The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-03-08
STRANGE DEATH CUSTOMS.
now VARIOUS PEOPLE AND RACES
DISPOSE OF THEIR DEAD.

The Burning Chat of the. Hindoos.
The Dreadful Parsee Flower of ST.
lenee'' i'm Bombay-ScaffoId sepuI-
ture of the Indians of This Coun-
try-Peruvian Mummies Found In
strange Tosers-GrisIy Decora-
lions of Bones An Mexico, Malta
and Rome-Brittany's skull Boxes.
Italian Funerals Without "a Corpse.
An Alaskan Burial Custom
eventually, so say the prophets Of SCI
sn,e. all mankind will dispose of its dead
nv cremation. In the coming centuries
his little earth will be a crowded place;
there will scarcely be room for the living;
none for the dead. Sanitary considera-
lions will prevail over sentiment, and the
crematory, long established in the most
-,opulous parts of the earth and now es-
tabnshing itself in the most progressive
nations. will become universal. The GUS
toms and rites for the dead which it will
sunsrsede are among the most interesting
characteristics of various races and their
differences that the ethnologist draws hts
most certain differences from them. 1t
is only the lowest races that have not in
vested the dead with some part of the
awe and majesty of Immortality, and
sought to express this in the disposition
al the lifeless body.
The Hindoos of India have long burned
their dead. THE burning CHAT" is usu-
al'v beside a river which the body, swath-
I.th o-,1 IaA to II -
lengths of bamboo is taken on a barge.
Sometimes the body is Hoated TO the
shore upheld by the blloyant bamboo. 1t
is then thrust into the CHAT" which is
Immediately light led, and the body is con-
suned. To accelerate the process the
wrapping cloth is saturated In chemicals.
The Hindoo law, based on sanitary ne
cessity in that torrid and thickly popu-
lated region, is that the body must be
disposed of within twelve hours after
death.
10 the Caucasian mind the Parsee
method of disposing of the. dead seems
horrible beyond that of any other religion.
Yet the Parsees are among the most ad-
vanced, Gu tured and highly civilized
sects of the Orient. and the disposal of
their dead is based on sanitary principles,
and upon their tenet of keeping earth and
air free from pollution; though their
method Is less direct than that of the
Hindo0s.t In a lonely spot near the con-
fines of Bombay, the city where the Par
sees are most numerous, stands the Tower
OF Silence, a grim. forbidding structure,
summed by men, and haunted by the
vu.tures. Hither is borne every dead
Parsee 10 be paced, after the solemn Ger
emory of publication. In one of the
inches of the but ding. Then the funeral
cortege moves away and the vuitures,
grisly scavengers of the East, who have
been waiting their turn, swoop- down and
do their work Afterwards the bones fail
into stone-.ined pot. to be taken thence
to the vaults which are their final resting
places.
In its origin, the North American In
dian custom of sculpture, was probably
designed to keep the dead from nature 5
scavengers, in this instance the coyote
and the gray wolf. Strong scaffolds on
four corner posts are built and on the
platform is placed the body, clothed in
its war garments. Many of the tribes
place food, water and wAmpum on the
platform. These structures are generally
in groups In an open place, and form a
weird spectacle for the traveller = This
custom is dying out, and even originally
ell Indian tribes did not fel:oBs1 SEINE
buried their dead in mounds, others Ia
caves, ana the recent discovery OF phf1al-
cairns on the Pacific coast Is now inter-
esting ethnologists.
Some ancient races embalmed their
dead, notably the Egg pit ans who reach
ed a degree Of experiences in this art that
the modern undertake rs rive in vain to
equal. The mummies of the p ruvian In
cas- are not as perfect as those of the
Pharaohs, hut they are no less N crest
ing Recently a number of the burial
towers built by the ancient Peruvian
mountaine ers have been discovered and
the cond ton Of the rem inns has left
some doubt as to whether some unknown