of collecting and interring the bones. The following is this later ritual as it stands in the Domestic Laws (Grîhya-Sûtras) of Ashvalâyana. This code

32.-SACRIFICIAL IMPLEMENTS: PANS, DISHES, SPOONS, BOWLS, CHOPPER, POKER (IN THE SHAPE OF A HAND), KNIFE, SCRAPER, ETC.

being a portion of the Vedic literature, and the funeral ritual it prescribes so exactly adapted to the texts in the Rig-Veda, we can hardly doubt its hav

ing been in use already among the late Vedic Âryas, at all events when they had reached the valleys of the Gangâ and Yamunâ, where the transition from purely Vedic to Brahmanic culture must have been finally elaborated.

33. MORE DISHES: BOWLS, SPOONS, LADLE FOR THE GHEE (melted BUTTER), SACRIFICIAL GRASS, KINDLING WOOD, BURNING WOOD, ETC.

4. After a spot, at a distance from dwellings, has been selected, in accordance with certain strictly prescribed requirements, the relatives of the dead man carry thither his sacred fires and the sacrificial implements he used in life, leading an animal-usu

ally a black goat. When the procession arrives at the chosen spot, the priests walk round it thrice from right to left, sprinkling it with holy water and repeating the verse which drives away evil spirits:

"Go hence; withdraw; depart from here. The Pitris (Fathers) have already prepared for him a place of bliss. Yama holds ready for him an abode of rest, where blessings flow as rivers night and day." (X., 14, 9.)

The three fires are then disposed and fuel is piled up between them. A black antelope's skin is spread out upon the pyre and strewn with sacrificial grass (kusha). Upon this the body is laid out and the widow takes her seat by the head. The rite begins with her being helped down from the pyre (with verse 8 of X., 18), and with the taking of the bow (with verse 9 of the same). A strange ceremony now follows; the sacrificial implements-which, unlike the bow, are the dead man's inalienable property, almost a part of himself, that cannot be taken from him even in death—are disposed on the different parts of his body in a strictly prescribed order; such an implement on his chest, such another on his head, some in his hands, others on his face, his sides, his thighs, etc., until none are left, when those that are hollow (ladles, dishes, spoons, etc.), are filled with melted butter. The goat, meanwhile, has been slain and flayed, and is stretched on the body, so as to fit it exactly, limb for limb, as a protection from the flames; the whole is then covered with the hide. One of the texts recited in the course of this tedious operation is verse 10 of X., 14:

"Go thy straight way, past the two dogs, the sons of Saramâ, the spotted and four-eyed; go where the Fathers, lavish of gifts, live in joy with Yama.”

After several oblations have been offered on the body itself, the priest gives the word: "Light the fires together!" Omens are drawn for the future state of the deceased from the greater or lesser rapidity with which the fires reach the pyre and the body; nor is it a matter of indifference which fire reaches it first. If all three touch the body at the same time, this is said to portend the highest luck. While the process of cremation is actually going on, the priest recites numerous hymns, or parts of hymns—the appropriate verses only, most of them very beautiful. The following (X., 14) is one of the finest :

"1. Him who crossed the great mountains and spied out the road for many, King Yama Vaivasvata, the gatherer of men, honor with an oblation. Yama was the first who found the way to that home which cannot be taken from us. Those who are now born go by their own paths to the place whither our ancient fathers have departed. . . .” (The deceased is addressed): “Go forth, follow the ancient paths on which our Fathers went. The two kings shalt thou behold, Váruna and Yama, where they revel in bliss. There join Yama and the Fathers, where every wish is granted in the highest heaven; free from blemishes enter thy home there, with a new and shining body clothing thyself. . . . (To Yama): Let the two dogs, thy watchers, the four-eyed, the guardians of the road, protect this man; make him prosperous, deliver him from suffering and disease. Yama's two messengers, brown, broad of nostril, and insatiable, wander about among men, taking away their lives: may they long let us behold the sun, and give this man renewed and happy life."

Agni is then prayed to deal gently with his charge (X., 16):

"Scorch him not, consume him not, O Agni; rend not his skin or his limbs. When thou hast matured him, convey him to the Fathers. (The deceased is addressed): "Let thine eye go to

the sun" (Sûrya), thy breath to the wind (Vâyu); to earth or to the sky go with thy several parts, into the waters or into the plants, as best beseems. The goat is thine, O Agni; her kindle with thy heat, consume with thy flames. But this man's unborn part convey, assuming thy most auspicious forms, to the abode of the righteous.

The unborn part! Was ever the very essence of "the soul" more felicitously expressed?-A special guide is provided, in the person of Pûshan, the protector of wayfarers. (X., 17.)

"May Pûshan guide thee hence, the wise, the universal shepherd. Pûshan knows all the abodes; he guides us safely, carefully. Pushan is born on both the paths, that of heaven and that of earth, and goes back and forth between both, knowing the way to the happiest abodes." 1

"He who is burnt by one who knows all this goes to the heaven-world (svarga-loka) with the smoke. This is certain." Thus the author of the Sûtra, setting the seal of comforting assurance on the directions just given for the performance of one of the most solemn and sacred of rites.

5. Before the body is quite consumed, the officiating priest recites verse 3 of X., 18 (see above), whereupon all leave the place without turning to look back.

1 The context of this makes plain the highest (mystical) meaning of Pûshan's title “Lord of the Path," the naturalistic meaning of which presents little difficulty. (See pp. 235, 236.) The "path," the road," which he is asked to lay out," is that from this world to the other; the "wayfarers," whose guide and protector he is, are the dead, on their way to "the happiest abodes." He shares with Agni the office of Psychopompos.