The Book of Curiosities

by John Platts

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.