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

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W.
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INHUMATION, CREMATION, AND THE SOUL. 523
the dead body, but rather a doctrine concerning the soul, that
actuated them. From this standpoint nomadic tribes would
have burned the dead body because they believed that its
destruction by
tire would have certain desirable effects on the
soul, and not because they wanted to place the body out of
harm's way. We may therefore conclude that the primal
cause of cremation is not to prevent the dead falling into the
hands of enemies.
Again, it might be urged that the practice originated in
fear of
''the wolf that's foe to men.
For with his nails he'll dig him u}) again."'
But this danger could have been as easily averted by tiie
Europeans of the Bronze Age, as it is at the present moment
by the blacks in the Boulia district of Queensland who bury
the Corpse in a grave about four feet deep, then cover it with
a layer of logs crossed by others laid ti-ansversely, then they
till in the earth, and raise a mass of logs, bushes, and earth
over the grave to prevent the dingoes fi'oin tearing up thr
bodyi.
Cremation then cannot be said to be the result of precauti(jns
taken by nuniarls against either human or animal foes.
But were the nomad tribes of the ancient world especially
pi-one to burn their dead? If it should turn out that they
were not, then the wlioje hv])othesis that ereniation originated
among nomads fills to the ground.
But we have just se'en that the most notable nomads of
the an''it;nt woi'ld the ]Jb\aiis, the Arabs, and the Scvthians
all l)uiie(l theii' deaij \inbunit. ('harly
cannot be rei^arded as a rcra i-nitsu.
On the contrary, there is a
presumption
tribes ai'c of all othei-s the least likely
then a nomadic lite
thai nomadic
to ci-eiuate the dead,
as they usually \vaiiiod. Sic. (v. 2S, 1) points out tliis rest'iiiblaiice.