Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1892-09-21
ANCIENT ROYAL FUNEf}AI
Mourning Customs Anon. D.,.
Greeks and Ronoo 50 F'"S

mourning customs Among Egvptiers
Greeks and Romans
with the Hebrews, as with +ba an
Gent Egyptians, the Creeks and the
ROMANS, death was but the end of life,s
Journey the finishing of 10 borious nil
grlmage, the passage to lie through n
gloomy gate that admitted the sonl of
Che deceased into the company of his
Iore1athers who had gone before. The
departed was gathered to his Deople
went down to the grave to +beno he
VINO mad been a sojourner. as ~ ore oil
ms fathers before him, W.T. TO-, q, ;,,+7
the unseen world ei'' 1-o-iN ~
The idea OF >
into the Gne SOU being received
ANY, presence of God at death was
,,Arently not commonly taught and
, in effect is asserted only in two pas
sapes in the Old Testament In Eccles-
tastes xii. Z, where the preacher points
out that 1.-The dust (the body shall re-
turn to earth as 1t was, and the spirit
shall return unto God who gave it"
and in Haggai ii. %, where the Lord
SAYS to Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel,
I'm that day will take thee
and will make thee as a signet;
for have chosen thee"
In accordance, therefore, with this
idea of departure or dismissal, they
! pictured the soul, not yet capable of
entering Heaven, as borne by the angels
who had guided it in life into Abraham S
bosom. there to await on the banks of
the river of Hades, the day of the great
harvest AS soon as the last breath
was drawn, the sons or friends of the
deceased closed his eyes, the body was
washed with pure water and laid in
state in the upper chamber-the room
oP honor-swathed in bands of fine
linen, and, as a rule-in the cases OF
kings, their families, and great mobiles
-embalmed
This operation in the case of Joseph
was performed by the priests of Egypt
and afterward by the Hebrews, accord
ing to their own rites, from which the
repulsive features of the Egyptian cere-
monial were absent, by the friends and
relatives of the dead man, whose body,
instead of being encoffined, as was that
of Joseph, in box of sycamore wood
fashioned outwarlly so as to resemble
the human form, was borne out on q
bier in it's linen bands, with a napkin
round the head, and surrounded with
aromatic substances, such as myrrh and
aloes, bound up with it in the winding
sheet.
Four or six persons carried the corpse
to the tomb, hurrying rapidly along the
streets. The mourners, of whom q
number were hired, followed the bier
pouring forth their hearts anguish i'll
ear-piercing walls. These lamenters
began their sad task as soon as the
breath left the body of the de-
parted. At that moment the females
of the family, seated in circle
on the ground in a separate room, SCI
up sorrowful cry, continued without
taking breath, till it died away in q low
} sob. 1t was repeated again and again
and even after the funeral was kept uI
for a period of eight days, becoming
less and less frequent and less audible
every day. In their midst sat the wild
owed wife or orphaned daughter, or
| nearest female re iative, each holding q
: napkin in her hand. Biologists chanteC
In mournful strains in the house and in
the streets as the procession hurried by
. the virtues and achievements and line
: age of the dead, one leading while tn,
\ | hCPb olACuGCs Oul "
again in wild and lugubrious chorus.
Then rising up and wrapping together
their napkins, they would run around
. like mad women The nearest femal,
relative, however, would stay wher,
3 she was, beating her breast, tearing he
. hair, or wounding her face, arms anC
Q breast with her nails, while the musi
clans and the hired singers would joi1
: in the refrain: ALAS, my lordl'' "Alas
? alas, the kingl" 'Ah, my sister, Dur
ing the time that the dead lay unburieC
the mourners, men and women, woulC
fast, would go unanointed, unbathed
unkempt, with hair disheveled, dus
and ashes on their heads They dranl
no wine, and, save when they chanteS
their funeral song, opened not their lip
in words. They rent their garments
they laid their hands upon their this
e they kept their faces prone 70 the zrth
they scattered dust and ashes In tn
air; they struck together thelr hand
: or tossed them toward the sky; the