In the next place, the corpse being clothed in the best garment worn during life, was laid on a couch, sometimes constructed of costly materials, such as that of Ca:sar, which, Suetonius relates, was of ivory, adorned with purple and gold. This was borne to the pile by the near est relatives ; or, if the deceased had enjoyed celebrity. his body was supported on the shoulders of others of note. Thus Augustus, whose obsequies were performed with great solemnity, was carried to the pile in the Cam pus 'Martins by senators, and Julius Cxsar, in like man ner, by the magistrates of Rome. Others were support ed by their freedmen ; and Trebius, who had relieved the wants of the people in time of scarcity, was borne on their shoulders to be burned. Although cremation was denied to infants, yet if they attained a certain period, the ceremonial demanded that they should be borne to the funeral pile by their mothers.
Much funeral pomp was now displayed : In bearing the corpse to the pile, each attenuant had his own place assigned ; and along with the couch were carried many others, containing waxen busts of the ancestry and rela tives of the deceased. A solemn dirge was . ng, ac companied by trumpets and other instruments, and an oration in honour of the deceased was recited. While that on Julius Cxsar was heard, his body rested under a gilt pavilion, and the robe in which he had been killed was suspended aloft to public view. His image, also, exhibiting all the wounds he had received, was exposed in a moveable carriage.
The pile prepared to receive the deceased was of a pyramidal form, lofty in proportion to the rank he had enjoyed. When the couch bearing the corpse was de posited upon it, the eyes were opened, and the rings re stored to the fingers. Then the nearest relation filled the mouth with a certain aromatic potion, and, turning away his face, applied a lighted torch. Perfumes were thrown over the pile ; wine poured among the flames to promote the conflagration ; and invocations offered up for the aid of the winds to consume the body.
In the mean time, if the pile was that of an illustrious warrior, the soldiers marched three times around it with inverted weapons, and striking the ground at certain in tervals.
Various bloody sacrifices were made to the manes of the deceased : Animals were thrown into the fire ; dogs and horses were destroyed along with their owners ; nay, slaves and captives were also barbarously burnt alive. Every thing that the deceased prized during life was con sumed ; so that it might, according to the superstitions of the ancients, be useful to him after death. But to avoid the cruelty and expence of burning slaves or cap tives, a blood-coloured vestment was generally thrown on the pile.
Games, pantomimes, and the combats of gladiators followed, at which one of the most conspicuous charac ters was the Archimimus, who personated the manners of the deceased. At the funeral of Vespasian, the archimi mus, with the characteristic avarice of that emperor, de clared, that, rather than that the intended expence should be lavished on his obsequies, lie would have his body thrown into the Tiber. The games were protracted dur ing three days at the funeral of Publius Licinius ; and Livy records, that no less than seventy gladiators fought on the occasion.
NVhen the pile was consumed, the fire was extin guished, and the embers soaked in wine. The nearest relatives, or eminent men, habited in loose robes, and bare-footed, collected the bones and ashes together.
Thus, the chief of the equestrian order, attired in robes, and wanting sandals, gathered the remains of the Em peror Augustus. The ashes, after being sprinkled with wine and the richest perfumes, were committed to an urn, and the whole was consigned to the earth or to a tomb.
After returning from the ceremony, those who were occupied in it stepped over a lire for purification, as all who had seen a corpse were defiled ; and priests and ma gistrates, before resuming their functions, were obliged to offer an expiatory sacrifice.
These general observations, as far as can be ascer tained, apply to the Carthaginians, Greeks, and Romans, as well as to other nations of antiquity. With respect to the Romans, it is not well known how the ceremony commenced, or what were the causes of its discontinu ance. Macrobius, who lived in the lower era of the em pire, when describing the custom also spoken of by Plu tarch, of adding the body of a woman to those of ten men, if numbers were burnt at a time, distinctly states, that in his own time burning the dead was not practised.
The true or fabulous histories of many nations cotem porary with the Romans, and rising into notice at the pe riod of their overthrow, refer to the burning of the dead ; and their own accounts receive corroboration from the observations of others. Cxsar relates, that the funerals of the Gauls were magnificent, and that every thing teemed by the deceased was consumed along with his body ; and Tacitus assures us, that although the Ger mans exhibited less ostentation, the bodies of illustrious persons were burnt with certain kinds of wood ; and that the arms of all, and the horses of some, were consumed along with them. The practice extended over the north ; and, descending still later, we find the Danes erecting piles to their warriors, the flames whereof might " reach to heaven." Burning of the dead, as we shall presently see, is not uncommon among the natives of the British territories in India. But this ceremony is attended with some sin gular circumstances among the Cucis or Kookies, a sa vage race of mountaineers dwelling to the north-east of Chittagong. When any one dies in a village, the body is carried by his relatives to some distance from the house, and deposited on a stage under a shed erected for the purpose. Some member of the family daily places a supply of meat and drink before the corpse, and assidu ously guards it from the depredations of dogs and birds while it remains in the shed. If another of the same fa mily dies, the corpse is brought to the same place, and similar ceremonies are observed. Whatever be the time of decease, all the bodies are thus kept until the I ith of April, on which clay the relatives assemble, and convey them to funeral piles, prepared on a certain spot within the precincts of the village, where they are burnt. The sheds where they had been deposited are likewise con sumed. This ceremony being over, the whole persons concerned in it repair to the house of him in whose fami ly the first death occurred in that year, and partake of an entertainment given in honour of the dead. On the fol lowing day, a similar entertainment is given by him in whose family the next casualty happened; and so on with the rest, until a feast has been given for each of the de parted.