with their lamentations, and simulated by skilful actions the depths of despair, but the relatives and friends themselves did not shrink from making an outward show of their grief, nor from disturbing
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the equanimity of the passers-by by the immoderate expressions of their sorrow.’ Of weeping for the dead the books of the Old and New Testament are full. It was considered unnatural not to weep for the dead. ‘Weep for the dead,’ says the Son of Sirach, ‘so as not to be evil spoken of’ (Sir 3817). Whatever the position of woman in the ancient Hebrew cult, there is evidence that mourning was performed both for women and by women. In proof that women were mourned for, we have the notices recorded in Genesis of the care and interest taken by the patriarchs in the burial of their wives. Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death (Gn 24); and grief for a mother was always bitter (Ps 3519. We have also Barzillai’s words to David, ‘ Let thy servant, I pray thee, be buried in the grave of my father and mother’ (2S 1957, In NT times we have the case of Dorcas, around whose remains, in the short interval before inter- ment, all the widows for whom she had done so much stood weeping (Ac 933. Abraham, as we have noted, wept for Sarah (Gn 233); Jacob when deceived by the report of Joseph’s death (37%) ; Joseph for his father (50') ; the camp of Israel for Moses (Dt 348) ; David and his men for Saul and Jonathan (2S 113); David at the grave of Abner, for the child of Bathsheba, for Amnon, for Absalom (3°? 128 1338. 1885); the mothers of Bethlehem for their murdered innocents (Mt 2"); Jesus at the grave of Lazarus (Jn 11%), where His weeping was restrained and silent (ἐδάκρυσε), and over the coming doom of Jerusalem (Lk 19"), where He wept aloud (ἔκλαυσε). Wailing is sometimes added to Weeping, to express a deeper intensity of grief, as in the case of the mourners gathered in the death-chamber of Jairus’ daughter (Mk 5* 5). Wailing like the jackals, and mourning as the ostriches (Mic 18), is expressive of the bitterest sorrow ; and groaning like the bear, the dove, or the crane (Is 38'* 59"), of a grief more restrained. Exclamations of grief were common along with wailing (Jer 22, Am 5'*, 1 K 13%). Vociferous grief, as Maspero points out above, was specially characteristic of ans Egyptians. It was heard as a great cry in Egypt that night when all the first- born were stricken (Ex 12”), and it no doubt entered into the ‘grievous mourning’ which the Esyptians made for Jacob as they escorted the remains of the patriarch to his last resting-place in the cave of Machpelah (Gn 50"). Of such mourning a striking ilustration is Shea (Ball, Light from the resp 119) from a wall-painting in an Egyptian tomb. In the funeral procession here represented, a master of the ceremonies, followed by eight women, precedes, and four men with long staffs follow the shrine; ‘all making gestures of mourning by beating their breasts and their mouths while wailing (the interrupted sound has a peculiarly melancholy effect), or by throwing dust on the head.’
The excitable Eastern temperament, however, was not content with weeping and wailing and exclamations of grief. Beating the breast (Is 32", but text dubious) was one of the commonest forms of lamentation. Beating the breast and the mouth, as we have just seen, was a feature of the mourn- ing of the early Egyptians. The bewailing which accompanied the weeping for the daughter of Jairus (ἐκόπτοντο) probably included the beating of the breast (Lk 853), and so also the lamentation (κοπετόν) made by devout men for Stephen (Ac 8°). Of Joseph it is recorded that he fell Boe his dead father’s face and kissed him (Gn 50’), although this is a solitary instance in Scripture. See art. Kiss. Tamar is represented (2 S 13") as laying her hand upon her head and going her way, crying as she | went. To tear the hair and the beard (Ezr ®), to \rend the clothes and put on sackcloth and filthy
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garments (2 S 351. 9, Est 45), to sit among the ashes (Job 35), and to sprinkle earth or dust or ashes upon the head (28 13", Rev 181°), were actions in which sorrow and grief more or less naturally or con- ventionally expressed themselves. To go bent as under a load (Ps 35 385. 7, to go barefoot and bareheaded and to cover the lips (Ezk 24'* 17, Mic 37), were less demonstrative tokens of mourning. Mutilation of nose, brow, ears, hands is mentioned by Herodotus (iv. 17) as being practised by the Scythians in token of mourning for a departed king. Such mutilation was forbidden by the law of Moses (Lv 19%, Dt 141), although we read of making bald the hair and cutting off the beard (Is 15*), and even of lacerating the body, as a sign of vexation and grief (Jer 415). Among the Ara it was custom in mourning, especially for the women, both to scratch their faces till the blood flowed and to shave off the hair ; and it looks as if, in spite of the Deuteronomic prohibitions, similar practices had come into vogue among the Israelites (Driver, Deuteronomy, p. 136).