The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-11-11
PECULIAR BURIAL
CUSTOMS OF WORLD
Each Race Has Its Own Rites
and Ceremonies
METHODS OF INTERMENT
There Are 4e3 Ways of Burying Bodies.
People Who Rejoice When End
Comes-king's Body in
Silver Canoe.
METHODS OF INTERMENT
FROM the Chicago Tribune.

From the Chicago Tribune.
There are 463 different ways in which
the people of the world bury their dead.
Scarcely any two tribes of people in all
the world dispose of the bodies of those
who pass way in the same manned.
man can take his choice of a great num-
Der of ceremonies.
S. Lewis Tillotson, a Baltimore UNDER
| taker has made a study of the burial
customs of the world with a view of i'm
proving, If possible, the means of dispos-
ing of bodies used in most civilized coun-
tries and to discover behind the cere-
monials and the rites of burial and the
methods of disposing of the bodies the
odd beliefs of the people.
His discoveries and Investigations have
shown many strange things, but as yet he
has made no recommendations looking to-
ward Improvement of present systems.
One thing he has found is that every
tribe of people in the world except two
the Veddas of India and the Bantus of
Africa-shows some mark of reverence 10
the dead-even those that eat them-and
that everyone except those same two
SHOWS from. It's treatment Oh tHe uedu
| some belief In future existence.
About three-fourths of the people of the
world are sorry, or pretend they are
sorry, when q death happens among their
friends or relatives, and the other fourth
are glad. About tour-fifths object to
death and the other fifth welcome it.
Among the Karens of Burma there is
close relation between the burial and
the wedding ceremonies and death Is
made wholesale
ing said Mr. Tillotson The body is
placed on a bamboo platform outside the
hut and all the young men and girls
gather there, singing and laughing. The
| men seat themselves on one side of the
| body and the girls on the other and there,
as If made happy by the presence of
| death. they carry on their courtships-
| and the men select their wives. The Kir-
| ghiz- KAYAKS are strong in their remem-
! brance of the dead-and here may be food
| for religious thought for Bible students
| in their customs After death the body is
hastily buried arrayed in white clothes,
| and every day for forty days after the
death the mourners visit the tomb. The
! forty day period apparently is counted
| for no special reason as yet discovered.
Give Dead Good Send Off,
"The Shans give the dead a good send
| off, putting money into the mouth to pay
| passage to the other world The souls
| are supposed to go into butterflies that
| fit away and the body must wait and
nay it's fare The collins are of highly
colored tinsel and paper under a gaudy
| canopy. The wives parade with the body
| and the eldest son walks ahead with
sword. clearing the evil spirits from the
way. The bodies of priests and chiefs
| are burned
"rhe Bantu and the Veddas alone of
all tribes, have no ceremonies and appear
to care nothing whatever about death.
In both tribes the bodies are thrown
| into the bushes, covered with leaves anu
brush. and left.
| Zone of the prettiest ceremonies Is that
of the Tongans. who mourn for twenty
| DAYS. The body is washed. oiled and ar
| rayed in It's best, then laid in canoe,
| or cest, together with the favorite I'M
| Elements or ornaments. The relatives live
| for twenty days in little huts near the
house of mourning-and each day they go
| singing in a procession to the seashore to
get white sand to fill the grave. On the
twentieth day they have the final parade,
gathering black and white pebbles to
| strew over the top of the grave in the
| floor OF the hut.
'The TURKS, too show great care and
reverence for the bodies of the dead. The
body Is laid upon the couch or comfort
and carried into the court yard, where
the washing and amounting are carried on
as a religious ceremony. The body is ham
died with extreme care, for they believe
that roughness will bring a curse.
| perhaps the most elaborate ceremony
of all the world is that of the Samese.
| The coffin is a gorgeous affair of glded
| paper. tinsel or sometimes of gold and
Jewels For three days the body lies in
state and then is taken from the house
through a special hole cut in the wall
! Then the bearers carry the body three
H. -. mid IN
so as to puzzle the ghost and make 1t
| impossible for him to find the house
again. After the ghost is all mixed up as
to where it formerly lived the body is
carried in state to a barge and rowed
slowly to the temple. There the priests
| wash the face In cocoanut milk, and the
body is burned. This is the signal for the
beginning of festivities and regular
fair is opened in the temple yards with
gambling, dancing, drinking and fire.
works. II the relatives are too poor to pay
for the whole entertainment the body Is
cut up and thrown to the birds-and the
feast held just the same.
Most Fearful Orgy.
1.-THE funeral of Wanyoro king is the
most fearful orgy in the world. The body
is mummifed by being roasted over a
slow fire. Then. wrapped in cloth. it is
carried to a long pit, in which sit the
|
gether. The night before the funeral the
kings own regiment scours the country
and brings in captives These are brought
to the grave. and their arms and legs are
broken with clubs. Then the kings body
is placed upon the knees of the wives,
the crippled captives are thrown into the
pit, the earth heaved in on the wives,
king and captives, and the crowd. sing
ing and dancing, tramples the mound
fiat.
1.-THE Somali bury their dead sitting UNI
| der stone cairns. the IIsquimaux place
their deceased in rocky crevasses on hill
| tops and cover them with stone. the
Tanala wrap the bodies in mating and
| throw them into a pit. and the Tibetans
| expose the bodies to the birds. then coll
lect and save the bones. Yet they all
show reverence for the dead. Among
the Congo tribes cannibalism is INDUCED
in. but it is a religious feast. The chiefs
are buried with all their weapons. cur