Part 71

Swinburne says, the iron ring was adorned with an adamant; the metal hard and durable, signifying the duration and prosperity of the contract. "Howbeit," he says, "it skilleth not at this day what metal the ring be of. The form of it being found, and without end, doth import that their love should circulate and flow continually. The finger on which this ring is to be worn, is the fourth finger on the left hand, next unto the little finger, because there was supposed a vein of blood to pass from thence into the heart."

We shall conclude this chapter with an account of an ancient custom, called HAND-FASTING.

This custom formerly took place at an annual fair, in the parish of Eskdale-muir, in Dumfriesshire, thus described by the Rev. W. Brown, in his Statistical Account of that parish: "At that fair it was the custom for the unmarried persons of both sexes, to choose companions with whom they were to live till that time next year. If they were pleased with each other at that time, then they continued together for life; if not, they separated, and were free to make another choice, as at first. The fruit of their connection, if there were any, was always attached to the disaffected person. A priest, whom they named Book-i'-bosom, (because he carried in his bosom a Bible, or a register of the marriages,) came from time to time to confirm the marriages." Mr. Brown traces this custom from the Romans.--See _Sir J. Sinclair's Statistical Account_, vol. xii. p. 615.

CHAP. LXI.

CURIOSITIES RESPECTING THE CUSTOMS OF MANKIND.--(_Continued._)

_Funeral Ceremonies of the Ancient Ethiopians--Funeral Ceremonies of the Chinese--Ancient Funeral Ceremonies of the Dajakkese--Ancient Modes of Mourning--Feasts among the Ancients of various Nations--Feast of Lanterns._

FUNERAL CEREMONIES OF THE ANCIENT ETHIOPIANS.--The Ethiopians had very particular ceremonies in their funerals. According to Ctesias, after having salted the bodies, they put them into a hollow statue of gold, which resembled the deceased, and are placed in a niche, on a pillar set up for that purpose. The remains of the richest Ethiopians were thus honoured: the bodies of those of the next class were contained in silver statues; the poor were enshrined in statues of earthenware. Herodotus informs us, that the nearest relations of the dead kept the body a year in their houses, and offered sacrifice and first-fruits during that time to their deceased friend; and at the end of the year, they fixed the corpse in a place set apart for the purpose near their town. The inhabitants of the country above Meroè had various methods of paying respect to their deceased friends. Some threw their bodies into the river, thinking that the most honourable sepulchre. Others kept them in their houses in niches, thinking that their children would be stimulated to virtuous deeds by the sight of their ancestors; and that grown people, by the same objects, would retain their parents in their memories. Others put their dead bodies into coffins of earthenware, and buried them near their temples. To swear with their hand laid upon a corpse, was their most sacred and inviolable oath.

FUNERAL CEREMONIES OR THE CHINESE.--The funeral ceremonies are considered by the Chinese as the most important of any. A few moments after a person has expired, he is dressed out in his richest attire, and adorned with every badge of his dignity; after which he is placed in the coffin. The preparation of a coffin, in which his body may be inclosed after death, is one of the chief objects of attention to a Chinese during his life, and great expense is often thrown away upon it; insomuch that the poor will give all they are worth, and the rich expend one thousand crowns; nay, a son will sell himself for a slave, to purchase a coffin for his father. Sometimes the coffin, when purchased with all this labour and expense, will remain twenty years useless in the family; but it is considered as the most valuable piece of furniture in his possession. The manner of interment is as follows:--First, they sprinkle some lime in the bottom of the coffin; then they lay the body in it, taking care to place the head on a pillow, and to add a great deal of cotton, that it may remain steady. The body remains thus exposed seven days; but the time may be reduced to three, if any weighty reason makes it necessary; and, during this interval, all the relations and friends, who are purposely invited, come and pay their respects to the deceased, the nearest relations remaining in the house. The coffin is exposed in the hall of ceremony, which is then hung with white, but some pieces of black or violet-coloured silk are here and there interspersed, as well as some other ornaments of mourning. Before the coffin is placed a table, on which stands the image of the deceased, or a carved ornament inscribed with his name; and these are always accompanied with flowers, perfumes, and lighted wax candles. In the mean time, those who enter the hall salute the deceased, as if still in life. They prostrate themselves before the table, and knock their foreheads several times against the earth; after which they place on the table some perfumes and wax candles. Their salutations are returned by the eldest son, accompanied by his brothers. The latter come forth from behind a curtain, which hangs on one side of the coffin, creeping along the ground until they reach the spot where those stand whom they are going to salute; after which, they return without rising up. The women are also concealed behind the same curtain, from whence they every now and then send forth dismal cries.

