hieroglyphic texts of According to these

some support from the accounts found in the the ceremonies practised at the Nile feasts. texts the image of Hathor, whose fair bosom was uncovered on a certain day before the worshippers, was carried at the time of the Nile rising in a solemn procession to Edfu in order to visit her son Hor Hud there. At this peculiar season the goddess Neith is said, according to the Feast Calendar of Esne (on 13 Epiphi), to bear her son anew. Her head is seen as she lies bearing him, stretched in the water.

The image of a goddess (Neith) thus appears actually to have been placed in the river during the rising. Most of the statements in these texts relate to ceremonies observed with the images of deities. Perhaps the custom practised by Christians in the time of 'Amr is connected with this usage; perhaps we must see in it another ceremony connected with the worship of Osiris, into which we cannot enter further here.*

A tear of Ifas, when her heart was breaking with anxiety for the return of her husband, fell, according to the belief of heathen times, into the river and made it swell, and then, after Horus had conquered Set (the dry), it brought back the husband (Osiris-Nile) to the mourning wife (the earth longing for fertilization); but this tear the Arabs have converted into the "divine drop," which, as they think, causes the rising of the Nile.

The inquirer in Cairo thus finds the old in the new everywhere, in art, in science, in civil and public life. The physical law of the conservation of matter is true also of the acquisitions of the mind. They seem to disappear, vanish, and go to nothing, but they are only forgotten, and in reality transmute themselves into new and no longer recognizable forms, or disappear perhaps temporarily under dust or behind clouds. But they still live and work on, and it is one of the greatest joys of the investigator to seek and recognize them. under rubbish heaps or in thick wrappings. What an enjoyment it is to search through Cairo for the remains of antiquity. May those to whom it is to-day given to guide the destinies of the Nile Valley, not forget that with every monument of ancient Egypt they destroy, they destroy a part of her greatness. History eschews wreaths, but flourishes the whip, and she has engraved on her tables in much deeper letters the destructive work of the Vandals than all their brave and glorious deeds.

GEORG EBERS.

In the nineteenth Upper Egyptian province, that of the Oxyrynchites of the Greeks, whose sacred animal, the first Oxyrynchos, was closely connected with the worship of Osiris, Horus is said, after he overthrew Set, the enemy of his father Osiris, to have cut off his leg and given it to the priests of the merchet, or (according to Demichen's explanation of the word) observatory of the Nile rising. Now, an animal's leg is said to have been thrown into the river by these priests as an offering, but that circumstance is susceptible of another explanation than that just suggested. This animal's leg is called alodsch or arodsch, and it is possible to take this word of Ibn Ajās for the Arabic årūs, and in that case the offering of a leg is a commutation for the offering of a bride or a young maiden (árūs).

DE MORTUIS.

THE

subject of how to dispose of our dead in such a manner as best to combine reverence for their sacred bodies, with due care for the health of the living, is one so full of interest, that no one, travelling in lands where methods differing from our own are practised, can fail to experience some curiosity on the subject.

During our travels in India I had abundant opportunities of witnessing the process of cremation as practised by the Hindoos, more especially at Benares, that most holy city of the Brahmins, the bourne which every pious Hindoo craves to reach, in time to die there, on the banks of the sacred river Ganges. Many a time, I have seen the dying laid down to breathe their last breath alone on the hallowed shore, while their friends went off to bargain with the neighbouring timber merchant for as much wood as their limited means could procure. Often in the case of the very poor, this sum was so small that the humble fire has barely sufficed to char the body, which was then thrown into the river, and suffered to float seaward, in company with many another, in every stage of putrefaction, spreading the seed of pestilence on the sultry air, and poisoning the stream in which myriads hourly bathe, and from which they drink.

But in the case of the wealthier Hindoo, the funeral-pyre is carefully built, and when the corpse has been washed in the river, it is swathed in fair linen, white or scarlet, or, still more often, the shroud is of the sacred saffron colour, on which is showered a handful of vermilion paint, to symbolize the blood of sprinkling as the atonement for sin. Sometimes the body is wrapped in cloth of silver or of gold, and is laid upon the funeral pyre. Dry sweet grass is then laid over it, and precious anointing oil, which shall make the flame burn more brightly, and more wood is heaped on, till the pyre is very high. A Brahmin then brings sacred fire, and gives

a lighted torch to the chief mourner, who bears it thrice, or nine tines, sun-wise, round the body. He touches the lips of the dead with the holy fire, then ignites the pyre. Other torches are applied simultaneously, and, in a very few moments, the body is burnt, though the fire smoulders long. Then the ashes are collected, and sprinkled on the sacred river, which carries them away to the ocean.

Night and day, this work goes on without ceasing, and many a weird funeral scene I have witnessed, sometimes beneath the burning rays of the noonday sun, while my house-boat lay moored in midstream, to enable me better to witness all the strange phases of religious and social life enacted on its shores, and sometimes in the course of our night journeyings, when the pale moonbeams mingled with the dim blue flames, casting a lurid light on the withered witch-like forms of the mourners, often a group of greyhaired women, whose shrill wails and piercing cries rang through the air, as they circled round the pyre in solemn procession, suggesting some spirit dance of death.

When a body has been consumed, all the mourners repair to the river, beating their breasts and howling, and proceed to wash themselves and their clothes, and perform divers ceremonies of purification necessary after touching a dead body.

