The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-08-20
qhe siehia nap gaa1s Saturday orrng auausi 20 1882


on the ground in separate room, set
up sorrowful cry, continued without
taking breath, till it died away in low
sob. 1t was repeated again and again,
and even after the funeral was kept up
for a period of eight days, becoming
less and less frequent and less aud1ole
every day. In their midst sat the Wild
owed wife or orphaned daughter, or
nearest female relative, each holding .
napkin in her hand Biologists chanted
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 the
others kept silence, only to burst forth
again IN wild and lugubrious chorus
Then rising up and wrapping together
their napkins. they would run around
like mad women The nearest female
relative, however, would stay where
she was, beating her breast, tearing her
hair, or wounding her face, arms and
breast with her nails, while the musi-
clans and the hired singers would JOIN
in the refrain: ALAS, my lerd!' ALAS,
1Ado- l1C hAIles AAis 49,
ing the time that the dead lay unburied
the mourners, men and women, would
fast, would 60 unanointed, unbathed,
unkempt, with hair disheveled, dust
and ashes on their heads They drank
no wine, and, save when they chanted
their funeral song, opened not their lips
in words. They rent their garments
they laid their hands upon their mouths;
they Kept their faces prone TO the earth;
they scattered dust and ashes in the
air; they struck together their hands
or tossed them toward the sky; they
smete the thigh and breast, and dwelt
apart unelean Elegies were specially
composed for the occasion and recited
with great solemnity by chosen orators
or embodied in song and sung by the
hired mourners and chorus.
Vast crowds accompanied the dead to
the sepulcher, to which the poetic i'm
agery Of the east gave the name of the
everlasting house" Il was generally
situated outside the limits of the city or
village, though in the case OF kings and
very distinguished men the ashes OF the
dead were allowed, even among the
jews, to repose within the walls These
sepulchers as is the ease of the Cave OF
Macpelah and the City of David on
Mount Zion, were preserved for the
members of one family, and to be buried
without the accompanying ceremonial
or to be laid to rest in any but the tomb
Of his forefathers was to be buried
with the burial of an ass" the sign OF a
signal disgrace. These caves and maui
soleums, generally very magnificent
ana standing all by themselves apart
from man, were whitewashed on the
last month tAdarl Of every year, so as
to be conspicuous objects to those who
wers journeying that way not to come
too near them lest they should be de-
fled. To this Job alludes (chap. iii
Is, I4) Then had been at rest, with
kings and counselors Of the earth which
built desolate places for themselves;
desolate cities, houses which no man
inhabiteth, which are ready to become
heaps"
As soon as the mourners returned the
persons who lived near them prepared
meat and drink for their refreshment
after such season of suffering and
grief This was sometimes denomi-
mated the cup Of consolation" the
bread of men," of '.mourners" of ''bit-
terness." Sometimes, however. the
mourners themselves gave an entertain
men. after the burial, as appea -
have been the case in the time of Christ
"a practice to which allusion is made
by Josephus, and from which doubt
less is derived the funeral dole of bread
or money or the funeral baked meats"
OF more modern times. The mourning
itself was kept mp for at least eight
DAYS after the intermeat, and IN the
case of the mighty ones Of the earth for
thirty DAYS Thus Aaron and Moses
were mourned for that space by the
Israelites, just as in the Roman Cath
Ole church the months mind" for the
departed is religiously kept nowadays
and a royal court goes into strict
mourning for thirty days-as in the
present case of the duke of Clarence and
Avondale-
The grief exhibited by the Greeks on
such occasions, that Of those who sor.
rowed as If they had no hope, was OF
the same sort as that Of the Orientals,
from whom they copied it even to its
extremes. It was SO marked as to be
made the subject of ridicule by Lucian
de uctu). Indeed they went so far IN
their extravagances as TO bestow re-
proaches even upon the dead themselves
because they did not remain in life, ut
tered accuse tons and curses against the
gods, and otherwise rendered them.
selves ridiculous and absurd
Among heather nations it was like
wise the custom on the occasion of royal
funerals or those of grandees to offer
hecatombs of sheep and oxen, and not
infreGuently to sacrifice the lives o1
human beings-often eaptives and
slaves-a practice continued by the
Druids and kept up to the present day
by such barbarous aud savage poten
tates as the king of Dahomey.
In great contrast stands out the sim
plicitv OF such funeral as tias OF the
heir presumptive TO the throne of En-
gland Y. Times
Dallas hear that you proposed
to Miss Testy last night and got a re
fusal?" CalIous-''Well, as to that, she
didn't bluntly refuse ne; she wouldn't
wound my feelings BY doing that, yet