This introduces us to the widely-prevalent practice of talking to the corpse: primarily with the view of inducing the wandering duplicate to return, but otherwise for purposes of propitiation. The Fijian thinks that calling sometimes brings back the other-self at death; and we read that the Moondes, or Hos, even call back the spirit of a corpse that has been burnt. Cruickshank says that the Fantees addressed the corpse ^' sometimes in accents of reproach for leaving them; at others beseeching his spirit to watch over and protect them from evil.'' During their lamentations, the Caribs asked " the deceased to declare the cause of his departure from the world." In Loango, a dead i THIS IDEAS 07 DEATH AND BB8TTRBSCTI0N. 169 man's relatiyes question him for two or three hours why he died; and on the Gk>ld Coast, " the dead person is himself interrogated'^ as to the canse of his death: a statement of Beecham confirmed by Winterbottom. So, too, when depositing food, etc. Among the Todas, the sacrificer addressed the deceased, and, naming the cow killed, " said they had sent her to accompany him/' MofEat tells ns of tiie Bechnanas that, on bringing things to the grave, an old woman addresses to the corpse the words — " There are your articles/' And according to Hall, the Innuits visit the graves, talk to the dead, leave food, furs, etc., saying — " Here, Nukerton, is something to eat, and something to keep you warm/' As implied by the last case, this behaviour, originally adopted towards those just dead, extends to those dead some time. Describing the Bagos, Caill^ states that after he is buried '^ a dead man's relations come and talk to him under the idea that he cares what they say.'' After burning, also, the same thing sometimes happens: among the old Kookies the ashes are '^ addressed by the friends of the deceased, and his good qualities recited." And the Malagasy not only ''address themselves in an impassioned manner to the deceased," but, on entering the burial-place, inform the surronnding dead that a relative is come to join them, and bespeak a good reception. Even by such comparativelyadvanced peoples as those of ancient America, this practice was continued, and, indeed, highly developed. The Mexicans, giving to the deceased certain papers, said: — " By means of this you will pass without danger between the two mountains which fight against each other." With the second, they said: "By means of this you will walk without obstruction along the road which is defended by the great serpent." With the third: " By this you will go securely through the place where there is the crocodile and the ochitonal." So, too, among the Peruvians, the young knights on their initiation, addressed their embalmed an- 170 THE DATA 09 SOdOLOGY.
ceBtors^ beseeching " tliem to make their descendants as fortunate and brave as they had been themselyes/' After recognizing the truth that death is at first regarded as one kind of temporarily -arrested life^ these proceedings no longer appear so absurd. Beginning with the call^ which is effectual in waking the sleeper and sometimes seems effectual in reviying one who has swooned^ this speaking to the dead develops in various directions; and continues to be a custom even where immediate reanimation is not looked for.
§ 84. The belief that death is a long-suspended animation^ has a further effect^ already indicated in some of the foregoing extracts. I refer to the custom of giving the corpse food: in some cases actually feeding it; and in most cases leaving eatables and drinkables for its use.
