devoured the Bodies of their own Country-men as well as those of Foreigners when they were Dead So that what those fore-cited Historians do relate only of the Inhabitants of Pontus of the Massagetes Hyrcanians Derbices and several other Asiaticks we find confirmed in Europe to demonstrate that however barbarous this Custom seems to be yet it cannot well be doubted but that such there have been Nay their cruelty went further in respect of old people for as soon as they were come to seventy years of Age without staying for Death's call they rid them of the miseries of old Age by knocking them in the head or cutting their throats and then made a Feast of them and what was yet more horrid was that the Children only were thought fit to discharge this bloudy office being oblig'd by the Laws of the Land to take a Knife and murther their Parents themselves Neither were they wanting to defend and maintain this their extream inhumanity with many specious reasons and pretences For example they to justifie their impious murther alledged that Man's life after seventy years of Age being nothing else but a composition of pain and trouble they were in duty bound to free those from it who had brought them into the World that they might thereby prevent their miserable languishing and added that after their Death they could give them no higher expression of gratitude and duty than by feeding upon them because by that means their Parents became one and the same substance with them as they themselves were before they were born THE Parthians and Medes as likewise the Iberians and Inhabitants of the City Taxyla in the East Indies had such an horror and averseness for the corruption of the Dead and their being eaten by Worms that they exposed them in the open Fields to the end they might be there speedily devour'd by the wild Beasts accounting nothing more unworthy and unbeseeming the excellence of man than to rot and putrifie in the Earth and become the prey of such pitiful and loathsome Insects after his Death who while alive could not suffer so much as one of them about him Besides they believ'd that if he were devour'd by Beasts he would not be totally extinct and that being no more able to live in an humane Body he would at least enjoy a life in the bodies of those Animals that had fed upon him FOR this very purpose also the Bactrians fed Dogs which they call'd Canes Sepulchrales or Grave dogs and took a very particular care of them that after their Death their Souls might not want a healthful strong and lusty Body to reside in Oh unheard-of folly and madness thus to cherish those Creatures that were one day to tear and rend them with their teeth and what was more to make much of them only upon that account We naturally abhor an Hangman because his sole employment is to butcher Men how then may we think can those people look kindly on Creatures that are to be their own Executioners Or how can they with premeditated deliberation keep and feed them on purpose for this inhumane and barbarous piece of service Nevertheless most certain it is that they regarded this as a great point of their felicity For Cicero tells us that they made it no less their glory to feed those Dogs very high in order to make them grow fat and lusty than the Romans did to build sumptuous Tombs And S. Hierom adds that so great a veneration they had for this kind of Burial that Nicanor who by Alexander the Great was made Governour over them going about to suppress and abolish this inhumane custom of thers had like not only to have caused a revolt of the whole Province but also to have been by them massacred as an impious and sacrilegious person TO which we may add the Custom of the Barceans which seems no less extravagant who were of opinion that the most honourable Burial was to be devour'd by Vultures And that not only because those Birds by their long lives did represent Eternity but chiefly because they were consecrated to Mars and that Nature appears to have appointed them for that very use they being continually seen hovering about dead Bodies So that all persons of Worth and Quality that either died amongst them or fell in War fighting couragiously for their Country were immediately exposed in such places where Vultures might readily come at and make a prey of them As for the common people together with those that died on their Bed of a Natural death they were in a manner out of contempt flung into a Grave as not being esteemed worthy to have a Burial in the bellies of these sacred Birds THE Hyrcanians which I have above mentioned made some distinction between Men and Women for they did eat the former whereas they buried the latter as thinking them unworthy to have their bellies for their Graves Though methinks these above all deserved that honour supposing this barbarity might be so called since they had but done the like for them as having carried them nine months in their wombs CHAP. XI Fiery Sepulchres THE Grecians and Romans were not the only Nations that used to Burn their Dead the Germans and Gauls were also wont to do the like But we intend not to speak here of any except of those people which we account Barbarians because their Custom herein is much more cruel than that of the fore-mentioned The Reader then may please to know that some of them Burnt themselves casting themselves alive into the Fire others caus'd themselves to be stab'd before upon the Wood-pile and others were reduc'd to Ashes after their dead Bodies had lain a good while corrupting in the Fields amidst a huge heap of other stinking and rotten Carcasses THEY who were wont to Burn themselves were a certain Sect amongst the Indians who therein imitated their Doctors called Brachmans who by an