ceremonies accompanying the interment or burial of any person. The word is formed of the Latin funus; and that of funalia, on account of the torches (which were funes cera circumdatae) used in the funerals of the Romans; though others derive funus from the Greek φοινις, death or slaughter.

These rites differed among the ancients according to the different genius and religion of each country.

The first people who seem to have paid any particular respect to their dead, were the Egyptians, the posterity of Ham, the first cultivators of idolatrous worship and superstition after the flood; they were also the first who affected the immortality of the soul, its migration into all kinds of animals in earth, air, and sea, and its return to the human body; which they supposed to be within the term of 3000 years: Hence proceeded their very great care in embalming of their dead bodies, and their being at such vast expences, as they were, in building proper repositories for them; for they were more solicitous about their graves than their houses: This gave birth to those wonders of the world, the pyramids, which were built for the burial of Funeral their kings, with such vast charges, and almost incredible magnificence. See PYRAMID.

Whenever a person died among the Egyptians, his parents and friends put on mournful habits, and abstained from all banquets and entertainments. This mourning lasted from 40 to 70 days, during which time they embalmed the body. See EMBALMING.

When this ceremony was finished, the embalmed body was restored to the friends, who placed it in a kind of open chest, which was preserved either in their houses, or in the sepulchres of their ancestors. But before the dead were allowed to be deposited in the tomb, they underwent a solemn judgment, which extended even to their kings. Of this remarkable custom we have a particular account in the first book of Diodorus Siculus. "Those who prepare to bury a relation, give notice of the day intended for the ceremony to the judges, and to all the friends of the deceased; informing them, that the body will pass over the lake of that district to which the dead belonged: when, on the judges assembling, to the number of more than 49, and ranging themselves in a semicircle on the farther side of the lake, the vessel is set afloat, which those who superintend the funeral have prepared for this purpose. This vessel is managed by a pilot, called in the Egyptian language Charon; and hence they say, that Orpheus, travelling in old times into Egypt, and seeing this ceremony, formed his fable of the infernal regions, partly from what he saw, and partly from invention. The vessel being launched on the lake, before the coffin which contains the body is put on board, the law permits all, who are so inclined, to produce an accusation against it. If any one steps forth, and proves that the deceased has led an evil life, the judges pronounce sentence, and the body is precluded from burial; but if the accuser is convicted of injustice in his charge, he falls himself under a considerable penalty. When no accuser appears, or when the accusation is proved to be an unfair one, the relations, who are assembled, change their expressions of sorrow into encomiums on the dead; yet do not, like the Greeks, speak in honour of his family, because they consider all Egyptians as equally well born: but they set forth the education and manners of his youth, his piety and justice in maturer life, his moderation, and every virtue by which he was distinguished; and they supplicate the infernal deities to receive him as an associate among the blest. The multitude join their acclamations of applause in this celebration of the dead, whom they consider as going to pass an eternity among the just below." Such is the description which Diodorus gives of this funeral judgement, to which even the kings of Egypt were subject. The same author affirms, that many sovereigns had been thus judicially deprived of the honours of burial by the indignation of their people: and that the terrors of such a fate had the most salutary influence on the virtue of their kings.

The funeral rites among the Hebrews were solemn and magnificent. When any person was dead, his relations and friends rent their clothes; which custom is but faintly imitated by the modern Jews, who only cut off a bit of their garment, in token of affliction. It was usual to bend the dead person's thumb into the hand, and fasten it in that posture with a string; be- caufe the thumb then having the figure of the name of God, they thought the devil would not dare to approach it. When they came to the burying place, they made a speech to the dead in the following terms: "Blessed be God, who has formed thee, fed thee, maintained thee, and taken away thy life. O dead! he knows your numbers, and shall one day restore your life," &c. Then they spoke the eulogium, or funeral oration, of the deceased; after which they said a prayer, called the righteousness of judgment; then turning the face of the deceased towards heaven, they called out, "Go in peace."

Among the ancient Greeks it was usual sometimes before the interment, to put a piece of money into the mouth of the deceased, which was thought to be Charon's fare for wafting the departed soul over the infernal river. This ceremony was not used in those countries which were supposed to be situated in the neighbourhood of the infernal regions, and to lead thither by a ready and direct road. The corpse was likewise furnished with a cake, composed of flour, honey, &c. which was designed to appease the fury of Cerberus the door-keeper of hell, and to procure the ghost a safe and quiet entrance. During the time the corpse continued in the house, there stood before the door a vessel of water: the design of which was, that those concerned about the body might purify themselves by washing; it being the opinion of the Greeks, as well as of the Jews, that pollution was contracted by touching a dead body.

