Year: 1879

MOURNING.


AS we look back upon the struggles
of man, up to the present stage of civ
ilization, we find that many and varied
have been the means devised by him
for showing forth to the public the
grief ensuing upon death.


The Hebrews of old found vent for
their feelings upon the death of rela-
tives and friends in frantically shifting
themselves and tearing their garments
and hair. They neither bathed nor
shaved, nor did they cut their nails,
nor dress themselves. Their beds were
not made up. They shut themselves
up in their houses, and saluted nobody.
Fortunately the period for these eX-
hausting manifestations was short,
being mostly seven, and never over
thirty days. The mourning customs
of the Egyptians were similar to those
of the Hebrews, with slight variation.
Their women ran crying through the
streets.


Among the Greeks and Romans also,
mourning for the departed was con-
Quoted in much the same style, but car
ried to greater extreme. They wore
a coarse black stuff for apparel, and
rolled themselves in the mire or dust
They put ashes on their heads, tore
their hair, shaved their heads, and
SCARED their faces. They cried aloud
with often-repeated drawling tones of
lamentation. They excluded them
selves from all entertainments and pub
lie solemnities, as well as denied them
selves the pleasure of music, and drank
no wine. When a popular general died
the whole army cut off their hair and
the names of their horses.


Among the Syrians exhibition of grief
was deemed so unmanly that. any man
wearing mourning was compelled to
put on female attire.


There are many curious ways OF man.
ifesting sorrow for the departed still
existing in Arabia. While the men
show no evidence Of grief, the women
stain their hands and feet with indigo,
which they wear for eight days. During
this period they will drink no milk, its
white color not according with the
gloom Of their minds. In Syria they
have very effective scenes at funerals,
by means of hired mourning women,
who are adopts in the art of weeping.
A death there is often ruinous event
for the finances of a family, the COM
memorative feasts being so costly and
so indefinitely prolonged. White is the
color of mourning in China. All their
apparel, even the cord which ties the
gowns, and the very shoes, must be of
that color. The wearing is enforced
by law under heavy penalties. They
employ mourning women at their fu-
nerals, who appear to have immense
fountains of tears at command. The
Japanese also mourn in white. They
shut themselves up in their houses for
fifty days, during which time they
neither shave their heads nor cut their
nails.


Among savages are found many Gu
rious customs for mourning the dead.
With the Africans, in Nuhier, the bus
mess of loud lamentation is understood
to perfection, and if man die leaving
a little property, it is most likely wholly
exhausted by the feasts which are held
in honor of his memory. If woman
die. her friends of her own sex continue
for many successive evenings after her
funeral to make pilgrimages to her
grave. Man must not look upon the
face of woman while engaged in these
mourning duties. Arrived at the grave,
the whole neighborhood is made to re-
sound with their lamentations and
wailings. Among some yet more saw
age people, the Feejee Islanders, we
find that some fifty to a hundred fin
gers are amputated and placed over
the tomb Of chief, and although they
fast until the evening curing the first
ten days after his death, the period is
enlivened by comic games held in honor
OF his memory. Among the Sandwich
Island natives, they blacken the lower
part Of the face, in mourning, and give
a permanent expression to their sense
of bereavement by knocking out their
front teeth.


1t seems quite evident that as man
is elevated he shakes off the coarse idea
of turning the sacred period, when a
soul has just past from among us, into
time Of any sort of riotous excite
ment. Even much violent weeping as
we hear of, not very long back, would
not be approved now. Chateaubriand
tells Of the great credit that was given
to him for the manner in which he
wept at his daughters grave.


We see that the most excessive de-
monstrations 70 sorrow have attended