* *

ANCIENT GRECIAN SEPULCHRE

[Illustration]

A beautiful illustration of an ancient Grecian sepulchre or funeral
chamber, heads the second chapter of Mr. Britton's "Union of
Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting," from which work we have copied
the annexed engraved view. The interior of the chamber exhibits a
skeleton and the urns containing the ashes of the dead. The combat leads
us to the conclusion, that the tomb contains the remains of a chief; for
it was the barbarous custom of the Greeks to sacrifice captives at the
tombs of their heroes.

Of the funeral rites and ceremonies of the Greeks and other nations, we
subjoin the following:--

The most simple and natural kind of funeral monuments, and therefore the
most ancient and universal, consist in a mound of earth, or a heap of
stones, raised over the ashes of the departed: of such monuments mention
is made in the Book of Joshua, and in Homer and Virgil. Many of them
still occur in various parts of this kingdom, especially in those
elevated and sequestered situations where they have neither been defaced
by agriculture nor inundation.

The ancients are said to have buried their dead in their own houses,
whence, according to some, the original of that species of idolatry
consisting in the worship of household gods.

The place of burial amongst the Jews was never particularly determined.
We find that they had burial-places upon the highways, in gardens, and
upon mountains. We read, that Abraham was buried with Sarah, his wife,
in the cave of Macphelah, in the field of Ephron, and Uzziah, King of
Judah, slept with his fathers in the field of the burial which pertained
to the kings.

The primitive Greeks were buried in places prepared for that purpose in
their own houses; but in after ages they adopted the judicious practice
of establishing the burial grounds in desert islands, and outside the
walls of towns, by that means securing them from profanation, and
themselves from the liability of catching infection from those who had
died of contagious disorders.

The Romans prohibited burning or burying in the city, both from a sacred
and civil consideration, that the priests might not be contaminated by
touching a dead body, and that houses might not be endangered by the
frequency of funeral fires.

The custom of burning the dead had its foundation laid deep in nature:
an anxious fondness to preserve the great and good, the dear friend and
t