In Trier itself, a large glass urn, with cover and handles, was recently unearthed. It is a relic of the Romans. When opened it was found to contain bones. Beside this urn five vases of baked clay and several ornamented lamps were found.
The ancient Swiss were in the habit of cremating their defunct, till the year 56 before Christ.
Julius Caesar reports that the Gauls burned their dead with sumptuousness.
Several ancient glass urns, containing calcined bones, were recently found between two round stones, in the vicinity of Chatenet, France.
The Slavonians observed incineration from the earliest times to the end of the fifteenth century. When one of their kings died, everything he might need on awakening in paradise was placed with him on the pyre. Beside intoxicating drinks, weapons, horses, falcons, male and female servants, and his wives, his entire household—comprising the minister of state, secretary, mate at drinking, and physician—was cremated with him.
The Slavonian woman was invariably burned with the corpse of her husband; but not vice versa, the husband with the remains of his wife. When a bachelor died, single women were substituted for spouses. The chronicles that have descended to us from the monks affirm that these women longed for such a death, because they hoped to secure eternal blessedness thereby.
Large mounds, called Kurgani, were erected over the ashes of the cremated. These mounds may be seen to-day in the boundless steppes of Russia, where they afford a rest for the eyes from the monotonous scenery.
Eckehardt relates that, when Germany was invaded by the Hungarians in 925 A.D., he witnessed the intruders cremate the bodies of the slain upon rack-wagons.
The Bohemians practiced cremation as late as 1000 A.D.
The Arab Ibn Forszlan, who was ambassador from his native land to the Russians in the year of our Lord 922, states that he attended the cineration of a man of rank, on the banks of the Volga River. Previous to the cremation the deceased was interred, till the robes of state requisite for the ceremony were finished. Then the ship of the dead was drawn ashore, the defunct owner placed upon a bench, which had been covered with gorgeous rugs, and supplied with food, intoxicating beverages, and a number of slaughtered animals. Thereupon a young girl, who had voluntarily offered herself for incremation (probably to be the companion of the deceased in the other world), was led aboard and—after singing a long chant to the people and drinking a goblet of mead—strangled and stabbed at the same time. Then the ship was deserted, and set afire by the nearest relative, who performed this sad office with averted face. Thereupon every one present threw a burning piece of wood upon the vessel, which was soon consumed. A mound was erected on the site on which the ship had stood, in the centre of which a plank was placed, bearing the name of the departed.