A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the North American IndiansYarrow, H. C. (Harry Crécy)
History
A Further Contribution to the Study of the Mortuary Customs of the North American Indians
Yarrow, H. C. (Harry Crécy)
Indians of North America -- Funeral customs and rites
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; beecause 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 author states, and Bruhier corroborates the assertion, that the
Parthians, Medes, Iberians, Caspians, and a few others, had such a
horror and aversion of the corruption and decomposition of the dead, and
of their being eaten by worms, that they threw out the bodies into the
open fields to be devoured by wild beasts, a part of their belief being
that persons so devoured would not be entirely extinct, but enjoy at
least a partial sort of life in their living sepulchers. It is quite
probable that for these and other reasons the Bactrians and Hircanians
trained dogs for this special purpose, called _Canes sepulchrales_,
which received the greatest care and attention, for it was deemed proper
that the souls of the deceased should have strong and lusty frames to
dwell in.
The Buddhists of Bhotan are said to expose the bodies of their dead on
top of high rocks.
According to Tegg, whose work is quoted frequently, in the London Times
of January 28, 1876, Mr. Monier Williams writes from Calcutta regarding
the “Towers of Silence,” so called, of the Parsees, who, it is well
known, are the descendants of the ancient Persians expelled from Persia
by the Mohammedan conquerors, and settled at Surat about 1,100 years
since. This gentleman’s narrative is freely made use of to show how the
custom of the exposure of the dead to birds of prey has continued up to
the present time.
The Dakhmas, or Parsee towers of silence, are erected in a garden on
the highest point of Malabar Hill, a beautiful, rising ground on one
side of Black Bay, noted for the bungalows and compounds of the
European and wealthier inhabitants of Bombay scattered in every
direction over its surface.
The garden is approached by a well-constructed, private road, all
access to which, except to Parsees, is barred by strong iron gates.
The garden is described as being very beautiful, and he says:
No English nobleman’s garden could be better kept, and no pen could
do justice to the glories of its flowering shrubs, cypresses, and
palms. It seemed the very ideal, not only of a place of sacred
silence, but of peaceful rest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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