Occasionally in trance^ the patient^ though insensible, swallows morsels put into his mouth. Whether or not such an experience led to it^ there exists a practice implying the belief that death is an allied state. Earl says of the Assn Islanders^ that several times during the few days after one has died^ these Papuans try to make him eat; ''and when they find that he does not partake of it, the mouth is filled with eatables, siri, and arrack, until it runs down the body, and spreads over the floor/^ Among the Tahitians, " if the deceased was a chief of rank or fame, a priest or other person was appointed to attend the corpse, and present food to its mouth at different periods of the day.'^ So is it with the Malanans of Borneo: when a chief dies, his slaves attend to his imagined wants with the fan, siri, and betel-nut. Harkness tells us of the Badagas, that, " between death and burning they frequently drop a little grain into the mouth of the deceased.'^ Mostly, however, the aim is to give the deceased available supplies whenever he may need them. In some cases he is thus provided for while awaiting burial; as among the THE IDSAS OF DEATH AND BBSUBBSCTION. 171 Fantees^ who place " viands and wine for the use of the departed spirit/^ near the sofa where the corpse is laid; and as among the EfurenSy by whom ^^ meat is set before the body as food^^' before burial and after. Tahitians and Sandwich Islanders, too, who expose their dead on stages, place fruits and water beside them; and the New Zealanders, who similarly furnish provisions, '' avor that at night the spirit comes and feeds from the sacred calabashes/^ Herrera tells us of certain Brazilians, that they put the dead man in ''the net or hammock he used to lie in, and during the first days they bring him meat, thinking he lies in his bed/' And the belief that the unburied required refreshment, was otherwise shown by the Peruvians, who held a funeral feast, ''expecting the soul of the deceased, which, they say, must come to eat and to drink/' So general is the placing of provisions in or upon the grave, that an enumeration of the cases before me would be wearisome: a few must suffice. In Africa may be instanced the Sherbro people, who, Schon says, " are in the habit of carrying rice and other eatables to the graves of their departed friends;'' the Loango people, who, Proyart says, deposit food at the tomb; the Inland Negroes, who, according to Allen, put food and wine on the graves; and the sanguinary Dahomans, who, according to Burton, place on the grave an iron asen, on which " water or blood, as a drink for the deceased, is poured." Turning to Asia, we find the practice among the Hill-tribes of India. The Bhils cook rice and leave some where the body was buried, and the rest at the " threshold of his late dwelling, as provision for the spirit;" and kindred oustoms are observed by Santals, Kookies, Eiurens. In America, of the uncivilized races, may be named the Garibs; who put the corpse " in a cavern or sepulchre " with water and eatables. But it was by the extinct civilized races that this practice was most elaborated. The Chibchas, shutting up the dead in artificial caves, wrapped them in fine mantles 172 TEC DATA or SOdOLOOT.
and placed ronnd them many maize cakes and mueurcu of chicha [a drink]; and of the PemvianB^ Tschndi tells ns that " in front of the bodies they nsed to place two rows of pots filled with goiana^ maize, potatoes, dried llama-flesh, etc., covered over with smaller pots. On both sides, in a semi-circle, cooking vessels * * * and pots filled with water and ehicha, covered with drinking vessels, were placed/' The like is done even along with cremation. Butler tells ns that among the Kookies, the widow places " rice and vegetables on the ashes of her husband.^' The ancient Central Americans had a kindred habit. Oviedo gives thus the statement of an Indian: — " When we are about to bom the body we put beside it some boiled maize in a calabash, and attach it to the body and bum it along with it.'' Though where the corpse is destroyed by fire, we must suppose that the conception of reanimation in its original form has died out; this continued practice of supplying food indicates a past time when reanimation was conceived literally. And, indeed, on finding that the Kookies, some of whom bury their dead while others bum them, supply eatables in either case, we can scarcely doubt this.
§ 85. What in the limit to the time for the return of the other-self 7 Hours have elapsed and the insensible have revived; days have elapsed and the insensible have revived; will they revive after weeks or months, and then want food f The primitive man cannot say. The answer is at least doubtful, and he takes the sate course: he repeats the sup* plies of food.
