protesting that she would not survive him, but
would burn herself along with him. Her
kindred, well satisfied with so generous a
resolution and the great honour thereby done
to the whole family, presently had a pit made
and filled with wood, exposing the corpse upon
it, and kindling the fire. All being prepared,
the woman went to embrace and take farewell
of all her kindred and friends who surrounded
the pit, among whom was the tailor, who had
been invited to play upon the tabor along with
a number of other minstrels, as was usual on
such occasions. The woman, having come to
the place where the young man stood, made a
sign as if she would bid him farewell with the
rest; but, instead of gently embracing him,
she seized him by the collar with both hands,
dragged him with all her strength to the pit,
into which she threw herself and him together,
and both instantly perished in the flames.

It was not till a comparatively recent period
that the British Government made any
attempt to abolish or check this barbarous
custom: being unwilling, it would seem, to
interfere with the religious rites and usages of
the natives. The tardy intervention of the
British Government has at length effectually
put an end to the practice; and the natives
themselves, instead of resenting this measure
as a violation of their religion, have (as might
have been expected) universally hailed it as a
deliverance from a horrible oppression under
which they groaned, but from which they
were unable to emancipate themselves.

Throughout the greatest part of the wide
region comprehended under the general name
of India, this practice of burning the dead
prevails, except among those  who profess
Mahommedanism. In the kingdom of Siam, it
is regarded as the most honourable funeral;
the bodies of criminals, and of persons
disgraced, being buried. In the Birman empire,
burning is the established practice.

In colder climates where the necessity for
the rapid disposal of mortality is not so
great, cremation has not been prevalent.
Among the Greeks and Romans, it was
confined to the wealthier classes, because of
its expensiveness. When the Romans burnt
the bodies of the dead, the ashes were
gathered and enclosed in a vase or urn, which
was sometimes deposited in the burial-place
of the family, and sometimes preserved by
them in their house. Among the remains of
antiquity which have been found in Britain,
and which belong to the period when a large
portion of this country was a Roman
province, there are many sepulchral urns which
must have been deposited in the ground,
either by the Roman population of this island,
or by the British who adopted the Roman
usages. Some of these urns are described by
Sir Thomas Browne, and later discoveries of
a similar kind have been made at different
times. They have been found to contain, not
only ashes mixed with half-burnt human
bones, but the remains of combs, beads, and
other articles of dress, and coins, both Roman
and British.

Burning the dead has fallen into disuse in
many countries where it once prevailed, partly
because of the expense—fuel diminishing as
population and agriculture increased—and
partly, perhaps, because the early Christians
may have thought it less congruous than
interment with the doctrine of the Resurrection.
'Christians,' says Sir Thomas Browne,
in his usual quaint style, 'abhorred this way
of obsequies, and, though they sticked not to
give their bodies to be burned in their lives,
detested that mode after death; affecting
rather a depositure than absumption, and
properly submitting unto the sentence of
God, to return not unto ashes but unto dust
again, conformably unto the practice of the
Patriarchs; the interment of our Saviour, of
Peter, Paul, and the ancient Martyrs.' In
every age, and in every country where
Christianity has prevailed, the burial of the dead
has been the unvarying usage.

Evidence, however, of a desire for another
remarkable revival of the practices of
antiquity now lies before us. It is no less than
the prospectus of an association—bearing the
recent date of January, 1850—"for
Promoting the Practice of Decomposing the
Dead by Fire.' Among other advantages,
cheapness is promised. We may mention as
some criterion on this point, that Mr. Ward,
the Indian missionary, who had many
opportunities of ascertaining the fact, computed
that the smallest quantity of wood necessary
to consume a human body, is about three
hundred weight.

However averse public feeling may be
to this mode of disposing of the remains
of deceased relatives; yet anything is better
than crowded city churchyards and poisoned
air. To these a favourable contrast is offered
by even the curious expedients of savage life—
of which we now proceed to take a glance.

The Parsees or Gabres—the race of
fire-worshippers who still exist in India,—abhor
the burning of the dead as a pollution of the
Deity whom they adore. This feeling they
appear to have inherited from the ancient
worshippers of fire, the Chaldeans, and the
Magi of Persia; from whom, also, they seem
to have derived the custom of exposing the
bodies of the dead to be devoured by dogs,
and beasts and birds of prey. A similar
usage exists at this day in the kingdom of
Tibet. 'According to the custom of Tibet,'
says Mr. Turner (Narrative of an Embassy
to Tibet), 'instead of that pious attention
which is paid to the remains of the dead, in
the preservation of their bodies from pollution,
by depositing them in the ground, they
are here exposed after their decease, like the
Parsees of India, in the open air, and left to
be devoured by ravens, kites, and other
carnivorous birds. In the more populous parts,
dogs also come in for their share of the prey,
and regularly attend the consummation of the