se remains in
the house; and is also necessary because of the speedy decomposition
of the body in the tropics. It is also made possible by the fact that
Hindus do not use coffins.

It is the custom of most of the higher-caste Hindus to cremate their
dead; while many of the lowest castes and outcasts resort to burial.
Cremation would doubtless be the more sanitary method, if the fire
were not so inadequate in many instances. The Hindu burning-ground is
a place of ghastly and disgusting interest.

Funeral ceremonies do not terminate with the burning or with the
burial of the body in Hinduism. The ritual connected with the dead,
which is called _Shradda_, is, among the higher classes, a most
elaborate and complicated one, and lasts, with intermissions, for a
year. These are conducted with much effort by, and at great expense
to, the oldest son of the family. And a great significance is attached
to their rigid performance. It may be regarded as a part of the great
ancestral worship of the East.

The function of this ceremony is also kindred to that of Roman
Catholicism, which, through prayer and offerings, seeks the release of
souls from Purgatory. By this ritual, which involves also gifts to
Brahmans and priests, the son makes more easy the pathway of the
departed parent through the shades into the realms beyond, and
relieves the departed soul of its encumbrances and facilitates its
progress toward bliss. By some it is claimed that these ceremonies,
when rightly performed, render unnecessary his suffering in hell or
his returning to this world for rebirth. It is more likely that the
purpose is to reduce the suffering and to enhance the progress of the
soul between this birth and the next. In any case, all orthodox Hindus
regard the _Shradda_ ceremonies as possessing great virtue and high
importance. And this is one of the principal reasons why every Hindu
man and woman is so eager for the birth of a son in their family.
Without a son, who is there to relieve their soul from destruction,
and to bring to them future peace and rest through the _Shradda_
ceremony? Thus parents ever pray for male offspring; and the greatest
disappointment in the life of a Hindu woman is not to be able to
present her lord a son to solace him in this life and to assist him
through the valley of death. One of the questions asked by the dutiful
son, as he performs this laborious ritual, is,--

"O my father, my grandfather, my great-grandfa