The ceremonies by which they expressed their sorrow for the death of their friends were various; but it seems to have been a constant rule to recede as much as possible in habit and behaviour from their ordinary customs. For this reason they abstained from banquets and entertainments; they divested themselves of all ornaments; they tore, cut off, or shaved their hair, which they cast into the funeral pile, to be consumed with the body of their deceased friend. Sometimes they threw themselves on the ground and rolled in the dust, or covered their head with ashes; they beat their breasts, and even tore their flesh with their nails, upon the loss of a person they much lamented. When persons of rank, such as public magistrates or great generals died, the whole city put on a face of mourning; all public meetings were intermitted; the schools, baths, shops, temples, and all places of concourse, were shut up.

After interment followed the epulae or feasts, at which the company used to appear crowned; when they spoke in praise of the dead, so far as they could go with truth, it being esteemed a notorious wickedness to lie upon such an occasion. And not only at those feasts, but even before the company departed from the sepulchre, they were sometimes entertained with a panegyric upon the dead person.

The Grecian soldiers, who died in war, had not only their tombs adorned with inscriptions showing their names, parentage, and exploits, but were also honoured with an oration in their praise. Particularly the custom among the Athenians in the interment of their soldiers was as follows, namely, "They used to place the bodies of their dead in tents three days before the funeral, that all persons might have opportunity to find out their relations, and pay their last respects to them. Upon the fourth day, a coffin of cypresses was sent from every tribe, to convey the bones of their own relations; after which went a covered hearse, in memory of those whose bodies could not be found. All these, accompanied with the whole body of the people, were carried to the public burying place, called Ceramuce, and there interred. One oration was spoken in commendation of them all, and their monuments were adorned with pillars, inscriptions, and all other ornaments usual about the tombs of the most honourable persons. The oration was pronounced by the fathers of the deceased persons who had behaved themselves most valiantly. Thus after the famous battle at Marathon, the fathers of Callimachus and Cynaegyrus were appointed to make the funeral oration. And upon the return of the day, upon which the solemnity was first held, the same oration was constantly repeated every year."

Interring or laying the dead in the ground seems to have been the most ancient practice among the Greeks; though burning came afterwards to be generally used among them. It was customary to throw into the funeral pile those garments the deceased usually wore. The pile was lighted by one of the deceased's nearest relations or friends, who made prayers and vows to the winds to assist the flames, that the body might quickly be reduced to ashes; and during the time the pile was burning, the dead person's friends stood by it, pouring libations of wine, and calling upon the deceased.

The funeral rites among the ancient Romans were very numerous. The deceased was kept seven days; and every day washed with hot water, and sometimes with oil, that, in case he were only in a slumber, he might be thus waked; and every now and then his friends meeting, made a horrible outcry or shout, with the fame view; which last action they called conclamation. The third conclamation was on the seventh day; when, if no signs of life appeared, the defunct was dressed and embalmed by the pollinifores; placed in a bed near the door, with his face and heels towards the street; and the outside of the gate, if the deceased were of condition, was garnished with cypress boughs. In the course of these seven days, an altar was raised near his bed side, called accera; on which his friends every day offered incense: and the libitinarii provided things for the funeral.

On the seventh day a crier was sent about the city, to invite the people to the solemnization of the funeral in these words: Exequias L. Tit. filii, quibus est commodum ire, jam tempus est. Ollus (i.e. ille) ex edibus effertur. The people being assembled, the last conclamation ended, and the bed was covered with purple: a trumpeter marched forth, followed by old women called praefice, singing songs in praise of the deceased: lastly, the bed followed, borne by the next relations; and if the person were of quality and office, the waxen images of all his predecessors were carried before him on poles. The bed was followed by his children, kindred, &c. atrati, or in mourning: from which act of following the corpse, these funeral rites were called exequiae. The body thus brought to the rostra, the next of kin laudabat defunctum pro rostris, made a funeral oration in his praise and that of his ancestors. This done, the body was carried to the pyra, or funeral pile, and there burnt; his friends first cutting off a finger, to be bur- ried with a second solemnity. The body consumed, the ashes were gathered; and the priest sprinkling the company thrice with clean water, the eldest of the preface crying aloud, Illicit, dismissed the people, who took their leave of the deceased in this form, Vale, vale, vale: nos te ordine q. o natura permiserit sequerar.

