Saint-Foix[164] relates that when Bertrand du Guesclin was buried at St. Denis, in 1389, several horses were sacrificed. The Bishop of Auxerre first blessed them, laying his hands on their heads, and then they were killed. At Treves, in 1781, at the burial of General Frederic Casimir, his horse, according to the custom of the Teutonic Order, was led in front of the bier, and when the General had been laid in the tomb, the horse was killed and buried with him.[165] Although the sacrifice of men and animals is no longer made by civilised peoples at burials, many funeral customs have an obviously animistic origin. In Russia, for instance, rice is placed alongside the corpse, and pine branches are strewed along the way to be traversed by the procession. The wreaths of “immortelles,” used so largely at funerals by the modern French, have an extremely ancient origin. They were employed by the Romans, and probably their use implied a conception of a future life in a region where plants and flowers grew. The belief in life after death, so widespread in the world, has been the foundation of all religions. I cannot follow this question here as closely as it deserves. To investigate it elaborately would take more space than this volume affords, and more knowledge than I possess. However, it is important to my argument to insist that, among races that have inhabited very different parts of the earth, that have had very different manners and have passed through different stages of civilisation, the conviction has been strong that death is not the end of all, but only a door leading from one kind of existence to another. Because of the high importance of the existence of this conviction, however, I must discuss some of the criticisms that have been made as to its universality.