Several of the North American tribes testify a very great solicitude concerning the bones of the deceased. Nor is this confined to the inhabitants of the North ; for the same is seen among those towards the opposite extremity of the continent; and the historians who consider the inhabitants of America as descended from the Jews, think that they find some analogy here. The Choktahs, or Chactaws, af ter three months previous inhumation, dig up the body, and place it on a scaffold opposite to the hut of the deceas ed, around which the family and friends convene, jointly participating in great lamentation, and a subsequent feast. A person, whose particular office it is, despoils the bones of their flesh, which are then carefully collected, and being placed in their natural order in a small chest, are carried in solemn procession to the bone house. This resembles a shade elevated on posts, open at both ends, and those of the different tribes are kept separate. It is even judged impious to mix the bones of strangers with those of their own kindred; and therefore, if necessity compels them to deposit the bones of different tribes under one hoof, they are still kept separate. Sometimes the skull, on these oc casions, is painted red, and if the deceased has been a man of note, the chest is taken down a year after, when the friends weep once more over the bones, and the red colour being refreshed, the whole is consigned to everlasting ob livion. Should a party of Indians, engaged in war or hunt ing, lose any of its number, the body is elevated on a scaf fold, and covered with logs of wood. The survivors re turn when the flesh is supposed to be consumed, and the tones thoroughly dried, and carry them home to be sc lemnly deposited. An author well acquainted with their customs, observed " some Indians returned with the bones of nine of their people, who had been two mot,ti s befor& killed by the enemy. They were tied in whve deer sf,ins sep.aatcly, and when cart led by the door of one the Louses of their family, they were laid don n opposite to till the female relations convened, with flow ing hair, and wept over them half an holir, and then buried them with their usual solemnities." The Abipuns, a nomadic South American race, immediately strip the flesh from the bones or those killed in a forein country, and carry them to their proper cemeteries. Darizhoffer, a German missional y, relates, that he saw seven skeletons thus brought to a vil lage, and kept nine days in a hut previous to interment. The Pampas and I\ lohiches, other South American tiibes, and also the Sort arms, cut: ust some of their most distir, guished women with removing the flesh from the bones of the dead, and burying them until the remaining. fibres de cay, or with bleaching them in the sun. While the work of dis.scction is going on, the Indians walk round the tent covered with long mantles, their faces blackened, singing a mournful tune, and striking the ground with their spears, to drive away the evil spirits. This anxiety is sliewn by different nations : the beating on kettles, and most likely the ringing of bells has originally had the same object. The bones being prepared, are packed up in a hide, and con veyed on afavourite horse of the deceased to the cemetery of the family, sometimes SOO miles distant. Being disposed in their natural order and tied together, they are clothed with the deceased's best attire, and ornamented with and feathers, which are cleaned once a year. Different members of time family are thus placed in a sitting posture in a pit or excavation, with their weapons and other im plements, and the pit is covered over. But it is farther the office of some matron of the tribe to open the pit every year, and to clean and clothe the skeletons. The carcasses of horses killed on the occasion, that the deceased may ride on them in the next world, arc placed around the mouth of the pit, supported on stakes.
Among the Gabres or Parsees of India, the body is left exposed on the ground, and a dog enticed to take some certain morsel out of the mouth, which, on being accom plished, is deemed a favourable omen. But it is otherwise should the animal refuse; and du-ring this period of expec tation, prayers are pronounced by the priests. The body is then consigned to the sepulchre, which is described to be " an object of the most dreadful and of the most horrid prospect in the world, and much more frightful than a field of slaughtered men." Bodies are seen in all different stages of decay, either undergoing the decomposing pre cess of nature, or bleeding and mangled by the vultures surrounding the walls, some of them so gorged with hu man flesh as almost to be incapable of taking flight. A day or two after being deposited there, the relatives are said to examine which eye has been lost, and should it prove to be the right one, a period of unexampled felicity is anticipated. See G It has been the general practice of most nations of the globe, to born or Liter along with persons those things that w re most useful or interesting to them in life. The ruder tiibes, as w ell as the more civilized, have en tertained an infinity of vague: and contradictory sentiments regarding the state of the soul after death ; sonic believing that it hovers long mound the body ; that it is immediate ly transferred to regions of bliss; that it has a long jour ney to accomplish; or that it subsists in an intermediate condition. uncertain of rewat d or punishment, until all man kind shall be judged. Ancient nations often buried trea sures of great value in the tomb or royal or opulent per sons. Thirteen hundred years after the decease of David,