The funeral procession at last commences. A troop of men march in a file, carrying different figures made of pasteboard, and representing slaves, lions, tigers, horses, &c. Others follow, marching in two files; some of whom carry standards, some flags, or censers filled with perfumes; while melancholy and plaintive airs are played by others, on musical instruments. These musicians immediately precede the coffin, which is covered with a canopy, in form of a dome, of violet-coloured silk: its four corners are ornamented with tufts of white silk, neatly embroidered, and covered at the top with net-work. The coffin is placed on the bottom of this machine, and is carried by sixty-four men. The eldest son, clothed in a frock of canvass, having his body bent, and leaning on a staff, follows near the coffin; and behind him his brothers and nephews, but none of them clothed in canvass. Then come the relations and friends, all clad in mourning, and followed by a great number of chairs, covered with white stuff, containing the wives and female slaves of the deceased. These make great show of sorrow, by doleful, yet methodical cries. When they arrive at the burying-place, the coffin is deposited in a tomb appropriated for it, not far from which there are tables arranged in different halls, on which the assistants are entertained with great splendour. The entertainment is sometimes followed by fresh marks of homage to the corpse; but these are often changed into thanks to the eldest son, who, however, answers only by signs. But if the deceased was a grandee of the empire, a certain number of his relations do not leave the tomb for a month or two; but reside in apartments provided for them, and every day renew their marks of grief, with the children of the deceased. The magnificence of these funeral ceremonies is proportioned to the wealth or dignity of the deceased. That of one of the brothers of the emperor, was attended by sixteen thousand people, each of whom had a particular office assigned him relating to the ceremony. Mourning continues in China for three years; during all which time they must abstain from flesh and wine, nor can they assist at any entertainment, or attend any public assembly. At first they are not even permitted to go abroad; and when they do so, they are carried in a chair, covered with a white cloth. Sometimes the filial piety of the Chinese is carried to such a length, that they preserve the bodies of their fathers in their houses for three or four years, and impose upon themselves a great number of other duties, using no other seat during the day, but a stool covered with a white serge, and no other bed but a plain mat made of reeds, which is placed near the coffin.

FUNERAL AND MARRIAGE CEREMONIES OF THE DAJAKKESE INHABITANTS OF BORNEO.--The corpse is placed in a coffin, and remains in the house till the son, the father, or the nearest of blood, can procure or purchase a slave, who is beheaded at the time that the corpse is burnt, in order that he may become the slave of the deceased in the next world. The ashes of the deceased are then placed in an earthen urn, on which various figures are exhibited; and the head of the slave is dried, and prepared in a peculiar manner with camphor and drugs, and deposited near it. It is said that this practice often induces them to purchase a slave guilty of some capital crime, at five-fold his value, in order that they may be able to put him to death on such occasions.

_Marriage Ceremonies._--Nobody can be permitted to marry till he can present a human head of some other tribe to his proposed bride, in which case she is not permitted to refuse him. It is not, however, necessary that this should be obtained entirely by his own personal prowess. When a person is determined to go a head-hunting, as it is often a very dangerous service, he consults with his friends and acquaintances, who frequently accompany him, or send their slaves along with him. The head-hunter then proceeds with his party in the most cautious manner to the vicinity of the villages of another tribe, and lies in ambush till they surprise some heedless unsuspecting wretch, who is instantly decapitated. Sometimes, too, they surprise a solitary fisherman in a river, or on the shore, who undergoes the same fate. When the hunter returns, the whole village is filled with joy, and old and young, men and women, hurry out to meet him, and conduct him with the sound of brasen cymbals, dancing in long lines to the house of the female he admires, whose family likewise come out to greet him with dances, provide him a seat, and give him meat and drink. He still holds the bloody head in his hand, and puts part of the food into its mouth, after which, the females of the family receive the head from him, which they hang up to the ceiling over the door.

If a man's wife die, he is not permitted to make proposals of marriage to another, till he has provided another head of a different tribe, as if to revenge the death of his deceased wife. The heads procured in this manner, they preserve with great care, and sometimes consult in divination. The religious opinions connected with this practice, are by no means correctly understood. Some assert, that they believe that every person whom a man kills in this world, becomes his slave in the next. The Idaan, it is said, think that the entrance into paradise is over a long tree, which serves for a bridge, over which it is impossible to pass without the assistance of a slave slain in this world.

The practice of stealing heads causes frequent wars among the different tribes of the Idaan. Many persons never can obtain a head, in which case they are generally despised by the warriors and the women. To such a height is it carried, however, that a person who had obtained eleven heads, has been seen by Mr. Burn; and he pointed out his son, a young lad, who had procured three.

