The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-05-28

also often ordered that their heirs. or those
whom they left a legacy for the care of
their ashes. should meet together every
year on the anniversary of their death, and
dine near their tomb. scattering roses about
the place. inscriptions to this effect were
placed upon the tombs, and many OF them
are yet decipherable. On q tomb near
Venice there IL such an inscription. mem
tioning a donation made by an emancipat-
ed slave TO the assembly of the Centum.
consisting of gardens and building. TO be
employed in celebrating his obsequies on
each returning anniversary. and his mas
ters as we'll He requested that roses
shouid not be spared. Generally donation
made thus was transferred. by provisions
IN the will. to another. in case the beneited
failed TO cover the funeral monument Win
roses OF the proper time. terrible curse
was su opposed 10 attend violation of these
sacred gBrdeDs-
Those smoug the Romans not rich enough
TO make such requests oftep directed 10 be
engraved upon the stone ABOVE them
request 10 passers-by to scatter
roses upon their tombs. Pliny relates
OF one OF the 1llustrious Sclplos, that
while he was tribune 1e fulfilled his
duties to the satisfaction of the people.
but, when he died. had nothing left with
which 10 pay his funeral expenses. The
people voluntarily contributed TO pay
them, and spent q vast SUN for flowers TO
cast under the funeral train and upon his
tomb.
Antony when he had suffered the defeat
at Aetium, which drove him TO sulcide.
asked that Cleopatra scatter perfume over
his tomb and cover it with roses Paris, at
the tomb of Juliet. says:
Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed
strew
Owoe, thy canopy Is dust and stones.
or. wanting that. with tears dis,iIled ny means,
The Obsequies that for thee Will keep.
Nightly shall be. TO strew thy grave and weep.
Jerome one of the early Christian
fathers. wrote as follows of the memorial
customs which had thus descended to the
Capulets ind Monragues: THE ancients
scattered roses over the urns OF the de-
ceased, and In their wills ordered that
these flowers should adOrn their graves.
and should be renewed every year. IL was
also the custom for husbands to cast vio-
let's. roses snc lilies on the urns which In
closed the ashes of their wives" These
modest flowers were emblematio signs OF
their grief. Our Christians were content
TO place o rose among the ornaments or
their graves as the image of life.
The amarsnth. because OF Its unfading
beauty, was priced as funeral Hover by
the ancients. The Greeks used it lavishly
and II was in Homer's time customary to
wear crowns OF amaranth at the funerals OF
dietin guished personages. Homer describes
tie Thessalians as wearing amaranth
crowns at the eptombment of Achilles.
Wordsworth writes of the "amaranthine
flower of faith"
Wroaths that endure affllction's heaviest
And do not shrink from sorrows keenest
The Romans burned juniper berries about
their dead. believing that the fumes be-
numbed the int noe OF malign spirits.
The early Greeks ahd Romans also offered
peoples on the shrine of the dead. They
crowned sleep with peoples. and In their
mythology death was the child of night
and the twin brother of sleep
Care-charmer sleep. son of the sable night,
Brother to death. In silent darkness born.
They deemed that the poppy. with its
sense subduing perfume, brought con-
ISOLATION to all concerned.
FLOWER MYTHS.
Many beautiful myths connect the birth
of flowers with the death of the young.
and since from Innocence the children Of
nature sprung. it seems fitting that they
should in turn become the tribute of love
TO innocence ID death.
There flowers until the first child died,
No bamy breatbed heartsease, no roses.
wrote one sweet singer. and this from
Omar Khsyyam Is In the same lovely
strain:
sometimes think that never blows SO red
The rose as whore some buried C;nsar bled,
That every hyacinth the garden wears
Dropped in her lap from some once lovely
head.
Shakespeare follows out the idea at the
grave of ODhelia. and shows that Den
mark accepted the beautiful symbol when
Laertes Is made by him TO say:
Lay her the earth.
And from her fair and unpOlluted flesh
May violets spring.
Tennyson in his I'm Memorism" para
phrased Shakespeare:
And from his ashes may be made
The violet OF his native land.
The burial customs of the early English
were evidently adapted from those of the
Greeks and Romans. moro especially those
Was ousint oUstom long oae.sryed ' oens
neeted with the burial of the maiden and
youth. When q virgin died the one most
like her In the village carried a pair of
white gloves and garland of white roses
before the cesket In the procession, and
afterwards these were hung In the church
from that portion or the ceiling directly
over the pew once occupied by the dead
girl. and there they hung indefinitely. The
gloves and roses were made of paper, hence
practically undying. Miss Cook speaks of
the custom as one familiar To her child
hood, and 10 Is yet observed In some VII
lagos:
Now the low beams with paper garlands hung
In memory OF some village youth or maid.
The gloves suspended by the garland's side.
White as its snowy flowers with ribands tied,
Dear village maid, long be these wreaths funereal
spread,
Simple memorial of the early dead
Evelyn tells us that 1.-The white rose was
planted at the grave of q virgIn, and her
chaplet was tied with white riband In
token of her sDotless innoceac~. thoug Oh
sometimes black ribands were la 6ermin gled
to bespeak the grief of the survivors, The
red rose was occasionally used in remem-
brance of such as had been been remarka-
bic for benevolence. but roses in general
were appropriated to the graves of lovers"
prummond, the Scotch poet. had the fol-
lowing couplet placed over his grave
Here Drummond lies, whose song did sometimes
grace
The murmurng Eek. May shade the
place.
In Wales when ayoung girl dies her cof-
I'm Is wreathed with flowers, and the
youth and maidens plant white roses over
her grave. The graves of little children
are covered with lilies and snowdrops and
those of matrrer years have roses placed
about them. Gwillym. Welsh poet,
writes of the custom: "Ohi while the sea-
son of flowers and the tender sprays, thick
of leaves. remain. 1 will pluck the roses
FROM the brakes, TO DO offered TO the MEN,
DRY Of a child OF fairest fame: humbly will
l lay them on the grave of lvor.p
In France the magnifcence of the t0mbs
and monumentsis only psralleled by the
Pagnitcenoe with which flowers are Law
lshed upon the dead. Adherents OF a
house or Inc of royalty strew flowers
above the dust of the moder1ng kings and
shed tears for the vanished glories. The
tomb OF Napoleon In the Hotel des In
SaIIdes. in Paris. Is seldom without nose
yRysof viOleIs
In Turkey the virgin who dies has rose
sculDtured at the top of her monument.