people that
"self-immolation is by no means rare, and they believe that as they
leave this life, so will they remain ever after. This forms a powerful
motive to escape from decrepitude, or from a crippled condition, by a
voluntary death."[681] Or, as another equally early observer puts it
more fully, "the custom of voluntary suicide on the part of the old men,
which is among their most extraordinary usages, is also connected with
their superstitions respecting a future life. They believe that persons
enter upon the delights of their elysium with the same faculties, mental
and physical, that they possess at the hour of death, in short, that the
spiritual life commences where the corporeal existence terminates. With
these views, it is natural that they should desire to pass through this
change before their mental and bodily powers are so enfeebled by age as
to deprive them of their capacity for enjoyment. To this motive must be
added the contempt which attaches to physical weakness among a nation of
warriors, and the wrongs and insults which await those who are no longer
able to protect themselves. When therefore a man finds his strength
declining with the advance of age, and feels that he will soon be
unequal to discharge the duties of this life, and to partake in the
pleasures of that which is to come, he calls together his relations, and
tells them that he is now worn out and useless, that he sees they are
all ashamed of him, and that he has determined to be buried." So on a
day appointed they met and buried him alive.[682]

[Sidenote: The sick and aged put to death by their relatives.]

The proposal to put the sick and aged to death did not always emanate
from the parties principally concerned; when a son, for example, thought
that his parents were growing too old and becoming a burden to him, he
would give them notice that it was time for them to die, a notice which
they usually accepted with equanimity, if not alacrity. As a rule, it
was left to the choice of the aged and infirm to say whether they would
prefer to be buried alive or to be strangled first and buried
afterwards; and having expressed a predilection one way or the other
they were dealt with accordingly. To strangle parents or other frail and
sickly relatives with a rope was considered a more delicate and
affectionate way of dispatching them than to knock them on the head with
a club. In the old days the missionary Mr. Hunt witnessed several of
these t