It must be conceded that the Japanese mode of cremation is by far superior to the method of the Hindoos, who still adhere to the ancient funeral-pile. The cost of incineration is small. The body is reduced to ashes completely though slowly, and the process takes place in clean, well-kept, closed buildings, in a manner which, as far as the simple arrangements permit, offends neither the eye nor the olfactories.
At Osaka cremation is carried on in stone furnaces, which are closed by iron sliding-doors. There are three large crematories, situated at the outskirts of the city; they are enclosed by high walls, and when seen from a distance, if it were not for the chimneys 60 feet high, one would take them to be temples. The principal crematory contains twenty large furnaces, each of which is capable of reducing three bodies; thus it is evident 60 bodies can be incinerated at the same time. The corpse is placed upon an iron grate, the fire being underneath, and covered with a straw mat, that has been previously saturated with salt water. Incineration under these circumstances is said to be entirely satisfactory. The cremations begin at 11 P.M., and are finished at 3 A.M.
At Tokio, and most of the other cities, a black earthenware urn is fashionable; but in the province Totomi the ashes are placed in an urn of red color.
When the Asiatic cholera raged in Japan in 1877, the people were compelled by the authorities to cremate its victims. But the sanitary measure met with no resistance, its wisdom being recognized even by the lower classes of the people. By the decree, making cremation obligatory in times of cholera, the Japanese government has given an example of sanitary legislation which should be imitated.
Most of the books on cremation inform us that incineration was and is not practiced in China. This is an error. Marco Polo repeatedly asserts (Travels. New York: Harper & Bros., 1845. pp. 153, 155, 158, 159, 160) that the Chinese wherever he travelled were in the habit of burning their dead.
On the other hand, Chinese historical works make no mention of the practice, and burial is the almost universal custom at present. The books in which the subject of cremation is treated only speak of it as being practiced upon the bodies of Buddhist priests and lepers.
In the last issue of the Chinese imperial maritime customs medical reports, Dr. A. Henry contributes some remarks upon cremation in that country. In only one of the many Buddhist temples at the town where Dr. Henry is stationed, are the bodies of the inmates burned after death. The method of incineration is commendable as efficient, æsthetic, and inexpensive; but it is too slow except for Buddhist priests in China. In the grounds of the temple is a small dome-like edifice, the interior of which communicates with the open air by a small door only—a charcoal kiln, in fact. The dead priest is placed in a sitting posture inside the dome, and charcoal and firewood are piled around him; fire is applied, and the door is shut until combustion is complete. Children are sometimes burned, but for superstitious reasons only. When several young children of a family have died in succession, the body of one of them is burned, under the belief that the ceremony will insure the survival of the next child born to the family. In these cases the body is simply brought to an open field in a box, and placed upon firewood, which is ignited.
Although incineration is known in Corea, the most usual way of disposing of the dead is by inhumation. Mr. Carles, in an official report of a journey into the central provinces of Corea, says:—
“At one village the remains of the body of an old woman who had been eaten by a tiger, were being burnt in a fire of brushwood lighted on the spot.”
Cremation in America is not a novelty. When I began to investigate the subject of cremation among North American Indians, I was at first quite disappointed; and well I might have been, for Schoolcraft (History of the Indian Tribes of the United States. Vol. I, p. 38) asserts:—