It is thus with the indigenes of India. Among the Bodo and Dhimals, the food and drink laid on the grave are renewed after some days, " and the dead is addressed "; among the Kookies the corpse being '' deposited upon a stage raised under a shed," food and drink are ''daily brought, and laid before it." By American races this custom is carried much further. Hall tells us of the THE IDEAS OF DEATH AND BESURBEGTIOK. 173 Innnits that " whenever they return to the vicinity of the kindred's grave^ a visit is made to it with the best food'' as a present; and Schoolcraft says of the Dakotahs that ''for one year they visit the place of the dead^ and carry food and make a feast for the dead, to feed the spirit of the departed." Bat in this^ as in other ways, the extinct civilized races of America provided most carefully. Motolinia alleges of the Mexicans that ''after the burial, they returned to the tomb for twenty days, and put on it food and roses; so they did after eighty days, and so on from eighty to eighty." Concerning the Peruvians of the coast valleys, we learn from Cieza that in former times they used to open the tombs, and renew the clothes and food which were placed in them. Still further were such practices carried with the embalmed bodies of the Yncas. They brought provisions to them. Baying — " When you were alive you used to eat and drink of this; may your soul now receive it and feed on it, wheresoever you may be.'* And this statement of Molina concerning one of the festivals, may be joined with that of P. Pizarro; who says they brought out the bodies every day and seated them in a row, according to their antiquity. While the servants feasted, they put the food of the dead on a fire, and their chicha vessels before them, and dead and living pledged one another at the banquet.
Here the primitive practice of leaving food with the corpse and repeating the supplies, in doubt how long the revival may be delayed, has developed into a system of observances considerably divergent from the original ones.
§ 86. Other sequences of the belief in reanimation, equally remarkable, may next be named. If the corpse is still in some way alive, like one in a trance, must it not breathe, and does it not require warmth f These questions sundry races practically answer in the affirmative.
Of the Guaranis, Southey writes — ^" They believe that the soul continued with the body in the grave, for which reason 174 THB DATA OF SOCIOLOQT.
they were careful to leave room for if * * * would tomoye ''part of the earthy lest it should lie heavy upon them^' * * * sometimes '' covered the face of the corpse with a concave dish^ that the soul might not be stifled/' It is an Esquimaux belief ''that any weight pressing upon the corpse would give pain to the deceased/' And, writing of the ancient Peruvians, Arriaga states that after the conquest, the Indians used to disinter people buried in the churches, saying that the bodies were very uneasy when pressed by the soil, and liked better to stay in the open air.
A fire serves both to give warmth and for cooking; and one or other of these conveniences is in some cases provided for the deceased. Morgan writes that by the Iroquois " a fire was built upon the grave at night to enable the spirit to prepare its food.'' Among the Brazilians, according to Burton, it is the habit to " light fires by the side of newlymade graves * * * for the personal comfort of the defunct." In his account of the Sherbro people [Coast Negroes] Schon says that " frequently in cold or wet nights they will light a fire on the graves of their d^arted friendau" By the Western Australians, too, fires are kept burning beside the grave for days; and should the deceased be a person of distinction, these fires are lighted daily for three or four years.
§ 87. Besuscitation as originally conceived, cannot take place unless there remains a body to be resuscitated. However much the belief of the primitive man in a returning other-self, may be joined with a treatment of the corpse calculated to make revival of it impossible; yet expectation of a revival is naturally accompanied by recognition of the need for preserving the corpse from injury. Hence these various observances which provide for the welfare of the inert body while its double is absent, and for the welfare of the reanimated body when its double returns.
THE IDEAS or DEATH AND SESUBBEGTION. 175 are associated with otlier observancos aiming tO prevent destmction of the body.
Note, first, sundry indications of the belief that if the body has been destroyed there can be no revival — that there is then annihilation. When Bmce tells us that among the Abyssinians criminals are seldom bnried; when we learn from Simon that among the Chibchas the bodies of the greatest criminals were left nnbnried in the fields; and when we remember the care usnally taken of the corpse in avowed anticipation of its renewed life; we may infer the belief that renewal of life is prevented when the body is devonred. This belief we elsewhere find expressed. The New Zealanders held that a man who was eaten by them, was destroyed wholly and for ever. Chapman says the Damaras think that dead men, if buried, '^ cannot rest in the grave. * * * Yon must throw them away, and let the wolves eat them; then they won^t come and bother ns.^' According to Bastian, the Matiamba negresses believe that by throwing their husbands* corpses into the water, they drown the souls: these would otherwise trouble them. And possibly it may be under a similar belief that the Kamtschadales give the corpse ^' for food to their dogs.*' Where, however, the aim is not to insure annihilation of the departed, but to secure his well-being, anxiety is shown that the corpse shall be guarded against ill-treatment. This anxiety prompts devices which vary according to the views taken of the deceased^s state of existence.
