nd then cast them out to die of
hunger.[1025] The people of the Arctic regions generally put the
aged to death on account of the hard life conditions. The aged of
the Chuckches demand, as a right, to be put to death.[1026] Life
is so hard and food so scarce that they are indifferent to death,
and the acquiescence of the victim is described as complete and
willing.[1027] A case is also described[1028] of an old man of
that tribe who was put to death at his own request by relatives,
who thought that they performed a sacred obligation. The Yakuts
formerly had a similar custom, the old man begging his children
to dispatch him. They thrust him into a hole in the forest, where
they left him with vessels, tools, and a little food. Sometimes a
man and his wife were buried together. There was no such thing as
respect for the aged or for aged relatives amongst the Yakuts.
Younger men plundered, scolded, and abused the elder.[1029]

+335.+ "The custom of putting a violent end to the aged and
infirm survived from the primeval period into historic times not
infrequently amongst the Indo-European peoples. It can be
authenticated in Vedic antiquity, amongst the Iranians (Bactrians
and Caspian peoples), and amongst the ancient Germans, Slavs, and
Prussians."[1030] The Bactrians cast the old and sick to the
dogs.[1031] The Massagetae made a sacrifice of cattle and of an
old man, and ate the whole. This was a happy end. Those who died
of disease were buried and were thought less fortunate.[1032] "As
far as I know no mention is made among the Aryans of the putting
to death of old people in general (we first meet with it in the
migratory period), nor of the putting to death of parents by
their children; but their casting out is mentioned."[1033] The
Greeks treated the old with neglect and disrespect.[1034]
Gomme[1035] quotes a fifteenth-century MS. of a Parsifal episode
in which the hero congratulates himself that he is not like the
men of Wales, "where sons pull their fathers out of bed and kill
them to save the disgrace of their dying in bed." He also cites
mention of the "holy mawle which (they fancy) hung behind the
church door, which, when the father was seventy, the son might
fetch to knock his father on the head as effete and of no more
use."[1036] Once in Iceland, in time of famine, it was decided by
solemn resolution tha