Robert Henry Vickers

“ We cannot, then, boast much of our progress in this direction, in the much-vaunted nineteenth century, when a savage mob of frenzied Celts, without decency or religious feelings, do their utmost to mutilate the prostrate body of a dying man in the streets of a great city. ”

“ In the selection of a place of interment men have different tastes. Attila was laid in a grave under the bed of a running stream; Napoleon in a splendid mausoleum in the Invalides; Mr. Howard, with republican simplicity, has elected to be buried “under the pavement.” No doubt he would reject the idea of being trampled upon in any sense during his life-time; and we wish him a more peaceful resting place than he would find probably “under the pavement,” where gas-pipes and water-pipes might seriously interfere with the proper relative position of his bones. ”

“ During the combustion the Lamas surround the tomb and recite prayers. The corpse being burnt, they demolish the furnace, remove the bones, which they carry to the grand Lama; he reduces them to a very fine powder, and having added to them an equal quantity of meal, he kneads the whole with care, and constructs with his own hands cakes of different sizes, which he places one upon the other in the form of a pyramid. ”

“ Dogs, however, are not the only animals whose stomachs occupy the place of our Kensal Green and Woking. Eagles and wolves are mentioned above. In the Himalaya Mountains, according to Fraser, “when a man of property dies, they take the body and bruise it to pieces, bones and all, and form it into balls, which they give to a very large sort of kites, who devour them. These birds are sacred, kept by the Lamas, and fed by them, or by people appointed for the purpose, who alone approach them; others dare not go near them, perhaps from superstitious motives, for they are held in great fear.” ”

“ It was when men became settled in civilised communities, as in Egypt, and their affectionate sensibilities were strengthened by the pleasure of social life, that a more elaborate and costly system of interment became established. Domestic affection seems to have suggested the effort to retain the remains of the dead as long as possible, and led to the art of embalming. ”

“ A less costly way of preserving the body was simply to salt and dry it. Fire was never permitted to prey on the remains of the dead; and the idea of being contaminated by creeping things of any kind was horrible to the mind of an Egyptian. ”

“ Among the Hindoos this right in the corpse originally vested in the dogs and kites, has been commuted for certain offerings deposited for their special benefit in a clean separate spot. The Tartars, however, sometimes employ a kind of burial, if such it can be called, slightly more respectable than the former. “The richer Tartars,” says Huc, “sometimes burn their dead with great solemnity. A large furnace of earth is constructed in a pyramidal form. ”

“ If, as sometimes happens, the quantity of wood be deficient, those who live or happen to be passing at the lee side of a burning-ground when a body is being burned, have good reason to wish that the practice of decent committal to “mother earth” were universally prevalent. ”

“ In the capital of Bactria they breed dogs to which they give a special name, which name, rendered into our language, means buriers. The business of these dogs is to eat up all persons who are beginning to fall into decay from old age, or sickness. ”