In some cases security is sought in secrecy, or inaccessibihty, or both. Over certain sepulchres the Chibchas planted trees to conceal them. After a time the remains of New Zealand chiefs were " secretly deposited by priests in sepulchres on hill-tops, in forests, or in caves.*' The Muruts of Borneo place the bones of their chiefs in boxes on the ridges of the highest hills, St. John tells us; and Ellis says of the Tahitians that sometimes, to prevent the 17G THS DATA OF 80GI0L0QT.
bones from being stolen^ they were deposited on the tops of the most inaccessible mountains. Among the Kaffirs^ while the bodies of common people are exposed to be devoured by wolves, those of chiefs are buried in their cattle-pens; and Livingstone tells us that a Bechuana chief is buried " in his cattle-pen^ and all the cattle are driven for an hour or two around and over the grave, so that it may be quite obliterated." Still stranger was the precaution taken on behalf of the ruler of Bogota. In preparation for the death of the cazique, certain special attendants, keeping secret the place of their operations, made a very secure resting-place. "They divert,'* says Simon, "the course of a river, and in its bed make the grave. * * * As soon as the cazique is buried, they let the stream return to its natural course.'* While in these cases the desire to hide the corpse and its belongings from enemies, brute and human, predominates; in other cases the desire to protect the corpse against imagined discomfort predominates. We have already noted the means sometimes used to facilitate its breathing, supposed to be still going on; and probably a kindred purpose originated the practice followed by many races of raising the corpse to a height above the ground. Sundry of the Polynesians place dead bodies on scaffolds. In Australia, too, and in the Andaman Islands, the corpse is occasionally thus disposed of. Among the Zulus, while some bury and some bum, others expose in trees; and Dyaks and Kyans have a similar custom. But it is in America, where the natives, as we see, betray in other ways the desire to shield the corpse from pressure, that exposure on raised stages is commonest. Burton tells us that the Dakotahs adopt this method; Morgan states that at one time it was the practice of the Iroquois; Cafclin, describing the Mandans as having scaffolds on which "their ' dead live,* as they term it," remarks that they are thus kept out of the way of wolves and dogs; and Schoolcraft asserts the THl IDEAS or DEATH AND RB8TTBBECTI0N. I77 same of the Cliippewas. Among South- American tribes, a like combination of ends was sought bj using chasms and cayems as places of sepulture. The Garibs did this. Humboldt tells us that the Guiana Indians bury their dead^ only in the absence of cavities amid the rocks. The Chibchas interred in a kind of '' bobedas '' or cavesj which had been made for the purpose. And the several modes of treating the dead adopted by the ancient Peruyians, all of them secured^ as far as might be^ both ends — protection, and absence of supposed inconvenience to the corpse. Where they had not natural clefts in the rocks, they made '^ great holes and excavations with closed doors before them; '' or else they kept the embalmed bodies in temples.
Leaving the New World, throughout which the primitive conception of death as a long-suspended animation seems to have been especially vivid, we find elsewhere less recognition of any sensitiveness in the dead to pressure or want of air: there is simply a recognition of the need for pre* venting destruction by animals, or injury by men and demons. This is the obvious motive for covering over the corpse; and, occasionally, the assigned motive. Earth is sometimes not enough; and then additional protection is given. Park says that, by the Mandingoes, '' prickly bushes are laid upon " the grave, " to prevent the wolves from digging up the body "; and the JolofPs, a tribe of Coast Negroes, use the same precaution. In other cases, stones are added. The Arabs keep out wild beasts in this way; and very generally we find either stones and earth, or stones alone, which are evidently the most efFectual. Crantz tells us that the Esquimaux protect the corpse by heavy stones. The Bodo and Dhimals pile stones '' upon the grave to prevent disturbance by jackals,^' etc. In Damara-land, a chief's tomb consists of a large heap of stones surrounded by ihom-bushes. And now observe a remarkable sequence. The kindred of the deceased, from real or professed affection, and others from fear of what he may do 178 TUB DATA OF BOCIOLOGY.
