_Various Modes of Interment among the Ancients_ (Vol ii., pp. 8, 9. 22.
41. 78.).--In modes of interment some nations have been distinguished by
an idiosyncrasy almost incredible from their inhumanity.
"Barcæi, populi inter Colchos et Iberos morbo absumptos igni
comburebant, sed qui in bello fortiter occubuissent, honoris
gratia vulturibus devorandos objiciebant."--.AElian. _Hist.
Anim._ lib. x. "In Hyrcania (refert Cicero in _Tusc. Quæst._
lib. i. 45.) ali canes solitos fuisse, a quibus delaniarentur
mortui, eamque optimam Hyrcanos censuisse
sepulturam."--Kirchmannus _de Funer. Romanorum._
The appendix to this work may be consulted for this, and yet greater
violations of the law of nature and nations.
"Apud saniores barbaros ab animalibus discerpi cadavera foedum
semper ac miserabile creditum fuit. Foetus abortivi feris
alitibutsque exponebantur in montibus aut locis aliis
inaccessis, quin et ipsi infantes, &c. Fuit hæc Asinina
sepultura _poena_ Tyrannorum ac perduellium. (Spondan. _de
Coemet. S._ pp. 367. 387. et seqq.) Quam et victorum insolentia
odiumque vulgi implacabile in hostes non raro
exercuit."--Ursinus _Arbor. Biblicum._
Hyde accounts for the Persians who embraced the religion of the Magi not
having adopted the two contrivances of corporal dissolution prevalent
among civilised nations--cremation or burning, and simple inhumation--by
the superstitious reverence with which they regarded the four elements.
Sir T. Browne remarks that similar superstitions may have had the same
effect among other nations.
Of the post-mortem _punishments_ described by Ducange, the former was
the customary sepulture of the Trogloditæ; the latter corresponds with
the rite of some of the Scythians recorded by Statius:
"At gente in Scythica suffixa cadavera truncis,
Lenta dies sepelit putri liquentia tabo."
I shall be obliged if you or a correspondent disposed "not only to teach
but to communicate," will kindly throw light on a passage, relating to
the Troloditæ, in Strabo, book xvi., where he relates, "Capræ cornu
mortuis saxorum cumulo coopertis fuisse superimpositum."