J.BT.
Various Modes of Interment among the Ancients (Vol ii., pp. 8, 9. 22. 41. 78.).—In modes of interment some nations have been distinguished by an idiosyncrasy almost incredible from their inhumanity.
"Barcæi, populi inter Colchos et Iberos morbo absumptos igni comburebant, sed qui in bello fortiter occubuissent, honoris gratia vulturibus devorandos objiciebant."—.AElian. Hist. Anim. lib. x. "In Hyrcania (refert Cicero in Tusc. Quæst. lib. i. 45.) ali canes solitos fuisse, a quibus delaniarentur mortui, eamque optimam Hyrcanos censuisse sepulturam."—Kirchmannus de Funer. Romanorum.
The appendix to this work may be consulted for this, and yet greater violations of the law of nature and nations.
"Apud saniores barbaros ab animalibus discerpi cadavera foedum semper ac miserabile creditum fuit. Foetus abortivi feris alitibutsque exponebantur in montibus aut locis aliis inaccessis, quin et ipsi infantes, &c. Fuit hæc Asinina sepultura poena Tyrannorum ac perduellium. (Spondan. de Coemet. S. pp. 367. 387. et seqq.) Quam et victorum insolentia odiumque vulgi implacabile in hostes non raro exercuit."—Ursinus Arbor. Biblicum.
Hyde accounts for the Persians who embraced the religion of the Magi not having adopted the two contrivances of corporal dissolution prevalent among civilised nations—cremation or burning, and simple inhumation—by the superstitious reverence with which they regarded the four elements. Sir T. Browne remarks that similar superstitions may have had the same effect among other nations.
Of the post-mortem punishments described by Ducange, the former was the customary sepulture of the Trogloditæ; the latter corresponds with the rite of some of the Scythians recorded by Statius:
"At gente in Scythica suffixa cadavera truncis,
Lenta dies sepelit putri liquentia tabo."
I shall be obliged if you or a correspondent disposed "not only to teach but to communicate," will kindly throw light on a passage, relating to the Troloditæ, in Strabo, book xvi., where he relates, "Capræ cornu mortuis saxorum cumulo coopertis fuisse superimpositum."