r even
to the foundation of Rome. One dying away from home was immediately
removed thither, in order that this might be performed with greater
propriety. In Picardy, as late as 1743, the relatives threw themselves
on the corpse and with loud cries called it by name, and up to 1855 the
Moravians of Pennsylvania, at the death of one of their number,
performed mournful musical airs on brass instruments from the village
church steeple and again at the grave[70*]. This custom, however, was
probably a remnant of the ancient funeral observances, and not to
prevent premature burial, or, perhaps, was intended to scare away bad
spirits.

W. L. Hardisty[71] gives a curious example of log-burial in trees,
relating to the Loucheux of British America:

They inclose the body in a neatly-hollowed piece of wood, and secure
it to two or more trees, about six feet from the ground. A log about
eight feet long is first split in two, and each of the parts
carefully hollowed out to the required size. The body is then
inclosed and the two pieces well lashed together, preparatory to
being finally secured, as before stated, to the trees.

The American Indians are by no means the only savages employing
scaffolds as places of deposit for the dead, for Wood[72] gives a number
of examples of this mode of burial.

[Illustration: FIG. 21.--Australian Scaffold Burial.]

[Illustration: FIG. 22.--Preparing the Dead.]

In some parts of Australia the natives, instead of consuming the
body by fire, or hiding it in caves or in graves, make it a
peculiarly conspicuous object. Should a tree grow favorably for
their purpose, they will employ it as the final resting place for
the dead body. Lying in its canoe coffin, and so covered over with
leaves and grass that its shape is quite disguised, the body is
lifted into a convenient fork of the tree and lashed to the boughs,
by native ropes. No farther care is taken of it, and if in process
of time it should be blown out of the tree, no one will take the
trouble of replacing it.

Should no tree be growing in the selected spot, an artificial
platform is made for the body, by fixing the ends of stout branches
in the ground and connecting them at their tops by smaller
horizontal branches. Such are the curious tombs which are
represented in the illustration. * * * These strange tombs are
mostly placed among the reeds, so that nothing can be more mournful
th