we read that a high priest of Jerusalem took three thot-„ sand talents from his sepulchre, to bribe Antiochus to raise the siege of the city. Now there are sometimes found in the tombs of the ancient Tartars, whole sheets and plates of solid gold. The Jukati of Siberia inclose provisions in the coffin, expressly " that the deceased may not hunger on the road to the dwelling of souls." His favourite rid ing horse is accoutred, and led to the place of interment along with a mare. Two holes are dug under a tree, in one of which the deceased is deposited, and his horse be ing killed is buried in the other, while the mare is also killed, but is devoured by the guests. The arms, domes tic implements, and feminine articles of the deceased, have been either interred in the same grave, or consumed on the same funeral pile. But by a more barbarous custom, as if the destruction of inanimate substances, or the pre servation of them for the use of the deceased, were alike inadequate, the sacrifice of living animals, as we have seen, and even of human beings, has been in general practised. Slaves and captives were murdered at the foot of the fu neral pile of the ancients, and consumed by the same fire that reduced the body to ashes ; and wives were merciless ly put to death, that they might accompany the souls of their husbands to those regions which were supposed rea dy to receive them. But so remarkable and unnatural a ceremony in funeral rites demands further illustration, especially as, instead of expiring with the name of the Greeks and Romans, we find it still existing at the present day.
Mankind, in the early stages of society, have inferred, that a future state bears an intimate resemblance to their condition in the world they inhabit ; that they have the same necessities, and the same propensities and enjoy ments. Hence the horse is killed, and the slave or the wife murdered, that their souls, transferred along with his own, might contribute to the use of the owner. By cer tain refinements, however, which can only be discovered in the sanguinary disposition of man, a sacrifice was deemed requisite, to appease the manes of the dead ; and in this mixed character, the shedding of the blood of man and ani• vials must be viewed. As the sentiments of a nation chang ed, the actual immolation ceased ; but, as happened among the Romans, the combats of gladiators at a funeral pile were substituted, wherein one or both commonly perish ed. And with the Chinese there is a figurative sacrifice, in the images of men and animals consumed at the time of the obsequies. Yet it is not long since this was introduced ; for an emperor of that nation, whose reign terminated in 1661, ordered SO persons to be sacrificed to the manes of a favourite queen, and directed that h. r body, deposited in a valuable coffin, should be burnt, along with a prodigious quantity of precious materials. Likewise, when an em press of the same people died in 1718, four•youthful fe males, her attendants, proposed to sacrifice themselves on her tomb, which the emperor her son, a wise and politic prince, humanely prohibited. Sometimes the slaves and friends of the ancients voluntarily sacrificed themselves on the pile of the deceased; and those wives, who were not dragged to be murdered at the tomb, or by a horrible so lemnit buried alive in the same grave, sometimes perish ed by voluntary immolation. It is recorded in history, that one of the earlier kings of Sweden having, in the heat of battle, vowed to sacrifice himself in ten years to the gods, should they then propitiate his cause ; his queen acciden tally discovered the fact, and, to anticipate the necessity of being buried alive when the event should happen, separat ed from him during life. The northern nations believed in a kind of elysium, or ethereal palace, where their re surrection would take place amidst their usual earthly en joyments ;and slaves conceived, that admission would be denied them, unless they accompanied their masters, whence a contempt of death, unknown to posterity, was in spired. Among the ancient Thracians, it appears that the favourite wife was put to death by her nearest relations at the tomb of her deceased husband, and interred along with him ; and if he had more than one wife, a contest arose for permission to offer this token of affection. Diodorus the Sicilian relates, that about eight years subsequent to the death of Alexander the Great, the two wives of an Indian commander, who had fallen in battle, contended for the nour of being burnt along with his body ; a singular cus tom introduced, as Strabo affirms, from the women of those climes being wont to become enamoured of young men, and poison their husbands. The elder being pregnant at the time, preference was given to the younger, and pre parations were made for the ceremony. The widow ap proached the pile, and divesting herself of her numerous personal ornaments, as rings, necklaces, and jewels among her hair, distributed them as tokens of remembrance to her friends and attendants. Having taken leave of all, she was placed by her own brother on the pile, while the army of Eumenes, then contending for the Macedonian empire, marched three times solemnly around it with their arms. Meantime, without betraying the smallest apprehension at the crackling of the flames, she turned towards her hus band's body, and heroically closed her earthly career, to the great admiration of the spectators.