^hen his double returns^ join in augmeniiDg the protective mass. Park tells as of the Inland Negroes^ that in some places large cairns are formed over graves^ by passing relatives who continually add stones to the heap; and of certain C<^ntral Americans Urrutia says^ it is a custom still preserved to throw a handful of earth, or a stone, upon the grave of the distinguished dead, as a tribute to their memory. Obviously, in proportion as the deceased is loved, reverenced, or dreaded, this process is carried further. Hence, the increasing of the heap for protective purposes, brings about an increasing of it as a mark of power or wealth. Thus, of the Central Americans, Ximenez tells us that they " raised mounds of earth corresponding in height with the importance of the deceased.^' Of the Chibchas, Cieza says — " they pile up such masses of earth in making their tombs, that they look like small hills ^'; and Acosta, describing certain other burial mounds in those parts as " heaped up during the mourning,'' adds — *' as that extended as long as drink was granted, the size of the tumulus shows the fortune of the deceased.'' UUoa makes a kindred remark respecting the monuments of the Peruvians.
So that, beginning with the small mound necessarily resulting fi*om the displacement of earth by the buried body, we come at length to such structures as the Egyptian pyramids: the whole series originating in the wish to preserve the body from injuries hindering resuscitation.
§ 88. Another group of customs, having the same purpose, must be named. I refer to the adoption of processes which arrest decay. Along with the belief that reanimation will be prevented if the returning other-self finds a mutilated corpse, or none at all; there goes the belief that to insuro reanimation, putrefaction must be stopped. Naturally there arises the inference that if destruction of the corpse by animals prevents revival, decomposition of it may prevent TtlE IDKAS or DCATH AND RESlTKRlCrTTOlf. 179 rtyvlvul. That this idea leaves no traces among men in very low states, is probably due to the fact that no methods of arresting decomposition have been discovered by them. But among more advanced races, we find proofs that the idea arises and that it leads to action.
Respecting the prompting motive, we have the statement of Herrera concerning certain of the Mexicans, who believed that " the dead were to rise again, and when their bones were dry, they laid them together in a basket, and hung them up to a bongh of a tree, that they might not have to look for them at the resurrection." Similarly, the Peruvians, explaining their observances to Garcilasso, said — "We, therefore, in order that we may not have to search for our hair and nails at a time when there will be much hurry and confusion, place them in one place, that they may bo broaght together more conveniently, and, whenever it is possible, we are also careful to spit in one place."
With snch indications to guide us, we cannot doubt the meaning of the trouble taken to prevent decay. When we read that in Africa the Loango people smoke their corpses, and that in America some of the Chibchas " dried the bodies of their dead in barbacoas on a slow fire;" we must infer that the aim was to keep the flesh in a state of integrity against the time of resuscitation. And on finding that amon^ these same Chibchas, as also by some of the Mexicans, and by the Peruvians, the bodies of the kings and caziq^os were embalmed; we must conclude that embalming was adopted simply as a more effectual method of achieving the same end: especially after noting that the preservation was great in proportion as the rank was high; as shown by Acosta's remark that "the bo^y [of Ynca rnpanqui] was so complete and well preserved, by means of a sort of bitumen, that it appeared to be alive.'' Evidence that like ideas suggested the like practices of - go Somo further funeral rites, indirectly implying 180 THE DATA Of SOCIOIiOGT.
the belief in resurrection^ must be named; partly because tliej lead to certain customs hereafter to be explained. I have in view the bodily mutilations, etc., which, in so many cases, are marks of mourning.
