THE BOWDITCH STATUE. The Bronze Statue of Dr. Bowditch stands upon a granite foundation, facing the main entrance to Mount Auburn, and is the work of Ball Hughes, an English artist, formerly a resident in the United States. It is said to be a very correct likeness of the great Mathematician. MOURNING CUSTOMS. BY MRS. STONE. HARDLY more diversified are the nations who people the earth, than are the customs and observances used by them to signalize the arrival of the commonest of all visitors, though most awful of all guests, the “black veiled king of the dead." The Jews of old rent their garments and sprinkled dust on their heads, a practice followed to this day in Abyssinia. The practice of tearing the garments is, we are told, commuted by the Jews of these economical days into carefully cutting away a small, and probably a perfectly insignificant portion thereof. They bottled their tears also, a custom referred to in the 56th Psalm; and that this practice was customary with the Greeks and Romans, the number of lachrymatories, or tear bottles, found among their sepulchral remains, sufficiently testifies. A late writer has pointed out the analogy between a mourning custom of the Australian savages of to-day, and of the ancient Hebrews, viz., the cutting or scratching the face with the nails, tearing the flesh between the eyes, and otherwise maiming the person, as is the custom of the female aborigines of Australia on the death of a relative. Hence the warning in Holy Writ-"Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you." Lev. xix. 28. The "cup of consolation" referred to in Scripture, and the "bread of mourning," sometimes called also the "bread of bitterness," were the refreshments always among the Jews, supplied by friends to the bereaved person on his return from the funeral in its origin a most kind and hospitable relief to the bereaved family. - The Jews cherished their grief in every way; they invited it; they pampered it; they took all pains to recall the poignancy of their affliction. They ate their food seated on the ground and without shoes. For three days they strove not to repress their tears. For seven days people came morning and evening to weep with them. At the end of seven days the mourner might attend the synagogue; but thirty days must elapse ere he was allowed to bathe, or to dress his beard. In many countries the term of mourning was fixed by law. The Jews, as we have seen, mourned thirty days; the Lacedæmonians but eleven; the Egyptians from forty to seventy days. Romulus fixed a widow's mourning at ten months, the length of his year. The Imperial Code not only ordained a year's mourning, but declared the widow infamous if she married within that period. The time of mourning is fixed by law in China, three years being the period required for a parent. The Jewish fashion of throwing ashes on the head, beating the breast and tearing the flesh with the nails, was, on occasions of peculiar concernment, adopted by the Greeks. But in addition to the funeral feasts, which among Greeks and Romans soon ceased to wear an entirely lugubrious aspect, they enlivened their melancholy with games and funeral processions. These entertainments among the Greeks consisted chiefly of horse-races, where garlands of parsley were awarded to the victors. The Roman games were processions, and the very characteristic entertainment of the mortal strife of gladiators and the funeral pile. These funeral games were abolished by the Emperor Claudius. A custom prevailed among some of the ancient nations of cutting off the hair and casting it on the body or into the tomb. So did the Roman women on Virginia; so |