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

'
INHUMATION, CREMATION, AND THE SOUL. 519
centuries after Christ is
proved by
Venantius :
" Barbara fraxineis scindatiir rhxina tahellis,
Quodqiie papjTus agit,
the oft-cited lines of
uirgula plana facit."
It is not impossible that the Runes were derived from the
alphabet of Massalia, whose coins with the legend MAZSA were
much imitated by the Alpine tribes and circulated all over
northern Italy until the Roman conquest indeed Massaliote
;
coins have been found at the mouth of the Rhine and even in
remote Britain.
But whether the Runes were derived from the Massaliote,
or one of
is
the North-Etruscan alphabets, or from the Balkan, it
certain that they must have reached the North from central
Euro})e. But as they, like iron and cremation, are ascribed to
O'lin, we may infer that cremation, like its tw^o companions,
had likewise moved upwards from central Europe.
But it is even possible to see the Homeric doctrine on its
southwai-d course. We have seen that the fair-haired peoples
had settled fnnn an early time along the south of the Danube
extending even up to the shores of the Black Sea, and that
certain of them were included under the general name of
Thracians. Wo have also seen that cremation was partly practised
in Thrace. It is probal)le that wc must chiss under the
category of these fair-haired ( V'lto-Thracians the Detac^, who
are described by Herodotus' as the noblest and most just of
all the 'riii'aeian trilx's, and are especially mentioned as believing
in their own inuuoi'tah'ty (p. .S!)!)).
It
is
})rai' theii- re(|ucsts."
The victim was tossed in
520 INHUMATION, CREMATION, AND THE SOUL.
the air and impaled upon lances held to receive him as he
"
fell. If he is pierced and dies they think the god (6 ^ec