extraordinary courage and fortitude or to speak more properly by a kind of madness and frenzy sought in the flames that Life of light which they preached to the people who seeing them thus desirous of Death and with so great joy thrust themselves into the Fire were soon won to this strange Doctrine and Opinion That there was no greater happiness attainable than that to which men were ushered-in through the flames THEY also believed that their participation of that felicity was different according to the more or less healthful condition they were in when they thus sacrificed themselves that is to say That they were the most happy and eternally enjoy'd a most pure light without the least mixture of darkness who burn'd themselves in their youth and the full vigour of their age whereas they that put it off till a further date did proportionably as they grew old and their strength diminish'd lose some degrees of those enjoyments that old people did only partake of a
made a ring about him pronounced the Funeral Oration in praise of the Deceas'd Afterwards they laid him in the Grave with an ever-burning Lamp and some small Vessels full of several sorts of Drink and Meats not forgetting to put in also a piece of money to pay Charon for wafting them over in his Ferry and some Woollen Garlands that they might with decency and honor appear in the Elysian Fields AS soon as the Grave was shut up the Weeping-women which they call'd Praeficae who had no other employment but to lament at Burials and were usually to that purpose hired for money cry'd aloud Ilicet that is Every one may now be gone Upon which the Company three several times answered with a mournful voice Vale Vale Vale giving the deceased Party their last Adieus and so withdrew THEIR Tombs were order'd and limited by the Laws the workmanship about them being expresly forbid to exceed what ten men might finish in three days time or five at the most neither were they suffered to be larger than was necessary for the engraving of an Epitaph It was upon this account that Licinius was declar'd an infamous Person for having caus'd a stately Sepulchre to be erected for him wherein he had much exceeded the aforesaid bounds At first the custom was to write their Epitaphs in Verse which never exceeded two Distichs But afterwards they found Prose to be the better way because it left them more at liberty not only to express the Name of the Deceas'd with that of his Family and Tribe but likewise the honourable Offices and Employments he had discharged his Profession and the Legacies he had bequeathed They began these Epitaphs by consecrating the Monuments they had erected to the Dii Manes that is the Ghosts or Spirits of the Dead or to the Infernal Deities and sometimes to Diana Hercules or any other Divinity for which they had a more particular devotion and ended the same with mentioning the Legacies the deceased had given by his last Will which consisted either in Feasts or summs of money to be distributed to the people and sometimes Oil Biskets and such like viands which the Executors were bound every year to perform at the Tomb of the Deceased the same day they died or else on their Birth-day NEITHER did they that out-lived them in acknowledgment of benefits received forget any thing that might conduce to the preserving of their memory For presently upon the Death of any person of quality they ordered his Statue to be made to the life which after it had graced his Funeral pomp was brought home set in a Niche and was used to be taken thence in case he had been a Magistrate upon days of great Solemnities to accompany the publick Processions and if he were a private person they adorn'd it in its Repository with Garlands and several other gallantries Moreover if he that was dead had done any considerable services to the Common-wealth then besides the Statue which his Relations kept of him in their houses there was another erected at the charge of the publick in some eminent Place of the City in order to its being exposed to the sight of all men This honour they gave to Scipio the African whose Statue they set up in Jupiter's Temple in the Capitol Whence it was that when his Posterity the Cornelii entered that Sacred Place to offer any Sacrifice they first approached his Statue and asked his advice as if he had been there alive Thus also the Statue of Cato was placed in the Senate-house and that of Trajan was fixed upon a Pillar As afterwards they erected such another Pillar on which they placed the Statue of Antonine who was an Emperor so generally belov'd that he was accounted infamous that had not in his house some Pourtraicture or Figure of him either in colours embossed Work or at least in Medal BESIDES these Statues they did in order to celebrate their memory institute combats of Gladiators which they did in imitation of the Grecians who appointed Games at Nemaea in honour of Archemorus and celebrated annual sports and exercises at Jolcos in Thessaly in honour of Acastus We read likewise in History that in memory of Sciron they decreed solemn Games which they called Isthmia from the place where they were celebrated Those Games were chiefly Tilting running at the Ring Wrestling Fencing besides combats and skirmishes both by Sea and Land AS to the time of Mourning it was either longer or shorter according to the Quality of the person though commonly it lasted not above nine days as appears by their Novendial or nine-day-Sacrifices which they offered to the Manes or Ghosts of the deceased Nevertheless the more scrupulous sort of people amongst them who were willing to observe religiously the Institutions of the Ancients did continue the mourning much longer By the Laws of Numa women were