Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1875-09-01

Probably the first sepulchre, as the
earliest dwelling place. of man, was a
cave; certainly the most ancient relics
| of humanity have been found in the
i cayerus of the limestones formation;
and this cave burial, after coming to its
eliminating point in the ancient Egypt
ian polity, whose pyramids and rock
| tombs are but an artificial form OF the
cave, has survived to our own times even
among the most civilized races. The
vault and the catacomb are but varieties
of the cave, and supplemented as they
are by various devices for preserving
the body from final dissolution, form an
unbroken link in human custom, con-
Meeting us alike with the empire of the
PharaOhs and the primitive cave-dwell
ers, the companions of the bear, the
rhinoceros, the reindeer, and the hye-
na. 1t is evident. however, that as the
human race spread itself over other
formations of the earth's surfree, these
underground dwellings and tombs,
which the waves had fashioned count
less ages before, would not be available.
Other modes of disposing of the dead
would suggest themselves. In the first
place, simple exposure, leaving the body
to be devoured by beasts and birds, its
elements to be scattered to the four
winds. The Magians, worshipers of the
sun, one of the primitive human relig-
ions, adopted this method, which is still
followed by the disciples of Zoroaster;
but they have refined upon the practice,
constructing towers and platforms
wherein the dead are exposed, and
their bleached bones collected. One of
these Guebre cemeteries in the neigh
borhood of Teheran, made use of by the
remnant of the old people and faith OF
Persia, is thus described by Mr.. Noun
sew i'm his excellent book of Persian
travel: "a low round tower perehed
up among some desolate crags, a cireu-
lar building about forty feet high and
sixty in diameter, having neither doors
nor windows. Looking down from
neighboring elevation. We saw that ON
the top there was platform of open
iron grating, whereon lay the body of
recently deceased disciple of Zoroaster,
and bate gardener to the Persian mis-
sion," Sundry tribes of North Ameri-
can Indians follow the same practice,
exposing their dead upon stages, and
the custom may be traced among GER
tain primitive races of India. The Bud
dhist creed has originated similar
usage. Some of their priests hold it to
be a meritorious act to give their bodies
to be eaten by vultures after death, their
homes to be reduced to asnes and used
for manure for the gardens of the poor.
as type of that annihilation which it
is the aim of the caltus of Buddhism to
secure for its disciples. The alterna-
tive, however, of burial, whether by
making an excavation or grave, OF by
the more primitive method of heaping
up stones and earth over the body laid
upon the surface of the ground, has
ever been the most universally prac-
ticed. Over the whole European CONT
nent the mounds and tumuli of earlier
races rise in silent witness Ofvanquished
forgotten people. But we have not yet
passed out of the age of the tumulus
builders. The nomad Tartars still pile |
UP cairns over their dead chieftains. !
They also raise votive cairns they call |
obons, generally at the SUBMITS of diff |
cult passes, and a similar custom is |
traceable to this day among Semitic |
races. Thus DIR, Tristram tells us, |
(LdRd Of Nodb,) ever, traveller when !
he first catches sight of the holy noun
custom, place there his stone of wit
ness Even so near at home as Wales,
it is the custom among the quarrymen,
when a comrade is killed by accident, |
to pile up a small cairn ON the spot, each /
passer-by contributing a stone. The \
clods that are east upon the coffin at a
funeral are no doubt a surviv al of This |
ancient practiee.-Beigrdrid.