File:Cremation Ghat Bsnares 1913.jpg

Identifier: indianmythlegend00inmack Title: Indian myth and legend Year: 1913 (1910s) Authors: Mackenzie, Donald Alexander, 1873-1936 Subjects: Hindu mythology Publisher: London, Gresham Contributing Library: Indiana University Digitizing Sponsor: Indiana University

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Text Appearing Before Image: ofthe dominant race. We find also that at Hallstatt thebodies of the wealthier class were reduced to ashes .* Insome districts the older people may have maintained theirsupremacy. At Watsch and St. Margaret in Carniola asimilar blending of the two rites was observed . . . the un-burnt burials being the richer and more numerous .^ Thedescent of the Achaens into Greece occurred at a dateearlier than the rise of the great Hallstatt civilization.According to Homeric evidence they burned their dead; though the body of Patroklos was cremated, however, the lords of Mycenae were interred unburnt in richlyfurnished graves.® In Britain the cremating peoplemingled with their predecessors perhaps more intimately 1 Associated, some authorities urge, with Germans from the mouth of the Elbe. The Daivn of History^ J. L. Myres, p. 199. British Museum Guide to the Antiquities of the Bronze Age, p. 98. * British Museum Guide to the Antiquities of the Early Iron Age, p. 8. » ibid. p. 6. • ibid. p. 8.

Text Appearing After Image: 1/2 WPi< wan <XO O< M u wXH INTRODUCTION xxxvli than in other areas where there were large states to con-quer. A characteristic find on Acklam Wold, Yorkshire,may be referred to. In this grave a pile of burnt boneswas in close contact with the legs of a skeleton buried inthe usual contracted position, and they seemed to havebeen deposited while yet hot, for the knees of the skeletonwere completely charred. It has been suggested in caseslike this, or where an unburnt body is surrounded by aring of urn burials, the entire skeleton may be those ofchiefs or heads of families, and the burnt bones those ofslaves, or even wives, sacrificed at the funeral. The prac-tice of suttee (sati) in Europe rests indeed on the authorityof Julius Caesar, who represents such religious suicidesas having, at no remote period from his own, formed apart of the funeral rites of the Gaulish chiefs; and alsostates that the relatives of a deceased chieftain accused hiswives of being accessory to his deat

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