to lament the Death of their Husbands and Children their Parents a whole year that is according to the computation of those times the space of ten months But it was not lawful for Husbands to do the same at the Death of their Wives or Children when they dy'd before they were three years old but from three years to ten Parents were allowed to mourn for them as many months as they had lived years IT is also to be observed that their Mourning oftentimes was broke off before the time appointed by Law and that upon the account of publick as well as private occasions The publick were either the intervening of their Lustrum or Year of Expiation which was kept every five Years at which time a Tribute was levied and the City expiated by Sacrifices or for the performing of some solemn Vow made by the Generals of their Army as was that of Camillus for the taking of the City Veji that of Papirius upon his Expedition against the Samnites Of Marcellus for the Booty taken from the Carthaginians at Nola and such like Or because of the occurring Festival solemnities of the Goddess Ceres As upon this account it was that the Mourning begun for the slain in the bloudy Defeat at Cannae lasted but thirty days But yet it was only to Men that this was forbidden for as to Women they had leave to continue their mourning all the year round THE private causes were either the Birth of a Son or the arrival of some near Relations come out of prison or freed from bondage or else the marriage of a Daughter In all which occasions they ceased to mourn for the Dead that they might not deny such reasonable rejoycings to the living THE same Ceremonies before mentioned were used to those they Burned that is as to their attending the Funerals their Epitaphs and Mourning The difference was only in the manner of their Wood-piles These were made of very dry wood and very often of such as was aromatical and sweet-scented besides an abundance of Perfumes and odoriferous
in the other World and that at length they became so very young that their former old age was by them wholly forgotten If any died of a sudden death they supposed him to go to a place where he was most delightfully surpris'd and struck with a ravishing admiration to see in that Region every thing contrary to or at least very different from what he had seen in this in the admiring of which strange and agreeable Metamorphosis he was employed to Eternity And lastly if any were drowned they fancied him to pass from the Water into a dry place where he immediately voided the water he had let down and where he was no more in danger of meeting with the same misfortune the Gods having taken care to leave neither Sea River Brook nor any Spring there lest the sight of water should occasion any trouble to them who had miscarried thereby THEY had also several ways of decking their Dead which were generally very rich and pompous and suitable to the Place or Office they had discharged or to that which in their life-time they were most taken with For example they put upon their Priests the Ornaments of the Idol they had ministred unto Courtiers they arrayed in such a garb as their Prince most affected and apparelled the common sort in such an habit as was most agreeable to the condition trade or fancy of every one of them These were their ordinary ways of dressing the Corps But they had others which were extraordinary wherewith they set forth the Bodies of debauched and wicked fellows for they clothed Drunkards in the habit of Ometotchtli the God of Wine and Adulterers in that of Tlaxolteutl the God of Lust They had also particular manners of apparelling those that perished by Shipwrack or in Battel dressing the former like to Tlacot the God of Water and the latter in the warlike Ornaments of Vitzilopuchtli the God of War NOR was their Mourning less different and various it being more or less according to the age of the Party deceased for they were extremely sorrowful for the Death of their Children and almost not at all concern'd for the Departure of aged Persons insomuch that as they spared nothing to take care of the nourishment and education of the one so they did much neglect the other And what I find most remarkable therein is this That their Mourning for Children was not only very long but universal also they being generally bemoaned by the whole City or Town in which they were born On the day of their Death no Body durst come nigh their Parents or nearest Relations who carried themselves like furious and mad People and made a most dreadful noise within their Houses howling and crying like Persons in despair plucking off their Hair biting scratching and tearing their Flesh On the next day they flung themselves down upon their Beds and bathed them with their own tears On the third day they began their lamentations which continu'd the whole Year during which time neither the Father nor Mother of the Child ever wash'd themselves and the rest of the whole City to condole with them for their loss did weep three times a day till the Corps was carried to the Grave AS concerning their Mourning for others it was regulated according to the number of the Years they had liv'd lasting eleven Months if the Party had liv'd but five Years ten if he had liv'd ten Years nine if fifteen eight if he had attained to twenty Years of age seven if twenty-five six if thirty five if thirty-five four if forty three if he was above forty-five two if he pass'd fifty one only if he was sixty and as I have said before they scarcely mourned at all for such as were very old and decrepit MOST commonly they buried the Dead and some of them plac'd them sitting up-right in their Graves leaving with them some Water Bread Salt and Fruits together