We read in the Iliail that at the funeral of Fatroclus, the Myrmidons ''covered all the dead body over with hair, which, cutting off, they threw upon it"; further, that Achilles placed his shom-off locks in the hands of the corpse; and that this act went along with the dedication of himself to avenging Fatroclus, and with the promise to join him afterward. Hair is thus used as a gage: a portion of the body is given as symbolizing a gift of the whole. And this act of affection, or mode of propitiation, or both, prevails widely among uncivilized races.
As further showing what the rite means, I may begin with the statement of Bonwick, that, by Tasmanian women, " the hair, cut off in grief, was thrown upon the mound;" and may add the fact furnished by Winterbottom, who, respecting the Soosoos, says that one grave was seen — ^that of a woman — with her eldest daughter's hair placed upon it. Where we do not leam what becomes of the hair, we yet in numerous cases leam that it is cut off. Among the Coast Negroes a dead man's wives shave their heads; and some Damaras, on the death of a valued friend, do the like. Similarly with the Mpongwe, the Kaffirs, and the Hottentots. In Hawaii and Samoa the hair is cut or torn; the Tongans shave the head; the New Zealanders, in some cases, clip half the head-hair short; among the Tannese '' cutting off the hair is a sign of mourning;" and on the death of the late Queen of Madagascar, '' all the people, with the exception of about twenty of the highest officers, had to cut off their hair." In America it is the same. A Greenlander's widow sacrifices her tresses; the near relatives of a dead Chinook cut their hair off; and we find that the Chippewayans, the Comanches, the Dakotahs, the Mandans, the Tupis, do the like. The significance of this rite THE IDIAS Of DEATH AND BESURSECTION. 181 as a mark of sabordination, and as a propitiation of the presently-reviving dead^ is shown by sundry facts. Thus, Shortt tells us that among the Todas, there is a cutting ofE of the hair at a death, but only " by the younger members to denote their respect for their seniors ''; and Burckhardt says of the Arabs that, ''on the death of a father, the children of both sexes cut oS their * * * tresses of hair in testimony of grief." By South Americans, both political and domestic subordination are thus marked. We learn from DobrizhofEer that among the Abipones, " on the death of a cacique, all the men under his authority shave their long hair as a sign of grief." So of the Peruvians, Gieza tells us that " the Indians of Llacta-cunya made great lamentations over their dead, and the women who are not killed, with all the servants, are shorn of their hair." That is to say, those wives who did not give themselves wholly to go with the dead^ gave their hair as a pledge.
Like in their meanings are the accompanying seU-bleedings and mutilations. At funerals, the Tasmanians "lacerated their bodies with sharp shells and stones." The Australians cat themselves; and Cook says the same of the Tahitians and the New Zealanders. Mariner ascribes this custom to the Tongans. We read that among the Greenlanders the men " sometimes gash their bodies;" and that the Chinooks "disfigure their bodies." Schoolcraft testifies that the widows of the Comanches "cut their arms, legs, and hodies in gashes, until they are exhausted by the loss of blood, and frequently commit suicide;" and Burton says the Dakotahs " not unfrequently gash themselves and amputate one or more fingers." In this last instance we are introduced to the fact that not blood only, but sometimes a portion of the body, is given, where the expression of reverence or obedience is intended to be great. Thus Cook tells us that in Tonga, on the death of a high priest, the first joint on the little finger is amputated; and we learu from Ellis tliat^ wben a king or cldef in tlie Sandwich Islands died^ the mutilations undergone by his subjects were— tatooing a spot on the tongue, cutting the ears, or knocking out one of the front teeth. On remembering that blood, and portions of the body, are offered in religious sacrifice; on reading that the Dahomans sprinkle human blood on the tombs of their old kings, to get the aid of their ghosts in war; on finding that the Mexicans gaye their idols their blood to drink, that some priests bled themselves daily, and that even male infants were bled; on being told that the like was done in Yucatan, and Guatemala, and San Salvador, and that the coast-people of Peru offered blood alike to idols and on sepulchres; we cannot doubt that propitiation is the original purpose of these funeral rites. It is one of the indirect results of the belief in approaching resuscitation, where it is joined with cannibalism, still practised or previously practised.