The ashes, enclosed in an urn, were laid in the sepulchre or tomb.

The ancient Christians testified their abhorrence of the Pagan custom of burning their dead; and always deposited the body entire in the ground: and it was usual to bestow the honour of embalming upon the martyrs at least, if not upon others. They prepared the body for burial by washing it with water, and dressing it in a funeral attire. The exportation or carrying forth of the body was performed by near relations, or persons of such dignity as the circumstances of the deceased required. Psalmody, or singing of psalms, was the great ceremony used in all funeral processions among the ancient Christians.

In the Romish church, when a person is dead, they wash the body, and put a crucifix in its hand. At its feet stands a vessel full of holy water, and a sprinkler, that they who come in may sprinkle both themselves and the deceased. In the mean time some priest stands by the corpse, and prays for the deceased till it is laid in the earth. In the funeral procession, the exorcist walks first, carrying the holy water; next the cross-bearer, afterwards the rest of the clergy, and last of all the officiating priest. They all sing the miserere, and some other psalms; and at the end of each psalm a requiem. We learn from Alet's ritual, that the faces of deceased laymen must be turned towards the altar, when they are placed in the church; and those of the clergy towards the people. The corpse is placed in the church surrounded with lighted tapers; after the office for the dead, mass is said; then the officiating priest sprinkles the corpse thrice with holy water, and as often throws incense on it. The body being laid in the grave, the friends and relations of the deceased sprinkle the grave with holy water.

The funeral ceremonies of the Greek church are much the same with those of the Latin. It needs only be observed, that, after the funeral service, they kiss the crucifix, and salute the mouth and forehead of the deceased; after which each of the company eats a bit of bread and drinks a glass of wine in the church, wishing the soul a good repose, and the afflicted family all consolation.

FUNERAL Games, a part of the ceremony of the ancient funerals.

It was customary for persons of quality among the ancient Greeks and Romans, to institute games with all sorts of exercises, to render the death of their friends more remarkable. This practice was generally received, and is frequently mentioned by ancient writers. Patoclus's funeral games take up the greatest part of one of Homer's Iliads; and Agamemnon's ghost is introduced by the fame poet, telling the ghost of Achilles, that he had been a spectator at a great number of such solemnities.

The celebration of these games among the Greeks mostly consisted of horse races; the prizes were of different sorts and value, according to the quality and magnificence of the person that celebrated them. The garlands given to victors on this occasion were usually of parsley, which was thought to have some relation to the dead.

Those games, among the Romans, consisted chiefly of processions; and sometimes of mortal combats of gladiators around the funeral pile. They, as well as the Greeks, had also a custom, though very ancient, of cutting the throats of a number of captives before the pile, as victims to appease the manes of the deceased. Caesar relates, that the Gauls had this custom.

The funeral games were abolished by the emperor Claudius.

FUNERAL Oration, a discourse pronounced in praise of a person deceased, at the ceremony of his funeral.

This custom is very ancient. In the latter part of the account above given of the Egyptian ceremonies of interment, may be perceived the first rudiments of funeral orations, and what was the subject of them, which were afterwards moulded into a more polite and regular form by other nations, who adopted this custom.

Nor can we omit remarking, that those funeral solemnities were attended not only with orations in praise of the deceased, but with prayers for him: which prayers, it seems, were made by one who perforated the deceased: an entire form of one of them is preserved by Porphyry, and perhaps it may in some measure gratify the reader's curiosity to recite it from him. "When (says he) they (the Egyptians) embalm their deceased nobles, they privately take out the entrails, and lay them up in an ark or chest: moreover, among other things which they do in favour of the deceased, lifting up the ark or chest to the sun, they invoke him; one of the libitunarii making a prayer for the deceased, which Euphanes has translated out of the Egyptian language, and is as follows:—O lord, the sun, and all the gods who give life to men, receive me and admit me into the society of the immortal ones; for, as long as I lived in this world, I religiously worshipped the gods whom my parents showed me, and have always honoured those who begat my body; nor have I killed any man, nor have I defrauded any of what has been committed to my trust, nor have I done any thing which is inexpiable. Indeed, whilst I was alive, if I have sinned either by eating or drinking any thing which was not lawful; not through myself have I sinned, but through thee, showing the ark and chest where the entrails were. And having thus spoke, he casts it into the river, but the rest of the body he embalms as pure."

