SALTING THE BODIES OF THE DEAD.
Every reader of Ariosto, of Boiardo, or of Berri, is acquainted with the character of Turpin, as an historian. John Turpin's History of the Life of Charles the Great and Roland has long since been regarded as a collection of fables; as a romance written under a feigned name. Its real character is, however, best described by Ferrario, when he says that it is not to be considered as "the mere invention of any one impostor, but rather as a compilation of ancient tales and ballads that had been circulating amongst the people from the ninth century." (Storia ed Analisi degli Antichi Romanzi di Cavalleria, vol. i. pp. 21, 22.) In such a work we must not calculate upon meeting with facts, but we may hope to be able to obtain an insight into ancient practices, and an acquaintance with ancient customs. It is for this reason I would desire to draw the attention of the reader to a curious mode of preserving the bodies of the dead, stated by Turpin. He says that the Christians, being without a sufficient supply of aromatic drugs wherewith to embalm the dead, disembowelled them, and filled them up with salt. The passage thus stands in the original:
"Tunc defunctorum corpora amici eorum diversis aromatibus condiverunt; alii myrrha, alii balsamo, alii sale diligentes perfuderunt: multi corpora per ventrem findebant et stercora ejiciebant, et sale, alia aromata non habentes, condiebant."—C. 27.
Does any other author but Turpin mention this mode of "salting," or rather of "pickling" the dead? This is the Query which I put, in the expectation of having it answered in the affirmative, as I am quite certain I have met with another author—although I cannot cite his name—who mentions the body of a Duke of Gloucester being thus preserved with salt; but unfortunately I have not taken a note of the author, and can only thus vaguely refer to the fact.
W. B. MACCABE.
Minor Queries.
The Star in the East (St. Matt. ii. 2.).
—I have been told that in the year of the Nativity three of the planets were in conjunction. Some one of your astronomical correspondents may probably be able to furnish information on this subject: it is full of sacred interest and wonder.
J. W. H.