with the Weapons they used in their life-time Others shut them up in most rich and curious Coffins whereof some have been found at Cusco in Peru of the value of above sixty five thousand golden Ducats Others did bury them after a plain and simple manner and erected on their Graves four Pillars in the form of a gallows whereon they hang'd their Arms Crests and Plumes of Feathers together with a great number of Flagons of Wine and several sorts of Meats Others after having let the Body lye in the ground for the space of a whole Year at the end thereof took it up out of the Grave and paid a Duty or Service to it which was so much the more ridiculous because it was made up of weeping and laughter And not to speak of other barbarous ceremonies which attended it they first began these Obsequies with Songs that contained a relation of the whole life of the Dead which were oft interrupted with the doleful noise of wailing and lamentations After which they sate down to eat the Provisions they had brought along with them and having thus feasted themselves they rose and danc'd a kind of Jig round the Corps which they concluded with huge cries roaring out as loud as ever they could stamping their Feet against the ground and lifting their Eyes towards Heaven At last they burnt the Bones of the deceased and gave his Head to his Widow or nearest Relation that they might keep the same as a Relick AND for the Souls they believ'd that they retir'd themselves into a pleasant and plentiful Region where they ate the best Meats and drunk the most delicious Liquors they also fancied that these Souls were the Eccho's that answer People when they cry or speak aloud NOR ought we here to omit some other ceremonies of theirs which are no less curious and observable Those among them that consider'd their Physicians as petty Gods because of their procuring and preserving of health which of all temporal blessings is the greatest that they might shew them a proportionable honour at their Death did not Bury them as others but burnt them publickly with solemn rejoycings Men and Women confusedly singing and dancing together round about the Fire and when the Bones were burnt to ashes every one endeavoured to get some part of them to carry to his own House which they afterwards drunk in Wine as an Antidote against all manner of Diseases Now though these ashes did by the Law of the Country belong to the Relict or other nearest Relations of the Deceased to the end they might by drinking the same preserve his skill and knowledge in their Family yet they for the most part had much ado to save them from the Rabble especially if the Physician had been a Person of great repute for curing of Diseases For as every one does naturally love his health they believing that this was an infallible Remedy to preserve it we need not admire that they used their utmost endeavour to procure some
of honour they could possibly express whenever they chanced to meet with any of them in the Streets but also gave them the first places in all Assemblies both in their Temples and Theatres They had always a Gentleman-Usher going before them yea so great deference was given to their presence that if they accidentally met with a Criminal led to the place of Execution he could not then be put to Death this happy encounter procuring the poor wretch his Pardon THERE was also the greatest care imaginable taken in the choice of them They never consecrated any to this high charge but from Six Years of Age to Ten. Moreover they were to be without any blemish neither stammering deaf crooked lame nor maimed Their Parents also were to be free having never been bound in any sort of Servitude or imploy'd in base and mean Offices for their Father was to have been either a Priest Augur or Epulo The Girl who had all these advantages was by her Relations conducted to the Porch of the Temple of Vesta where she was received by the High Priest who consecrated her for the space of thirty Years to the service of that Goddess during which time she was to keep her Virginity inviolable Men were not suffer'd to speak with them except in the Day-time and very severe punishments were decreed against those who entred their Lodgings by Night WHEN they happened to Decease in this state of Virginity they were not only Buried with great Pomp but had also the peculiar priviledge allowed them as well as Heroes of having their Tombs within the City BUT on the contrary when any of them was found guilty of breaking her Vow by incontinency and whoredom as it was look'd upon as one of the greatest misfortunes that could befall the City so was she likewise severely punisht for it by the most shameful Burial in the World They laid her all at length on a Bier as if she had been Dead cover'd all over with many Cloaths which were tied fast and close about her that she might be neither seen nor heard And being thus swadled about she was carried from the Temple of Vesta to the Gate call'd Collina attended by her Relations and Friends all in tears after them came the Priests with sad and dejected looks without speaking one word Hard by this Gate within the Walls there was a little hillock and underneath it a very deep Cave which served for a Grave to the unchast Vestals As soon as they were arriv'd at this place the poor wretch was loosed of her Swadling-cloaths and nothing left her save a great Vail which cover'd her Head and Face that she could not be seen Then she was taken down from the Bier and the High Priest having mutter'd a few words with his back towards her she was taken by the Executioner and let down by a Ladder to the bottom of this Grot or Cave where was set ready for her a Bed a burning Lamp and a little Bread with three