111 MI.
III. Ilhtstrations of these Scriptural Usaffes from Contemporary and Later Sources. — 1. Similar practices are noticed in the Apocrj-phal books :
a. Weeping, fasting, rending clothes, sackcloth, ashes or earth on head (1 Mace, ii, 14; iii, 47; iv, 39; v, 14; xi, 71; xiii, 45; 2 Mace, iii, 19; x, 25; xiv, 15; Judith iv, 10, 11 ; viii, 5, 6; ix, 1 ; xiv, 19 [Assyrians] ; x, 2, 3 ; 3 Mace, iv, 6 ; 2 Esdr. x, 4 ; Esth. xiv, 2) ;
b. Funeral feast with wailing (Bar. vi, 32 : also Tob. iv, 17 ; see in reproof of the practice, Augustine. Cir. L). viii, 27) ;
c. Period of mourning (Judith viii, 6; Ecclus. xxii, 12 [seven days, so also perhaps 2 Esdr. v, 20J ; Bel and Dragon, ver. 40) ;
d. I'lii >i> inini-icring in sackcloth aud ashes, the al- tar dr(>M,l 11) ^.irkrlnth (Jiulith iv, 11,14, 15);
e. Idcil pri.>i> Willi clothes rent, head and beard shorn, and head bare (^IJar. vi, 31).
2. In Josephus's writings, these notices are in tlie main confirmed, and in some cases enlarged :
a. Tearing hair and beating breast (.1 nt. xvi. 7, 5 ; xv, 3, 9) ;
b. Sackcloth and ashes (A?if. xx, 6, 1 ; xix, 8, 2 ; War, ii, 12, 5); clothes rent (ii, 15,4);
c. Seven days' mourning for a father (.1 nt. xvii, 8, 4 ; War, ii, 1, 1) ;" for thirty days ( War, iii, 9, 5) ;
(/. Those who met a funeral required to join it (.1/). ii, 26; sec Luke vii, 12, aud Kom. xii, 15) ; e. Elute-players at a funeral ( War, iii, 9, 5).
3. The Mishna jirescribes seven days' mourning for a father, a mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, or wife (Bartenora, on Moeil Kat. iii, 7). Kending garments is regularly graduated according to the degree of rela- tionsliip. For a father or mother the garment was to be rent, but not with an instrument, so as to show the breast; to be sewn up roughly after tliirty days, but never closed. The same for one's own teacher in the law, but for other relatives a palm breadth of the upper garment to suffice, to be sewn up roughly after seven days and fully closed after thirty days (Moed Kat. iii, 7; iS/i(ibb.\u\,'3; C'arp/.ov, .4;7). />'//>. p. 650). Friendly mourners were to sit on the ground, not on the bed (see Lightfoot, Jlor. I/eb.on John xi, 19). (^n certain days the lamentation was to Ue only partial {Moed Kat. L c). For a wife there w.is to be at least one hired mourn- er aud two pipers (^Kelubotli, iv, 4).
MOURN
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MOURN
4. When we turn to heathen writers we find similar usages prevailing among various nations of antiquity. Herodotus, speaking of the Egyptians, says, " When a man of any account dies, all the womankind among his relatives proceed to smear their heads and faces with mud. They then leave the corpse in the house, and pa- rade the city with their breasts exposed, beating them- selves as they go, and in this they are joined by all the women belonging to the family. In like manner the men also meet them from opposite quarters, naked to the waist and beating themselves" (Herod, ii, 85). He also mentions seventy days as the period of embalming (ibid. 86). This doubtless includes the whole mourn- ing period. Diodorus, speaking of a king's death, men- tions rending of garments, suspension of sacrifices, heads smeared with clay, and breasts bared, and says men and women go about in companies of 200 or 300, making a wailing twice a day, tvpvBixwQ hit wSijc. They ab- stain from flesh, wheat bread, wine, the bath, dainties, and in general all pleasure ; do not lie on beds, but la- ment as for an only child during seventy-tAvo days. On the last day a sort of trial was held of the merits of the deceased, and, according to the verdict pronounced by the acclamations of the crowd, he was treated with fu- neral honors, or the contrary (Diod. Sic. i, 72). Similar usages prevailed in the case of private persons (ibid. 91, 92). The Egyptian paintings confirm these accounts as to the exposure of the person, the beating, and the throw- ing clay or mud upon the head; and women are repre- sented who appear to be hired mourners (Long, Eg.Anl. ii, 154-159 ; Wilkinson, Anc. Eg. ii, 356-387). Herod- otus also mentions the Persian custom of rending the garments with wailing, and also cutting off the hair on occasions of death or calamity. The last, he sa3'S, was also usual among the Scythians (Herod, ii, 66 : viii, 99 ; ix,24; iv,71).
Lucian, in his discourse concerning Greek mourning, speaks of tearing the hair and flesh, and wailing, and beating the breast to the sound of a flute, burial of slaves, horses, and ornaments as likely to be useful to the deceased, and the practice for relatives to endeavor to persuade the parents of the deceased to partake of the funeral-feast (TitpiouKvov) by way of recruiting themselves after their three days' fast {De Luctu, ii, 303, 305, 307, ed. Amsterdam). Plutarch mentions that the Greeks regarded all mourners as unclean, and that wom- en in mourning cut their hair, but the men let it grow. Of the Eomans, in carrying corpses of parents to the grave, the sons, he says, cover their heads, but the daughters uncover them, contrary to their custom in each case {Qucest. Rom. vii, 74, 82, ed. Reiske). Greeks and Romans both made use of hired mourners, pi-cejicw, who accompanied the funeral procession with chants or songs {Horace, A rs Poet. 429). Flowers and perfumes were also thrown on the graves (Ovid, Fast, vi, 660 ; Trisf. V, 1, 47 ; Plato, Legg. vii, 9). The praficm seem to be the predecessors of the " mutes" of modern funerals.