ANCIENT MODES OF MOURNING.--Amongst the ancient Jews, on the death of their relations or intimate friends, mourning was expressed by weeping, tearing their clothes, smiting their breasts, or lacerating them with their nails, pulling or cutting off their hair and beards, walking softly, i. e. barefoot, lying upon the ground, fasting, or eating upon the ground. They kept themselves close shut up in their houses, covered their faces, and abstained from all work, even reading the law, and saying their usual prayers. They neither dressed themselves, nor made their beds, nor cut their nails, nor went into the bath, nor saluted any body. The time of mourning was generally seven days, less or more, according to circumstances, but thirty days were thought sufficient upon the severest occasions. The different periods of the time of mourning required different degrees of grief, and different tokens of it.

The Greeks, on the death of their friends, shewed their sorrow by secluding themselves from all gaiety, entertainments, games, public solemnities, wine, and music. They sat in gloomy and solitary places, stripped themselves of all external ornaments, put on a coarse black stuff by way of mourning, tore their hair, shaved their heads, rolled themselves in the dust and mire, sprinkled ashes on their heads, smote their breasts with their palms, tore their faces, and frequently cried out with a lamentable voice and drawling tone. At the funerals of soldiers, their fellow soldiers, as a testimony of their affliction, held their shields, their spears, and the rest of their armour, inverted.

The tokens of private grief among the Romans, were the same as those among the Greeks. Black or dark brown were the colours of the mourning habits worn by the men; they were also common to the women. The mourning of the emperors at first was black. In the time of Augustus, the women wore white veils, and the rest of their dress was black. From the time of Domitian, they wore nothing but white habits, without any ornaments of gold, jewels, or pearls. The men let their hair and beards grow, and wore no wreaths of flowers on their heads, while the days of mourning continued. The longest time of mourning was ten months: this was Numa's establishment, and took in his whole year. For a widow to marry during this time, was infamous. Mourning was not used for children who died under three years of age. From this age to ten, they mourned as many months as the child was years old. A remarkable victory, or other happy event, occasioned the shortening of the time of mourning. The birth of a child, or the attainment of any remarkable honour in the family, certain feasts in honour of the gods, or the consecration of a temple, had the same effect. After the defeat at Cannæ, the commonwealth decreed that mourning should not be worn for more than thirty days, that the loss might be forgot as soon as possible. When public magistrates died, or persons of great note, also when any remarkable calamity happened, all public meetings were intermitted, the schools of exercise, baths, shops, temples, and all places of concourse, were shut up, and the whole city put on a face of sorrow; the senators laid aside the _laticlave_, and the consuls sat in a lower seat than ordinary. This was the custom of Athens also, and was observed upon the death of Socrates, when the fickle Athenians became sensible of the calamity their state had suffered in the loss of that great and virtuous man.

The modes of mourning differ in various countries, as well as the colours used for that end. In Europe, the ordinary colour for mourning is black; in China, it is white; in Turkey, blue or violet; in Egypt, yellow; in Ethiopia, brown. White obtained formerly in Castile, on the death of their princes. Herrera observes, that the last time it was used was in 1498, at the death of prince John. Each people assign their reasons for the particular colour of their mourning: white is supposed to denote purity; yellow, that death is the end of human hopes, in regard that leaves when they fall, and flowers when they fade, become yellow; brown denotes the earth, whither the dead return; black, the privation of light; blue expresses the happiness which it is hoped the deceased does enjoy; and purple or violet, sorrow on the one side, and hope on the other, as being a mixture of black and blue.

FEASTS AMONG THE ANCIENTS OF VARIOUS NATIONS.--All nations, whether savage or civilized, have regarded the pleasures of the table as the occasion of the most agreeable society. This species of enjoyment (abstracted from its susceptibility of abuse) makes but one family of all that it brings together. It levels the distinctions introduced by policy or prejudice, and disposes men to regard one another as brethren. Here people feel the equality established by nature; here they forget the evils of life; extinguish their animosities, and drop their enmities. For this reason Aristotle considers as a breach of the social principle, that custom of the Egyptians of eating apart, and praises the convivial repasts established by Minos and Lycurgus.

We learn from Herodotus, that the ancients had neither cups nor bowls at their feasts, but that they drank out of little horns tipt with silver or gold. The Greeks and Romans kept a domestic, for the purpose of reading during their meals and feasts. Sometimes the chief of the family himself performed the office of reader; and history informs us, that the Emperor Severus often read while his family ate. The time of reading was generally at supper; and guests were invited to a reading as they are now-a-days to play at cards.

The Greeks, in their flourishing times, did not profane, (according to their own expression) the holiness of the table, but rather adorned it with ingenious and elegant conversation: they proposed moral topics, of which Plutarch has preserved a collection. Heroes rarely assembled convivially, without bringing affairs of consequence into discourse, or deliberating upon those that regarded either present events or future contingencies. The Scythians, while at meat, used to make the strings of their bows resound, lest their warlike virtues might be enfeebled or lost in the season of pleasure. People of rank among the Rhodians, by a fundamental law of the state, were obliged to dine daily with those who had the management of affairs, in order to deliberate with them concerning such things as were necessary or useful for the country; and on this account the principal ministers of the kingdom were obliged to keep open table for all who could be of use to the state. The Persians also generally deliberated on business at table, but never determined, or put their determinations in execution, except in the morning before eating.

