Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-11-12
CARRIED TO BURIAL.
cORPsEs BORNE IN ARMS AND ON
BlERS AND lITTERS.

The Hearse Modern AfYair-Methods Of
the Ancient Egyptians-Rome's Public
and Private Funerals-Goths. Huns.
EthiopinnsA Great Change.
In very early times the dead were carried
to burial without the aid of hearse or bier.
Men took the corpse up bodily and carried
it upon their shoulders or in their hands.
After q while they employed the bier in the
funeral procession. The natives of India
used to suspend the dead body between two
horses or mules The American Indians
bore their dead upon litters, one end of
which was fastened to horse. while the
other end dragged upon the ground In by
gone ages dead knights and warriors were
ten carried upon the spears Of their living
comrades. In primitive regions rough carts
were used, and are still used today, TO con-
vey the dead to their final resting place.
From the rough cart tat other times EN-
ployed for all manner of purposes to the
hearse, having but one single, melancholy
mission, was an easy transition, compare
lively speaking.
And in all these changes it is to be observed
that the more intelligent, the moro enlight-
ened a people become, the simpler are their
burial rites. The most ostentatious funerals
Of today, even in our own cities, are those
that occur among the poorer and supersti-
tious classes. In ENGLAND the lower middle
classes and the grades below them still ad-
here to all the tlummery of black plumes and
long Grape streamers, and mutes, draped
| horses and other depressing accompsninents
Of ceremony that is always solemn enough,
but should not be made painfully melancholy
ANCIENT EGYPTIANS BELIEF.
The ancient Egyptians bore their dead in a
| barge across lake, as they held it a vital
part of their religious belief that the departed
soul passed from this to the unseen world
over the stream which they believed to sepa-
rate the two existences Transporting the
body across lake was merely symbolical OF
| this. The ancient Greeks carried the CORPSE
TO the funeral without any support whatever
except that Of the hands and arms of the mer
| vino bore it. The beliefs of the Romans ir
respect to death, and for the most part theil
funeral rites, were similar to those of ths
Greeks. If dead body could not be found
| the sacred rites were performed at an empty
tomb, and if any one happened to see desc
body and did not throw earth upon it, h.
was obliged to expiate the crime by sacrific
ing hog to Ceres. For these reasons, ant
the belisf that the spirit of the departed
wandered hundred years along the banks o
the Styx before being allowed to cross if th
body had not been inferred, shipwreck wa
the most dreaded of deaths
Rome had its public and its private funer
ais, to the former of which the people wer
invited by herald Infants and young me-
were buried sooner than grown persons
and with less pomp. The bodies of the de
parted were carried to the funeral pile on
couch covered with rich cloth, and commonI
supported on the shoulders of heirs or nesres
relatives. though sometimes on those of freed
men. Julius Caesar was borne by magi;
trates Augustus by senators. Germsnicus b
tribunes and centurions. Poor citizens c
slaves were carried TO the funeral pile in
PLAIN bier or coffin, and children who die
, before they were weaned were carried by th
mother. Anciently all Roman funerals weI
celebrated by night in order that the magi
tl'ates might not meet the procession and b
come defled. Later in Roman history pul
lie funerals were celebrated at an early hor
in tine forenoon while private or ordinar
funerals were always at night. Torches wel
used at funerals as well as at marriages
The funeral rites Of the Goths and Hun
were often conducted on a scale of extrav
gance, both in regard to money and cruelt
that seldom has been equaled. Attila, Fl
example, who died in 453, was buried in
coffin which was inclosed in one of gold,
another of silver, and these in third of iro
With the body was inferred ali the spoi
of the enemy-harnesses, embroidered al
l. studded with jewels, rich silks and precio
booty from the kincly palaces they b:
pillaged; and then, that the place of inte
ment might forever remain concealed, i
Huns butchered all that assisted at Il
burial.