and, putting the end of her garment on the mouth of the mother, tries to comfort her, by using those arguments which a state of heathenism supplies: as, "Why do you weep? Why destroy your health? If the child had been designed to be yours, it would not have died. This is the fruit of children: they come to give us sorrow : they come not to bestow pleasure. What did the mother of Ramu-Krishnŭ do? Did she get her son back? Two of the sons of such a great man died; was he able to bring them back? If crying would do, why cry alone? Half a dozen of us would come, and assist you. Perhaps, in a former birth, you stole somebody's child, and now your own is gone. You set the highest value on him, and therefore you weep; but if he had been worth any thing, he would not have left you.-Go-go into the house, and comfort those who are left. He was not your son ; but an enemy; he has only brought sorrow upon you. You have neglected no means of keeping him alive. Why then mourn? Go, repeat the name of your guardian deity; that will do you good hereafter. Why weep for him? To this the mourner replies: "Ah! mother! the heart does not receive advice. Was this a child to be forgotten! His forehead contained the marks of kingship. Ah! my child!-Since it was born, the master never staid in the house : he was always walking about with the child in his arms."She now, perhaps, breaks out again more violently-"Who shall now stay in my lap!-Ah! my child! my child!" &c.-Poor women not unfrequently break out in vehement exclamations against the god Yúmů, (death): "Ah! thou wretch Yumu! Was this in thy mind!" If it is a grown up son whose death is thus lamented, the mother dwells on the support which such a son was to the family, as, "Our support is gone-Ah! my child! my child! "Now, who will bring roopees?-Ah! my child!" &c. When a grown up daughter mourns for her mother, she does it in some such strains as these : "Mother, where is she gone?-Ah! my mother! my mother! "You are gone, but what have you left for me?-Ah! my mother! &c. "Whom shall I now call Mother, Mother?-Ah! my mother! &c. "Where shall I find such a mother?-Ah! my mother!" &c. These lamentations for the dead are often so loud, as to be heard a great way off. Sometimes they are accompanied by tearing the hair, beating the forehead, and rolling from side to side, as though in great agonies. * Immediately after the person is dead, and in many cases before this takes place, preparations are made to burn the body. I have seen the wood lying by the side of the sick person while he was still living. The person being dead, his son, perhaps, takes up water, in a new pot, and, while the priest reads the prayer, puts linseed and toolsee leaves into the water, and, after anointing the body with clarified butter, pours it on his father's head, as a kind of ablution. This is accompanied by a prayer to the different holy rivers, that they may come into this pan of water, and that the deceased may have the merit of having been bathed in them all. Then the son, throwing away the old clothes, puts new ones upon the corpse, one of which is folded, and placed on the body as a poita. One of the relations now digs a hole in the earth, over which the wood is laid: about 300lb. of wood is sufficient to consume a single body. The rich through sandal wood, on account of its fragrance, among the other wood of the funeral pile; and a poor man endeavours to procure a little.‡ Clarified butter, and Indian pitch, are also poured upon the wood; upon which a new piece of cloth is spread, and in this cloth the body is wrapped, and placed on the pile, with the face downwards, if a man, and the reverse, if a woman; the head being laid towards the north, and the legs placed under the thighs. A trifle of gold, or copper, The burning of the body is one of the first ceremonies which the Hindoos perform for the help of the dead in a future state. If the ceremony has not been attended to, the offerings to the manes, &c. cannot be performed. If a person is so poor as not to be able to provide wood, cloth, clarified butter, rice, water pans, and other things, beside the fee to the priest, he must beg among his neighbours. If the body is thrown into the river, or burnt, without the accustomed ceremonies, at a future time the ceremonies may be performed over an image of the deceased person made of the blades of kooshŭ grass. + Some bramhuns are employed by shōōdrus in repeating the prayers for the dead, but they are greatly despised. "There were abundance of presents thrown into the fatal fiames, of several sorts: these consisted, for the most part, of costly garments and perfumes, thrown on the body as it burned."-Kennett's Roman Antiquities, vol. 1, p. 357. is brought in contact with the mouth, nostrils, eyes, and ears; and after this, boiled rice, plantains, clarified butter, sugar, honey, sour curds, seeds of the toolsee, &c. are offered in a ball to the deceased, repeating his name and family. The heir-atlaw then lights some straw, walks round the pile three* times, with face averted,† and touches the mouth of the deceased with the fire; after which, those present set the pile on fire all round. At this time, the heir presents a prayer to the regent of fire, that, whether the deceased committed sin, or practised religion; sinned knowingly or unknowingly, he would, by his energy, consume with the body all its sins, and bestow on the deceased final happiness. The fire burns about two hours; the smell is extremely offensive when no pitch is used. Three or four relations generally perform this last office for the dead. When the body is partly burnt, it may so happen that some bony parts have unavoidably fallen on the