Among the Romans, the place where they supped was generally the vestibule, that a more retired part of the house might not encourage licentiousness and disorder. There were several laws that restricted their meals to these vestibules. When luxury reigned in Rome, they had superb halls for their entertainments. Lucullus had many, each of which bore the name of some deity; and this name was a mark which indicated to the servants the expense of the entertainment. The expense of a supper in Lucullus's hall of Apollo, amounted to fifty thousand drachmas. Singers, dancers, musicians, stage-players, jesters, and buffoons, were brought into these halls to amuse the guests.

Plutarch informs us, that Cæsar, after his triumphs, treated the Roman people at twenty-two thousand tables; and by calculation it would seem, that there were at these tables upwards of two hundred thousand persons. The hall in which Nero feasted, by the circular motion of its walls and ceiling, imitated the revolutions of the heavens, and represented the different seasons of the year, changing at every course, and showering down flowers and perfumes on the guests. The Romans did not, as we do, use but one table at their feasts; they had generally two: the first was for the service of animal food, which was afterwards removed, and another introduced with fruits; at this last they sung, and poured out their libations. The Greeks and eastern nations had the same custom, and even the Jews in their solemn feasts, and at sacrifices. The Romans, in the time of Nero, had tables made of citron-wood brought from Mauritania; they were varnished with purple and gold. Dion Cassius affirms, that Seneca had five hundred of these, which he made use of one after another; and Tertullian tells us, that Cicero had but one. The Romans chose the king of the feast by a throw of the dice. At the conclusion of the feast they drank out of a large cup, as often as there were letters in the names of their mistresses.

Feasting seems to have been the chief delight of the Britons, Germans, Gauls, and all the other Celtic nations; in which they indulged themselves to the utmost, as often as they had opportunity. "Among these nations (says M. Pellontier, in his _Hist. Celt._ lib. ii. c. 12. p. 463.) there is no public assembly, either for civil or religious purposes, duly held; no birth-day, marriage, or funeral, properly celebrated; no treaty of peace or alliance rightly cemented,--without a great feast." When the Germans, says Tacitus, wanted to reconcile enemies, to make alliances, to name chiefs, or to treat of war and peace, it was during the repast that they took counsel; a time in which the mind is most open to the impressions of simple truths, or most easily animated to great attempts. These artless people, during the conviviality of the feast, spoke without disguise. Next day they weighed the counsels of the former evening: they deliberated at a time when they were not disposed to feign, and took their resolution when they were least liable to be deceived. It was by frequent entertainments of this kind, that the great men or chieftains gained the affections and rewarded the services of their followers; and those who made the greatest feasts were sure to be most popular, and to have the greatest retinue. These feasts, in which plenty was more regarded than elegance, lasted commonly several days, and the guests seldom retired until they had consumed all the provisions and exhausted all the liquors.

Athenæus describes an entertainment that was given by Arcamnes, a very wealthy prince of Gaul, which continued a whole year without interruption, and at which all the people of Gaul, and even all strangers who passed through that country, were made welcome. At these feasts they sometimes consulted about the most important affairs of state, and formed resolutions relating to peace and war; imagining that men spoke their real sentiments with the greatest freedom, and were apt to form the boldest designs, when their spirits were exhilarated with the pleasures of the table. The conversation at these entertainments very frequently turned on the great exploits, which the guests themselves, or their ancestors, had performed in war; which sometimes occasioned quarrels, and even bloodshed. It was at a feast that the two illustrious British princes, Carbar and Oscar, quarrelled about their own bravery and that of their ancestors, and fell by mutual wounds.--_Ossian_, vol. ii. p. 8, &c.

As to the drink used at those feasts, particularly in Britain, it seems probable, that before the introduction of agriculture into the island, mead, or honey diluted with water, was the only strong liquor known to its inhabitants, as it was to many other ancient nations in the same circumstances. This continued to be a favourite beverage among the ancient Britons and their posterity, long after they had become acquainted with other liquors, (See _Mead_.) After the introduction of agriculture, ale or beer became the most general drink of all the British nations who practised that art, as it had long been of all the Celtic people on the continent, (See _Ale_.) If the Phoenicians or Greeks imported any wine into Britain, it was only in very small quantities; that liquor being very little known in this island before it was conquered by the Romans. The drinking vessels of the Gauls, Britons, and other Celtic nations, were for the most part made of the horns of oxen and other animals; but those of the Caledonians consisted of large shells, which are still used by some of their posterity in the Highlands of Scotland.