TREATMENT or THE CoursE. No sooner has life become extinct than the preparation of the holy begins. For sake most primitive tribes double the corpse into the smallest com pass, the chin resting on the knees. Even among such an advanced people as the ancient Peruvians this custom of packing the body into the smallest compass prevailed. a strong rope being used to draw the limbs into place and bind them fast. It has been said that the motive in this is to imitate the posture of the unborn infant, but aside from the fact that crouching is a common position in life among savages, economy of space in the grave or tomb has much to do with the custom.
Embalming the dead was at first only a natural process. There are regions where the arid mate desiccates all flesh, as on the plains of the West, and in Peru, Egypt, and Arabia. here, the drying up of the body suggested to the primi tive mind religious ceremonies which found their culmination in the mortuary cult of Egypt. The Polynesians when first discovered had an elaborate ceremony of embalming their dead priests. The brains and intestines were removed, and all moisture was carefully wiped from the body, MIMI was aDOHHeil with fragrant oils and dried in the sun. It was then clothed and sealed in a little house erected for the purpose, where a table was set, before it for food, fruits. and dow ers. Here also belong such ceremonies as call ing the dead, anointing. closing the eyes and lips, bathing. kissing, placing coin in the mouth, all of which have symbolical meanings with reference to the future well-being of the dead, as well as to the immediate relations of the ghost with the living.
CiffiltiNG WRAPPINGS OE THE Coa'st•:. Searcely any people consigns its dead to the last resting place naked. The corpse is clad either with the clothing worn in life, or the best attire, or special grave cloths. shrouds. or winding -hea•ts. Enthermore. masks are frequently placed over the whole body or over the face. Among the very lowest peoples the corpse may be put away naked. but this takes place only among that wear no clothing. The prepa ration of a special shroud has its prototype even among very primitive raves, and begins with the chiefs or lending men. who in life wear an official or professional dress. The order of the development of cerement, seems to have been first, the disposal of the body naked; second, dressing the corpse as in life in order to take up the new life in the spirit world at once; third. arraying it in its best clothing. to make a good impression on the ghosts among whom it goes; fourth, wrapping it in a shroud for senti mental reasons. mong the Egyptians the eorpse was wrapped with narrow' strips of linen. In Turkestan a similar practice is now in vogue, in Kinihondo leather is used, and in 1\lashona land the toes and lingers are tied up each in a separate piece of cloth.