side. These, together with the skull, are carefully gathered, beaten to pieces, and consumed; yet they say, that the part about the navel, for two or three inches, is never consumed, but is always to be found after the rest of the body is burnt. This is taken up, rubbed in the mud, and thrown, as far as possible, into the river. The Hindoo who related these facts, assured the author, that when he assisted to burn the body of his father, this was actually the case. He added, without the least apparent concern, that the burning made a noise like the frying of fat, and that when he beat his father's skull to pieces, to be reduced to ashes with the other bones, it contained a very large quantity of melted fat. At the close, the heir, taking seven sticks, a span long, in his hand, walks round the pile seven times, throwing one of the sticks on the fire at each circumambulation; and then beats the fire with the hatchet seven times. Water is now brought, the whole place washed, and a gutter cut in the ground, that the water from the funeral pile and the Ganges may unite. They then fill a pot with water, cover it with an earthen plate, and put upon the plate eight kourees. They afterwards, with the handle of the spade, break this pot, spill the water, and then, crying Huree-bil, or huzza! they depart. * "At the funerals of the emperors, or renowned generals, as soon as the wood was lighted, the soldiers, and all the company, made a solemn course three times round the pile, to show their affection to the deceased; of which we have numerous examples in history."-Kennett. "The next of blood performed the ceremony of lighting the pile; which they did with a torch, turning their face all the while the other way, as if it was done out of necessity, and not willingly."—Ibid. The persons who have burnt the dead become unclean, and cannot return to their houses till they have bathed. After shaving, bathing, and putting on new garments, one of which is twisted like a rope, or a poita, the heir at law goes home. Yet a son cannot eat or drink on the day of his father's funeral. Before they who have burnt the dead go into the house, they touch some fire, prepared and placed at the door for the purpose: they put their hand on the fire, take the bitter leaf of the lime tree, chew it, and then spit it out again. Near relations put on new clothes, take off their necklaces, refrain from combing their hair, anointing their bodies, carrying an umbrella, riding in a palanqueen, or wearing shoes or a turban. These and other actions are intended as signs of an unclean state, as well as of a time of sorrow. Many of the poor merely burn the body, without any ceremony. Those who cannot afford to buy wood, perfumes, &c. throw the body into the river, or fasten it in the earth with a stake and a cord by the side of the river, or tie a pan filled with water to the body, and sink it. The bodies of those who leave no heirs, but have left property, are burnt, but no one can put fire to the mouth, or perform any other funeral ceremony, except that of merely burning the body. It is considered as a great misfortune, to have no male or female* relation, to perform the last offices for the dead. The practice of throwing dead bodies into the river, is, in many places, a dreadful nuisance, as, in case a body should float to the side of the river, and remain there, it will continue to infect the whole neighbourhood, till the vultures, dogs, jackals, and other animals, have devoured it. The throwing of dead bodies, and other filth, into the river, makes the Ganges, in the neighbourhood of large towns, resemble a common sewer. Still, however, the natives drink it with the greatest appetite, bathe in it every day, to cleanse both their bodies and souls, and carry it to an immense distance, as the greatest imaginable treasure. Sometimes, through the want of wood, the body is not quite burnt, when the remains are collected, and thrown into the river. If a person dies under an evil star, a ceremony is performed to remove the evil * A wife or a daughter may perform the ceremonies for the dead, but they are not considered as so meritoriousas when performed by a son. consequences of this in regard to his future happiness. In this ceremony, a burntsacrifice with clarified butter is offered, and the worship of Vishnoo, Yumă, Ůgnec, Shivă, Sooryŭ, Vayoo, and other gods, is performed. to Among some classes of voishněvůs, when a person is carried to the river side, on the approach of death, he is preceded by songs and music. I have heard of a Hindoo at Calcutta who, in the last stages of his illness, was preceded, in this journey the river, by a hundred large drums, and a great number of friends, singing, “Chéla goes, conquering death.” The yogees, a class of Hindoo weavers, bury their dead, and sometimes they bury their widows alive. The mendicant voishnůvus (voiragees) also, bury their dead by the side of the Ganges, or near the toolůsee plant, or in a house, placing some salt in the grave, and sometimes planting the tool see upon it. They bury the corpse in a sitting posture; place toolůsee leaves in the nostrils, ears, eyes, mouth, &c.; write the name of Krishnu on the arms, neck, breast, forehead, and other parts of the body; encircle the neck with a tool see bead roll, and a garland of flowers, and fill up the grave, amidst songs, and the sounds of music. The burning of the body, and the ceremonies accompanying it, are considered as necessary to a person's happiness after death. The regular Hindoos do not regard the burying of the dead, even by the side of the Ganges, as equally meritorious with burning the body; which is supposed to be purified by passing through the fire. |