_Burning the Dead._--"T." will find some information on this subject in
Sir Thomas Browne's _Hydriotaphia_, chap. i., which appears to favour
his view except in the following extract:
"The same practice extended also far west, and besides
Heruleans, Getes and Thracians, was in use with most of the
Celtæ, Sarmatians, Germans, Gauls, Danes, Swedes, Norwegians;
not to omit some use thereof among _Carthaginians_, and
_Americans_."
The Carthaginians most probably received the custom from their ancestors
the Phoenicians, but where did the Americans get it?
Henry St. Chad.
Corpus Christi Hall, Maidstone, Feb. 8. 1850.
_Burning the Dead._--Your correspondent "T." (No. 14. p. 216.) can
hardly have overlooked the case of Dido, in his inquiry "whether the
practice of burning the dead has ever been in vogue amongst any people,
excepting the inhabitants of Europe and Asia?" According to all
classical authorities, Dido was founder and queen of Carthage in
_Africa_, and was burned at Carthage on a funeral pile.
If it be said that Dido's corpse underwent burning in conformity with
the custom of her native country Tyre, and not because it obtained in
the land of her adoption, then the question arises, whether burning the
dead was not one of the customs which the Tyrian colony of Dido imported
into Africa, and became permanently established at Carthage. It is very
certain that the Carthaginians had human sacrifices by fire, and that
they burned their children in the furnace to Saturn.