With these scenes in my memory, I made some inquiries, on my arrival in Japan, as to the method of cremation practised there ; but, strangely enough, could obtain no information on the subject. It was not one which in any way obtruded itself on public notice, and none of my European friends could tell me anything about it— most declared that the practice was unknown in Japan. Accident, however, favoured me, for on the second day after landing at Yokohama, a friend invited me to accompany him on a ride, in the course of which, looking down from the high road, where foreigners take their daily drive, I observed what seemed to be a cemetery, at some little distance.

For me, the peaceful "God's acres" of our own land have always a special interest, and I soon learnt that those of Japan are invariably worth a visit, the ancestral graves being ever well cared for, and the cemeteries generally pretty and picturesque. So this, my first discovery in Japanese burial-grounds, was not an opportunity to be neglected. My companion, though he had often passed by the spot, had never dreamt of giving it a nearer inspection, but yielded to what seemed to him my very unaccountable wish to visit it.

So we turned our horses' heads thither, and soon perceived that it was indeed a place of graves, full of monuments, of forms new to me. One thing I especially noted was the enduring care of the living for the dead, for before each grave were placed the three sacred objects invariably present in Buddhist worship, a vase to

contain fresh flowers (generally a bud of the sacred lotus), a candlestick whereon was set a taper, as an offering to the departed, and a brazier, wherein to burn incense (generally a pot of fragrant ash), in which are stuck the familiar joss-sticks. There are also saucers of holy water.

In a corner of the cemetery I noticed a very insignificant-looking thatched house, and a talkative Japanese "Old Mortality" (who seemed to be the guardian of the place), seeing my glance directed thither, informed my companion that that was the place where the dead were burned, and invited us to enter. Thus unexpectedly was my question answered. We found a very plain building, with mud walls and earthen floor, along which were placed six or eight low stone enclosures; in each of these were heaped dry faggots, on which were laid the dead brought here for cremation, in square boxlike coffins, the bodies being placed in a sitting attitude.

At the moment when we entered, three funeral pyres were blazing brightly, and though the bodies could not have been half consumed, there was scarcely any perceptible odour, certainly nothing comparable to that in many an English kitchen, when a large roast is being cooked.

Two semi-nude attendants watched by the bodies, and would remain on duty for six or eight hours, till the fire had burnt itself out, leaving no human fragment uncalcined. Then, when nothing remained but pure white ashes, they would carefully collect these, to be handed over to the relatives, who, on the morrow, would bring a simple urn of red earthenware to receive these cleanly remains, which were then interred with all due honour, with or without further religious service, according to the inclination of the survivors.

One feature of the graves in this cremation cemetery which struck my companion as unusual, was the fact that each grave is marked by a cluster of flat wooden, sword-shaped sticks, each bearing an inscription. These are placed on the grave one at a time at intervals, on certain days after burial. On some graves these inscribed sticks were so very much larger than on the others that we inquired the reason, and were told that they marked the graves of very wealthy citizens. The highest of all, which attained to the dignity of a large post, proved to be that of the chief scavenger of the town!

"Old Mortality" informed us that, of the bodies brought to this particular cemetery, only about one-third were interred without cremation; that it was a matter of personal choice, but that Buddhists of the Monto sect were almost invariably cremated. (I recollected that in Ceylon this most honourable disposal of the dead was reserved only for Buddhist priests.)

A very few days later, on arriving in Tokio, and driving through one of its suburbs, my attention was arrested by a group of very peculiarly-shaped tall chimneys, very wide at the base, and ending in a narrow mouth; so strangely suggestive of old sketching days in

*

Kent, that the idea of the familiar farm "oast house" at once presented itself. On inquiry, I learnt that this was one of the city crematories, of which there are about half a dozen scattered over the principal suburbs of the vast city. Supposing that in the great capital the process of cremation might be performed more ceremoniously and scientifically than in the country cemetery which I had previously visited, I determined to inspect this also. But in the multitude of more attractive interests, I never found time to do so.

Soon afterwards, however, my friend, Miss Bird, visited a similar establishment in the same neighbourhood, and found the same perfect simplicity in all details. The great chimneys form the only material difference, their object, of course, being to convey any unpleasant fumes to such a height as to ensure no nuisance being created in the neighbourhood. Not only is this desirable result secured, but even within the premises there is nothing in the least noxious or disgusting. Miss Bird states that although thirteen bodies had been consumed in the burning house a few hours before her visit, and a considerable number of bodies were awaiting cremation (those of the wealthier class being coffined in oblong pine chests, and those of the very poor in tubs of pine, hooped with bamboo), there was not the slightest odour in or about the building, and her interpreter informed her that the people living near never experience the least annoyance, even while the process is going on.

The only difference between this city crematory and the burninghouse in the rural cemetery, was that the high-roofed mud building was divided into four rooms, the smallest of which is reserved for such wealthy persons as prefer to have their dead cremated apart, in solitary state, for which privilege they pay five dollars (i.e., about the equivalent of £1), whereas ordinary mortals are disposed of in the common room for the modest sum of something under four shillings. One shilling's worth of fuel is the average consumption required for each body.

Granite supports are laid in pairs all along the earthen floor, and on these the coffin-chests are placed at 8 P.M., when the well-dried faggots beneath them are kindled. The fires are replenished from time to time, and at 6 A.M., the man in charge goes round the building, and from each hearth collects and stores in a separate urn the handful of ashes which alone remains.

Some wealthy families secure the services of Buddhist priests to watch all night beside these funeral pyres, but this is considered quite a work of supererogation. After the religious service in the house, the further attendance of the priests is optional; but in many cases they return on the morrow to officiate at the interment of the ashes.

Having noticed the simplicity, the cleanliness, and the exceeding cheapness of this method of honourably consigning" ashes to ashes," I confess to a feeling of much wonder, when, on returning to Britain,