That such is the meaning is, indeed, in one case distinctly asserted. Turner tells us that a Samoan ceremony on the occasion of a decease, was ^' beating the head with stones till the blood runs; and this they called 'an offering of blood* for the dead.** § 90. All these various observances, then, imply the conviction that death is a long-suspended animation. The endeavours to revive the corpse by ill-usage; the calling it by name, and addressing \o it reproaches or inquiries; the endeavours to feed it, and the leaving with it food and drink j the measures taken to prevent its discomfort from pressure and impediments to breathing; the supplying of fire to cook by, or to keep off cold; the care taken to prevent injury by wild beasts, and to arrest decay; and even these various self -in juries symbolizing subordination; — all unite to show this belief. And this belief was avowed.
Thus in Africa, according to Bastian, the Ambamba people think that a man remains " in the state of the dead THE IDEAS OF DEATH AND RESURRECTION. 183 three days; some^ however^ are carried by the fetish into the bash, remaining dead for years: in both cases they are hronght to life again/' Lander, referring to a man dead a few days previonsly among the Inland Negroes, says '' there was a public declaration that his tutelary god had resuscitated him/' And Liyingstone was thought by a Zambesi chief, to be an Italian, '^ Siriatomba, risen from the dead/' Turning to Polynesia, we find, among the incongruous beliefs of the Fijians, one showing a transition between the primitiye idea of a renewed ordinary life, and the idea of another life elsewhere: they think that death became universal because the children of the first man did not dig him up again, as one of the gods commanded. Had they done so, the god said all men would have lived again after a few days' interment. And then, in Peru, where so much care was taken of the corpse, resuscitation was an article of futh. (jarcilasso says, '^ the Yncas believed in a univeraal resurrection — ^not for glory or punishment, but for a renewal of this temporal life/' Just noting past exhibitions of this belief among higher races — such as the fact that ^in Moslem law, prophets, martyrs, and saints are not supposed to be dead: their property, therefore, remains their own;" and such as the fact that in Christian Europe, distinguished men, from Charlemagne down to the first Napoleon, have been expected to re-appear; let us note the still existing form of this belief. It differs from the primitive belief less than we suppose. I do not merely mean that in saying "by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin," the current creed implies that death is not a natural event; just as clearly as do the savage creeds which ascribe death to some difference of opinion among the gods, or disregard of their directions. Nor do I refer only to the further &cts that in our State Prayer-Book, bodily resurrection is unhesitatingly asserted; and that poems of more modern date contain detailed descriptions of the dead rising again.
L, 184 THB DATA OF SOCIOLOQT.
I have in view facts showing that^ even stilly many avow this belief as clearly as it was lately avowed by a leading ecclesiastic. On Jnly 5th^ 1874^ the Bishop of Lincoln preached against cremation^ as tending to undermine the faith of mankind in a bodily resurrection. Not only^ in common with the primitive man^ does Dr. Wordsworth hold that the body of each buried person will be resuscitated; but he also holds^ in common with the primitive man^ that destruction of the body will prevent resuscitation.* And now observe^ finally^ the kind of modification through which the civilized belief in resurrection is made partially unlike the savage belief. There is no abandonment of it: the anticipated event is simply postponed. Supematuralism^ gradually discredited by science^ transfers its supernatural occurrences to remoter places in time or space. As believers in special creations suppose them to happen^ not where we are^ but in distant parts of the world; as miracles^ admitted not to take place now^ are said to have taken place during a past dispensation; so^ reanimation of the body^ no longer expected as immediate^ is expected at an indefinitely far-off time. The idea of death differentiates slowly from the idea of temporary insensibility. At first reanimation is looked for in a few hours, or in a few days, or in a few years; and gradually, as death becomes more definitely conceived, reanimation is not looked for till the end of all things.