Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

numbers are found together, the tumulus was either a family cemetery, or might have contained a number of heroes who perished with glory in the same cause; for such honors were paid only to the great and good.

The urns found in these cells are usually surrounded with the fragments of bones that had resisted the fire; for the friends of the deceased were particularly careful to collect every particle, which they place, with the remains of the charcoal, about the urns, thinking the neglect the utmost impiety. We have no certainty of the ceremonies used by the ancient Britons on these mournful occasions ; but from many circumstances which we continually discover in our tumuli, there appear many analagous to those used in ancient Greece and Rome.

The Greeks first quenched the funeral pile with wine, and the companions or relations of the departed performed the rest. Such was the ceremony at the funeral of Patroclus.

Where yet the embers glow,
Wide o'er the pile the sable wine they throw,
And deep subsides the ashy heap below.
Next the white bones his sad companions place,
With tears collected, in the golden vase;
The sacred relics to the tent they bore;

[ocr errors]

The urn a veil of linen covered o'er ;
That done, they bid the sepulchre aspire,
And cast the deep foundations round the pyre;
High in the midst they heap the swelling bed,
Of rising earth, memorial of the dead. — POPE.

[ocr errors]

The duty of collecting the bones and ashes fell to the next of kin. Thus Tibullus pathetically entreats death to spare him in a foreign land, lest he should want the tenderest offices of his nearest relations:

Here, languishing beneath a foreign sky,
An unknown victim to disease, I lie;

In pity, then, suspend thy lifted dart,

Thou tyrant, Death, nor pierce my throbbing heart;
No mother near me her last debt to pay,
Collect my bones, my ashes bear away;
No sister o'er my funeral pile shall mourn,
Nor mix Assyrian incense in my urn ;

Nor Delia, thou, O thou, my soul's first care!
Shall, with thy dear, dishevelled locks, be there.

R. W.

I beg leave to add the account given by Virgil of the funeral rites of Pallas. We find in it many ceremonies that were used by the northern nations. Animals of different species were burned or deposited with the body. The spoils of war, and weapons of various kinds, were placed on the pile; the bones and ashes were placed together; and a heap of earth or a tumulus flung over them. Some of each of these circumstances are continually discovered in our barrows. Horns, and other relics of quadrupeds, weapons of brass and of stone, — all placed under the very same sort of tombs as are described by Virgil and Homer. Perhaps the other ceremonies were not omitted; but we have no record that will warrant us to assert that they were in all respects similar.

The Tuscan chief and Trojan prince command
To raise the funeral structures on the strand;
Then to the piles, as ancient rites ordain,
Their friends convey the relics of the slain.
From the black flames the sullen vapors rise,
And smoke in curling volumes to the skies.

The foot thrice compass the high, blazing pyres ;
Thrice move the horse in circles round the fires.
Their tears, as loud they howl at every round,
Dim their bright arms, and trickle to the ground.
A peal of groans succeeds; and heaven rebounds
To the mixed cries, and trumpets martial sounds.
Some in the flames the wheels and bridles throw,
The swords and helmets of the vanquished foe;
Some the known shields their brethren bore in vain,
And unsuccessful javelins of the slain.

Now round the piles, the bellowing oxen bled,
And bristly swine; in honor of the dead,
The fields they drove, the fleecy flocks they slew,
And on the greedy flames the victims threw.

PITT.

Since I am engaged in this funebrial subject, it will be fit to observe, that a discovery of an entire skeleton, placed between flags of a proportionable size, was made near this place. This, as well as others similar in different parts of our islands, evinces that the ancient inhabitants did not always commit their bodies to the fire; for, besides this instance, a skeleton thus enclosed was found in one of the Orkneys, and others in the shire of Murray; and with one of the last was found an urn with ashes, and several pieces of charcoal; which shows that each practice was in use in the same age.

CURIOUS RITES OF DIFFERENT NATIONS.

[ocr errors]

Muscovian Funerals. — In Muscovy, when a man dies, his friends and relations immediately assemble, and seat themselves in a circle around the corpse, and ask the dead the following questions: "Why have you died? Is it because your commercial affairs went badly? Or was it because you could not obtain the accomplishment of your desires? Was your wife deficient in youth and beauty? Or has she been faithless to her obligations?" They then rise and quit the house. When they carry the body to be buried, it is covered, and conveyed on a. bier to the brink of the intended grave; the covering is then withdrawn, the priest reads some prayers, the company kiss the dead, and retire. These ceremonies finished, the priest places between the fingers of the dead man a piece of paper, signed by the patriarch confessor, purporting his having been a good Christian. This, they suppose, serves as a passport to the other world; and from its certifying the goodness of the deceased, St. Peter, when he sees it, will open to him the gates of eternal life. The letter given, the corpse is removed, and placed in the grave, with the face towards the east.

[ocr errors]

Interesting Custom. A custom that was once prevalent in Spain is deserving of notice. When any one dies, the relations, friends, and neighbors, carry to the survivors, at meal times, for three days, one or more plates of food, under the idea that the grief they feel will not allow them to think on nutriment. Some perons also accompany these dishes, in order to offer consolation to the family.

"In Louisiana, there is a custom," says an anonymous female writer," which I believe is peculiar to the place · that of bearing a young bride to the grave in her wedding attire ; and there is something in such a rite which must deeply affect the most heartless. Some months since I stood by the bier of a young bride. She had been lovely in life, and there was a sculpture-like beauty in the marble face before me, a solemn loveliness in the rigid countenance, which spoke more forcibly to my heart, than it could have done when animated by the changing expressions of life, for it told of a far, far land. • I had expected to see her arrayed in the simple robe with which we dress the dead, and to feel alone in the presence of the mighty conqueror who sways his sceptre over all.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

"I was ushered into a large gloomy room; long wax candles shed a flickering light through the apartment, and the deep and smothered sobs of the mourners were all that broke its silence. I went with others to look upon the dead, and I shall never forget my surprise, or the strange and singular emotions which that view excited. Stretched upon her bier lay the young bride, who a little while before had been animated with life and joy. The rich and costly robe which she had worn upon her wedding day, enveloped her figure, and her pale hands, with their glittering jewels, were clasped upon her breast; while the orange blossoms shone among her dark locks, and the veil, with its gaudy folds, fell beside her. It was a lovely, yet a mournful sight, to see her arrayed in the habiliments of joy, and lying in her still, calm beauty, in the embrace of death- the bride of the grave. The gloom and silence of the room, the rigid features of the dead, the low solemn chant of the priest, and the noiseless ceremonies of the Catholic burial ser

« ForrigeFortsæt »