FORMS OF BURIAL.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5508, 2 December 1929, Page 2

FORMS OF BURIAL.

o DIFFERENT METHODS ADOPTED.

■ Clemenceau has been buried in a lonely briar clump in an out-of-the-way part of France in an upright position in the grave. In spite of his wellknown agnostic theories, it is difficult to discover any particular significance in this except that it is different from accepted custom. Just how and why the various nations of the world bury their dead in the way they do would take a lot of explaining (says the “Dominion”). But the upright position does not seem to have occurred to anybody. At first, of course, man did not bury his dead. The body was left where it lay and the tribe moved on. Burial, however, is very old, and can be traced to Neanderthal man, who not only performed this ceremony, but actually ate with honour a portion of the deceased. Even bebore that, over a hundred thousand years ago, important persons were buried, as was discovered not so long ago in a place called Solutre in the South of France.

In these cases a cut had been placed vertically at the head of the grave. The feet were towards rising ground and the head faced the setting sun. In another case a youth of this period was discovered buried in a sleeping posture. His head rested on a pillow of flints with his right forearm supporting it. Of all the postures for burial the sitting position is by far the most common. It can be traced throughout the world from the Maoris and other Pacific races to the Continent of Europe and Britain. The Bushmen went further and believed that the sun will rise late if the dead are not buried facing the west. The Fijians and Samoans insist on the feet and faces facing this westerly direction, whither the souls are supposed to go. The Indians of America also believe in the head to west position, whilst the Guarrayos and, of course, the early Christians, believed just as strongly in an easterly aspect.

The Chinese, in some cases, prefer to be buried head downwards in order to make it easy for them to undertake a non-stop journey to their paradise below without the trouble of turning round. The Chinese, as a matter of fact, have a curiously detached view on burial that to the Western mind seems at times perhaps just a little tactless. For one thing, coffins are regarded as appropriate presents for ailing relatives, whilst some wealthy Chinese make a habit of taking their coffin with them on their travels, just in case. In this respect it must not be forgotten that both Sarah Bernhardt and Darwin did very much the same thing. In Darwin’s case he is reported to have ordered the local carpenter to make his coffin one day when business was slack.