CREMATION.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 30, 3 January 1884, Page 3

CREMATION.

The following interesting letter on cremation, by Percival A. Fothergill, F.R.S.A., is taken from Knowledge :—“ The advantages of cremation over sepulchre appear to me to be—--Ist. Cleanliness and purity. 2nd. In a sanitary point of view. 3rd. In expense. 4th. In solemnity. On the first two points nothing need be said, they are so p_/fectly self-evi-dent. With regard to expense, if properly carried out, the first expense would not exceed that of an ordinary burial, and the after expense of mausoleums, tombstones, and railings would be saved; although, of course, tablets, &0., would remain the same. As touching solemnity, of course, as few in England have seen the process, it is difficult to convey an adequate idea of the feelings it would engender. I can only say that, having myself attended a cremation, as well as many a burial at sea and on shore, the former carries away the palm far and away for solemnity. The first cremation that I saw was at Bangkok, in Siam. It took place in a grove as the evening fell. A. large kind of brick bath, with a ledge round it of about 2ft in width, was filled level to the full with some incandescent fuel, apparently charcoal. From the corner of the fire sprang an arch, meeting over the centre in a dome. It appears as if this was always burning. The situation was in a quiet, retired grove outside the city. The corpse was brought by bearers, with priests in advance and the relations in rear ; much, indeed, as our own funeral order is used in England. The coffin—of wood, and probably filled with aromatic chips of wood—was placed on the wide ledge, and the funeral rites performed, after which it was gently pushed upon the incandescent fire. I watched it carefully. It appeared to gradually sink quietly down into the fuel below, and to become itself part of that fuel. There was scarcely any smoke, and no smell whatever. I have very imperfectly described that cremation. But it left upon my mind, as in that silent grove the mourners stood around, and the boughs of the trees dropped overhead, and the summer’s evening breeze swept through them—it left, I say, upon my mind a feeling of peace and solemnity that I have failed to realise at the launching of any corpse into the blue sea, or the burial of any body in the damp earth. I will not trench upon your space farther than to say that I hope at some time prejudice may be 1 overcome, and solemn and healthy cremation have its place amongst us. Two tilings I have omitted to mention—one, that I think the majority of old Indian officers will be found on the side of cremation ; the other, that for the preservation of the bones it is only necessary to envelope the corpse in an asbetos sheet, which is subsequently with- I drawn.”