Pots full of Water Milk and Oyl and having stopt the hole there they let her perish without any pity for it was not lawful for them to shed their blood And so solemn was the Mourning on these Days that none durst either work or divert themselves neither was any thing to be heard throughout the whole City but sighing cries and lamentations CHAP. IV. Funerals of the Persians IT is matter of astonishment considering the Persians have ever had the renown of being one of the most civilized Nations in the world that notwithstanding they should have used such barbarous customs about the Dead as are set down in the Writings of some Historians and the rather because at this day there are still to be seen among them those remains of Antiquity which do fully satisfie us that their Tombs have been very magnificent And yet nevertheless if we will give credit to Procopius and Agathias the Persians were never wont to bury their Dead Bodies so far were they from bestowing any Funeral Honours upon them But as these Authors tell us they exposed them stark naked in the open fields which is the greatest shame our Laws do allot to the most infamous Criminals by laying them open to the view of all upon the high ways Yea in their opinion it was a great unhappiness if either Birds or Beasts did not devour their Carcases and they commonly made an estimate of the Felicity of these poor Bodies according as they were sooner or later made a prey of Concerning these they resolved that they must needs have been very bad indeed since even the Beasts themselves would not touch them which caused an extream sorrow to their Relations they taking it for an ill boding to their Family and an infallible presage of some great misfortune hanging over their heads for they perswaded themselves that the Souls which inhabited those Bodies being dragg'd into Hell would not fail to come and trouble them and that being always accompanied with the Devils their Tormentors they would certainly give them a great deal of disturbance AND on the contrary when these Corpses were presently devoured their joy was very great they enlarged themselves in praises of the Deceased every one esteemed them undoubtedly happy and came to congratulate their relations on that account For as they believed assuredly that they were entered into the Elysian Fields so they were perswaded that they would procure the same bliss to all those of their Family THEY also took a great delight to see Skeletons and Bones scatered up and down in the fields whereas we can scarcely endure to see those of Horses and Dogs used so And these remains of Humane Bodies the sight whereof gives us so much horror that we presently bury them out of our sight whenever we find them elsewhere than in Charnel-houses or Church-yards were the occasion of their greatest joy because they concluded from thence the happiness of those that had been devoured wishing after their Death to meet with the like good luck THE same Historians inform us that when any private Souldier was sick in their Armies and in outward appearance past recovery they carried him to the next Wood or Forest leaving with him only a piece of Bread a little Water and a Stick that he might as long as he should have any strength defend himself from the wild Beasts which most commonly devour'd these poor wretches and if it chanced that any one of them escaped and came back to his own house all the people ran away from him as if they had seen some Ghost or Devil and did not suffer him to converse with any body till after he had been purified and expiated by the Priests as if having been so near Death he were thereby according to their opinion become unfit to live any longer for they supposed that he must needs have had great converse with Daemons since notwithstanding his extream sickness he had been
Puissant King who having laid down his life in this World to enjoy Immortality in the other and consequently devested himself of all his Estates and Dominions in favour of his Children without reserving any thing to himself of all those immense Estates he possess'd here And it being nois'd abroad that he is now solitary and wandring in a strange Country without Souldiers to guard him without Horses or Elephants wherewithal to defend himself Without a Train and Equipage suitable to his Grandeur and without a Palace for the place of his abode the report of this sumptuous Building has drawn us hither with intention to purchase it If therefore he be willing to part with it whom it belongs to he will very much consult his own interest in so doing we being resolved to spare nothing to procure it that thereby we may express the love we have still for our deceased Father To which the people that are within answer in a like musical tone that they are fully satisfied with the offer and thereupon the price being agreed on both hands the Prince makes his entrance into and takes possession of it in the Name of his Father After this placing himself in the Tent Royal if it be an Army encamped or in the chief City if it be a Kingdom or in the Palace if it be only a City he there together with his whole Court hear kneeling the recital of the old King's Life which being ended he causes the Machines to be set on fire amidst the confused noise of Trumpets and other Instruments AS for the magnificence of their Graves it is such as cannot be sufficiently described Nothing like or near it has not only ever been seen in Europe or recorded in History but it is even hard to imagine what we are told concerning it by those that have seen them Anthony de Faria a Portuguese who in his Voyages accidentally discover'd and landed in this concealed Isle where their Royal Tombs are has left us a most