THE EARLY AGE OF GREECE VOL.I by W.Ridgeway 1901

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INHUMATION, CREMATION, AND THE SOUL. 485
of a clay sepulchral jar, after which the upper half of the jar
must have been added in a soft state arid again placed in
the kiln, the result of Avhich was the partial calcining of
the bones. He adds: -"I judge that this was the mode of
sepulture from having in a hundred instances found skeletons
in jars either with no aperture at all, or at any rate with so
small an orifice
that by no possibility could the cranium have
been forced through it'."
Regarding the Persian conquerors of Mesopotamia, we are
well informed by Herodotus.
" It is said that the body of a male Persian is never buried
until it has been torn either by a dog or a bird of prey. That
the Magi have this custom is beyond a doubt, for they practise
it without any concealment. The dead bodies are covered
with wax and then buried in the grounds"
Cicero tells us that the Persians buried their dead, " cera
circumlitos, ut quain maxime ])ennaneant diuturna corpora-'."
The Magi had the practice (still cherished by the Parsis),
" non inhunmre corpora suoruni, nisi a feris sint ante laniata."
But it would appear that the Persians had burned the dead
until the time of Cyrus. CiM'tainly they had no scru})le
in burning the living, as is ])ri)ved l)V the stoiy of Croesus.
It is said that it was in
consequence of Zeus hurling a
thunderbolt to save that monarch from beino- burned to
death that " theneefoi-th the Persians began
law of Zoroaster, whieli forbade the burning
to observe the
of dead bodies
or any other ])oHutioii of the element of fire; and so thi'
ancient ordinance which liad been neglected was established
among them '."'
The denunciations in the ZcimI Avesta against those who
burned oi- buried iho dead I'uUy bear out the belief that the
I'ei'siaiis hail once pract
ist-il creuiatiou as woll as inhumation.
The statement tliat the Persians buried their dead is suj)-
])orted bv the tact that the tombs of the ancient kings show
486 INHUMATION, CREMATION, AND THE SOUL.
that the bodies were buried intact. It is, however, a remarkable
circumstance for which an explanation will presently be
offered.
The Magi evidently found it difficult to stop the Persians
from burning or burying their dead. It is possible that their
own practice of exposing the body to be devoured by beasts
was not of Persian origin, but rather an indigenous custom,
existing in the country at the time of the Persian conquest
and preserved by the priests of the native race. Certainly it
Avas practised by the great tribe of the Oreitae, who dwelt to
the east of Persia in Beluchistan. They opposed the landing
of Noarchus at the mouth of the Tomerus (Hingul) as he
sailed along their coast. They were very rude, having no
metal, using stone knives, and spears with points hardened in
the fire\
These Oreitae " resemble the other Indians in everything
else save in the matter of disposing of their dead." "For their
kindred, naked and equijiped with spears, carry the bodies of
the dead. Then they place the corpse in the woods of the
country and strip off the apparel that envelops the corpse,
and abandon the body of the departed to be food for the
wild beasts. Then they divide the clothes of the dead between
them, and sacrifice to the heroes in the eai'th and hold
a i-eception
for
their relatives'^"'
It is hard to suppose that so primitive a ])eo])le
had
adopted from the ]\lagi the practice of exposing their dead
to the beasts, esjjecially when we remember the difficult}' experienced
by the Magi in forcing the practice on the Persians
themselves. It is more rational to supjjose that the F^ersian
invaders tolerated the ]U'iests
and ])artially adopted the ]-eligion
of their subjects, in the same wa\" as in (Jaul the couquei'ing
Celts treated th