ship or canoe, and burning or set
ting it adrift. Sacred rivers are the
chosen burying ground of some ; others
commit their dead to the sea alone.
Some leave the corpse till it decays,
and then bury the bones others remove
the flesh from the bones Immediately
after death, and then dress and adorn
the skeleton. Burial alive is by some
thought q mark of affection exposure
to wild beasts is the chosen custom of
by no means barbarous races. The In
dian tribe above referred to finds many
parallels. Nor was it always thought
necessary to wait till death supervened.
There is grim humor in the picture
given by HerOdotus of a tribe where,
when any one fell sick, "his chief
I'll L I
spoil his flesh; and he protests that he
is not unwell but they not agreeing
with him, kill and eat him" (Thalia,
99.) Horrors like these, however, can
scarcely be classed among modes of
to mention the tribes that drink their
dead, having first reduced them to pow
der. Suffice it to say that there is no
mode of dispOsing of dead bodies so
singular, or SO revolving, that it has not
been adopted in good faith by some
among the interninable varieties of
savage races.
Among civilized nations, however,
burial (under which we may include en-
balming) has divided with cremation
the allegiance of custom. It would be
improper to regard the first as the char
acteristic of Semitic, the second of
Aryan races. For, though Iuclan speaks
of burial as the mark of barbarians,
burning of Greeks, it is beyond ques-
tion that burial remained to the last an
alternative in Greece and Rome. It
would rather appear that burial is the
first rude suggestion of decency,
prompting the mourner to lay the dead
body reverently away rather than leave
it to moulder unheeded and that 0s
burial is recognized to be incomplete,
embalming and cremation are the two
alternSsves suggested. The Egyptians
regarded fire as a wild beast and, as
Herodotus tells us, they preferred en-
baIming to allowing the bodies to be
torn by wild beasts or consumed by
worms. The Greeks preferred the alter
native .of speedy destruction. Crema-
ton was with them, though not the uni
versal, the solemn and honorable form
of sepuIture. A corpse cast up by the
sea might be buried by benevolent pass
er-by( three handfuls of dust were held
! equivalent to burial, and laid the weary
| ghost) in time of danger, or fNr want
! of means, a body might be committed
| to the earth. But mourning friends
who wished to do the last sad honors to
the deceased followed him to his funeral
pyre, and cherished the ashes which
survived the flame in vases of costly
make.