stupendious account of them He calls the Isle Calempluy which he says lies at the mouth of a large River where it disembogues it self into the Sea in the extream parts of China Eastward being a place which by rocks is made in a manner inaccessible and which the lofty Cliffs that surround it on every side do conceal from the Eye of those that sail by it the swift current of the River contributing also very much to its secrecy He adds that that Isle is but a mile round and is environ'd on the water-side with a wall of Jasper flanked with a rampart of Earth on the top of which there is a Walk or Gallery faced with Balusters of bright shining Copper with several intermixed Pillars of the same Metal and behind them at a convenient distance the figures of abundance of Animals of molten Copper almost of all the kinds that can be found which make one side as the Balusters the other of a most curious and delightful Gallery Within the precincts of which you see nothing but little Groves of Orange-trees and other the most delightful and sweet-smelling Trees with several Temples and Hermitages IT is in these Temples and Hermitages they deposite the Bones of their Kings and other Princes of the Royal Bloud which are built not only of Marble Porphyre and Jasper but with variety of other Stones which with us are accounted precious both because of their beauty and rarity Neither are their Coffins less rich the matter whereof they are made being Gold or Silver besides the vast Treasures inclosed in them These Coffins are always attended by Hermits who continually pray for the Dead being themselves persons of the highest Quality for none are sent thither but great Lords who seeing themselves arrived to a great Age are glad to retire and end their days at their Princes Graves thereby hoping to anticipate their favour and procure for themselves to be their Courtiers in the other World as they have been in this There are also many young Gentlemen who by some misdemeanours being fallen into disgrace at Court take for a great favour to have the liberty of going and retiring themselves for ever in these delightful Hermitages where they make it their business to supplicate those Illustrious Deceased to make their peace with the King that they be re-admitted to his Grace and favour CHAP. VII Funerals of the Americans THE Inhabitants of America always took a particular care to bury their Dead because they believed that on that Ceremony depended the rest of the Soul departed They were all of them generally perswaded of the Souls immortality though to this truth which Nature taught them they added a thousand Fables of their own invention THEY fancied almost as many different places for the Dead as there were different kinds of deaths as well as different sorts of crimes For example they were of opinion that good and honest Men as those that had been kill'd in Battels or had devoted themselves to be a Sacrifice in honour of their Gods went directly after their Death to the House of the Sun which they placed near that Luminary This was the highest degree of happiness among them As for the wicked they said that they remained here below on the Earth and were yet more unhappy there than they had been during their lives That those who had been Thieves were continually pursu'd by Daemons that never left them at quiet That the Adulterous were scorched with the Flames of their unlawful Lusts and though they had always many handsome Women before their eyes yet they were the only Dead to whom it was forbidden to marry again in the other World because they had indulged and given themselves too much liberty in this That those who had killed their Fathers their Wives or Children were eternally slain by the same Persons and with the same kind of Death wherewith they had formerly destroy'd them That they who had murther'd their Kings met after their Death with a company of mad riotous fellows with whom they were fain to fight incessantly giving and receiving large wounds continually without having so much liberty as to lay down their Arms for one moment or stop the bloud gushing out from all parts of their Body And finally That those who had put any of their Priests to Death were perpetually praying to the Gods without any hope of ever being heard ANOTHER opinion they had concerning those that died without having committed any crime and who otherwise were neither good nor bad If they were young Children who had liv'd but a short time or died before they were weaned they believ'd that they met with an invisible Mansion upon Earth where they enjoy'd that life they had been depriv'd of and that there they attained to such an extreme old age that they could no more tell their Years And if they were old Men their opinion was that they began to grow young as soon as they were arrived
dim and obscure light and that they who were Burnt after their Death very seldom saw that light but asleep and as it were in a dream Whence it was that in former times very few Aged persons were found among this People most of them preferring the beauty of that Eternal Light which they expected to enjoy in another Life before the pleasures and contents of this so that very few of them ever died in their beds And when it accidentally fell out that any did if it was the Husband that died of sickness his Wife if he had but one or his most beloved if he had many did burn her self alive with his Body and if it were a Woman that was Dead her Husband did the like For which strange custom of theirs they alledged this reason That as one of the two by burning himself alive would enjoy a perfect happiness and be continually with the other so he might from time to time awake his yoke-fellow out of that deep