FUNERAL RITES. The methods of disposing of the dead have been so various and connected with so many ceremonial observances dictated by affection, religious convic tion:or superstition, that a full consideration of the subject would occupy a volume. Under the article BURIAL will be found a description of the principal modes of inter ment, and the accompanying F. R. of the ancients.
With the spread of Christianity came the decorous interring of the dead with relig ious ceremonials indicative of hopes of a blessed resurrection. From the moment of death until interment, the body is the object of solemn ceremonial in the Roman Catholic church. At death, a crucifix is placed in the hand, or at the feet, and holy-water is sprinkled, The chief funeral rites are solemnized in the church, into which the coffin is borne and placed on a bier. Throughout France, the Netherlands, and continental Europe gener ally, the ordinary cortege of a funeral is a hearse with a bier, on which is the coffin, covered with a pall, followed by carriages all in black, with black horses. The same arrangement is pursued in England, but the hearse, sometimes over-decorated with dark plumes, is closed instead of being open. In the more common class of funerals, the coffin, shrouded in a pall, is borne on spokes, or on the shoulders of bearers. All the attendants arc in black. A certain etiquette as to pall-bearers (parties who hold rib bons attached to the pall) is observed; the relatives of the deceased taking their place nearest the head in the degree of consanguinity, and the same arrangement is main tained in lowering the coffin by cords into the grave. Only in exceptional cases are bodies put in leaden coffins and deposited in vaults; the common sense of the people now appreciating the propriety of allowing corpses to dissolve and mingle with the earth of the grave; and for this practice the numerous new cemeteries offer facilities. Scottish Presbyterians, as is the case with some English dissenters, have no funeral serv ice, unless we reckon as such a prayer, and occasionally the reading. of a chapter of Scripture, by a clergyman before the body is borne from the house; but in other respects the Scottish ceremonial differs little from the English. Formerly, in the case of
important personages, the hearse was preceded by a class of undertaker's men to clear the way, designated saulies, and gumpheon-men—these last bearing a pole shrouded at the top with black silk, called a gumpheon (gonfalone, a banner), being a relic of an ancient heraldic ceremonial; but this custom has nearly, if not altogether, disappeared. At Scotch funerals, the relatives, and in some cases the friends of the deceased, wear white cambric weepers at the wrists. Till within the present century, there was a prac tice of giving a series of expensive entertainments to guests at Scottish funerals, begin ning with the lykwake, and ending with the dredgy (dirge); but all this is gone, or nearly so. The giving of costly entertainments was not, however, confined to Scotland or to Ireland. Taking its rise in ancient customs which were perpetuated by the Anglo Saxons, the practice of consuming meat and drink in a species of gloomy festivity at funerals was common in England, and carried to an extravagant length at the decease of persons of distinction, on which occasion doles (q.v.) were also given. It had even its counterpart in the usaaes of the ancients. The nekrode2pnon, or funeral-banquet, is mentioned by Lucian and Cicero. It was always celebrated in the house of the nearest relative of the deceased, and Demosthenes, the patriot orator of Greece, tells us in his oration, On the Crown, that the relatives of those who were slain at Chaeroneia, were entertained by him in his own mansion, as if he were the nearest kinsman of the fallen heroes. The nekrodeipnon is often represented on funeral monuments. For some curious information respecting old funeral entertainments, we refer to Brand's Popular Antiquities, edited by Ellis. Without losing as regards decorum, funeral arrangements have been cheapened in most large towns in England and Scotland by means of funeral-con''ducting establishments belonging to societies or private speculators. w. c.