sleep which had seized him in this Life and would as much as in him lay make him consider and take notice of the variety of lustrous objects and pleasures of the Light Which Duty if one of the Couple refus'd to pay to the other he was the rest of his days look'd upon as an infamous and unworthy person and scarcely admitted into any company NOW as it would have been a great default and very unbeseeming the felicity they had in their Eye for any one to cast himself unwillingly and with reluctance into the Fire or to utter any sighs or out-cries whilst they were burning so their custom was to repair to the place where they were to devote themselves to the devouring flames accompanied with the noise of musical Instruments being embraced hug'd caressed endeared and applauded by all the spectators who made no other shew than as if they were jealous of their good fortune earnestly praying them to be favourable to them in the other World Besides those Wood-piles on which they were to be consumed were usually made in holes and deep places and abundance of Wood was flung upon them as soon as they had leap'd into the Fire amidst the applauses and rejoycings of the whole company who with their loud shoutings together with the depth of the place and extremity of the fire made that the party could not possibly be heard whatever their out-cries or lamen tings might be when they felt the cruel flames invading of them THE Herules who in ancient times dwelt along the River Danubius were burnt after another manner when they were grown either old or sickly For being of a Warlike humour and not able to endure a languishing condition they were wont to go and beg their nearest Relations to rid them of a life which was become burthensom to them and so put an end to their miseries and suffering Which was never denied them or gainsaid but on the contrary every one commended and applauded them for having taken that resolution of themselves because in that state of extream old age or sickness they were lookt upon by all with scorn and contempt Besides if they had died in that condition they must have been buried without any Ceremonies as cowardly and base persons Wherefore when any thus freely offered themselves all their Relations met together with great joy to appoint a day for the solemnizing of these Living Obsequies and in the mean time made preparation of all things for it THESE preparations consisted of a Wood-pile which was made after the fashion of a Bed of diverse dishes of such Meats as the person to be sacrificed lov'd most and in looking for a Godfather to take away his life for it was not lawful for his Relations to do him that Office but only to kindle the fire under him when he was Dead AT last the fatal day being come the party concerned was laid down on his side upon the heap of Wood leaning on his Elbow and then they serv'd before him the several Meats he had desir'd which whilst he was eating with pleasure his Godfather took his aim so well that running him through the heart he kill'd him immediately Which was no sooner done but they made a great noise hollowing and shouting for joy and the Wood being set on fire on all sides they in great merriment walked round about it till all was burnt to Ashes all the while discoursing of the particulars of his life and extolling this his last courageous resolution to the skies THE Thracians were not so crucel in this point for they let people die of themselves But they had a most filthy way of heaping great store of putrified Carcasses upon the dead Bodies before they burnt them As soon as any one was Dead they carried him to the open Fields where they left him all naked for the space of many days without taking any care of him that is to say without washing or embalming him so that within a short time he began to stink On the morrow and following days they came to see in what condition the Corps was and as oft as they came to view it they sacrificed diverse Creatures whose bodies they flung upon that of their deceased Friend insomuch that the place became at last so noisom and stinking by means of all those putrifying Carcasses that there was almost no coming near it Then the Friends and Relations of the Deceased brought Faggots and other combustible matters and heaping the same upon the fore-mentioned Bodies they burnt them all to Ashes which they afterwards buried in a Grave they had to that end digged hard by SOME say that the reason why they let them thus putrifie and added to their own corruption that of other stinking and loathsom Carcasses was to shew that fire cleanseth and takes away all manner of filthiness and impurity from Man as well as other Creatures But the chief and main reason of all those who burned their Dead was grounded upon Heraclitus's opinion who held the Fire to be the Principle of all things so that consequently to the judgment of that Philosopher by burning the Dead they only returned them to that very original from whence they proceeded at first Others were of opinion that because the nature of Fire is to mount upwards continually until it insensibly vanisheth away in the Air it carried the most Spiritual and Volatile parts of the Body with it to Heaven CHAP. XII Water-Burials THOUGH the custom of casting the Dead into the Water be no less barbarous than the former yet has it been practised by several Nations as the Hyperboreans or those who inhabit near the Artick Pole the Pannonians some Inhabitants of Ethiopia called Ichthyophagi because they lived altogether upon Fish as also they of Chios who nevertheless differ'd among themselves as to the place for some of them flung their Dead into Lakes others into running Waters and others again into the Sea every one