The Grecians received the seeds of superstition and idolatrous worship from the Egyptians, through the coming of Cecrops, Cadmus, Danaus, and Erechtheus, into Greece; and among other customs transplanted from Egypt, were the solemnities used at the burial of the dead. Of these, an encomium on the deceased always formed a part, as particularly noticed under the preceding article.

From the Egyptians and Grecians, especially from the latter, the Romans received many of their laws and customs, as well as much of their polytheism and idolatrous worship. It is well known, that the custom of making funeral orations in praise of the dead obtained among them; and the manner in which their funeral services were performed has been already described. The corpse being brought into their great oratory, oratory, called the roftra, the next of the kin laudabat defunctum pro roftris, that is, made a funeral oration, in the commendation principally of the party deceased, but touching the worthy acts also of those his predecessors whose images were there present. The account given by Dr Kennet is in these words: "In all the funerals of note, especially in the public or indigitive, the corpse was first brought with a vast train of followers into the forum; here one of the nearest relations ascended the roftra, and obliged the audience with an oration in praise of the deceased. If none of the kindred undertook the office, it was discharged by some of the most eminent persons in the city for learning and eloquence, as Appian reports of the funeral of Sylla. And Pliny the younger reckons it as the last addition to the happiness of a very great man, that he had the honour to be praised at his funeral by the most eloquent Tacitus, then consul; which is agreeable to Quintilian's account of this matter, Nam et funebres, &c. For the funeral orations (says he) depend very often on some public office, and by order of senate are many times given in charge to the magistrates to be performed by themselves in person. The invention of this custom is generally attributed to Valerius Poplicola, soon after the expulsion of the regal family. Plutarch tells us, that honouring his colleague's obsequies with a funeral oration, it so pleased the Romans, that it became customary for the best men to celebrate the funerals of great persons with speeches in their commendations." Thus Julius Caesar, according to custom, made an oration in the roftra, in praise of his wife Cornelia, and his aunt Julia, when dead; wherein he showed, that his aunt's descent, by her mother's side, was from kings, and by her father's from the gods. Plutarch says, that "he approved of the law of the Romans, which ordered suitable praises to be given to women as well as to men after death." Though by what he says in another place, it seems that the old Roman law was, that funeral orations should be made only for the elder women; and therefore he says, that Caesar was the first that made one upon his own wife, it not being then usual to take notice of younger women in that way: but by that action he gained much favour from the populace, who afterwards looked upon him, and loved him as a very mild and good man. The reason why such a law was made in favour of the woman, Livy tells us was this, That when there was such a scarcity of money in the public treasury, that the sum agreed upon to give the Gauls to break up the siege of the city and capital could not be raised, the women collected among themselves and made it up; who hereupon had not only thanks given them, but this additional honour, that after death, they would be solemnly praised as well as the men: which looks as if, before this time, only the men had those funeral orations made for them.

This custom of the Romans very early obtained among the Christians. Some of their funeral sermons or orations are now extant, as that of Eusebius on Constantine; and those of Nazianzen on Basil and Caesarius; and of Ambrose on Valentinian, Theodosius, and others. Gregory, the brother of Basil, made ἐπικηρυκίου λόγου, a funeral oration, for Melitus bishop of Antioch: in which orations, they not only praised the dead, but addressed themselves to them, which seems to have introduced the custom of praying to departed saints. Now these orations were usually made before the bodies of the deceased were committed to the ground; which custom has been more or less continued ever since, to this day.

Thus it appears, that those rites and ceremonies among the heathens, which have been delivered from one people to another, are what have given birth to Funeral Sermons and Orations, among Christians. Though this practice is considerably improved, and cleared of many things which would smell too rank of paganism, and is thrown into a method which, perhaps, may be of some service to Christianity; yet, notwithstanding this new dress, its original may very easily be discerned. The method in which the characters of deceased persons are given in our funeral sermons, is very much the same with that observed in those pagan orations; where first an account is given of the parentage of the deceased, then of his education; after that, we hear of his conduct in riper years: then his many virtues are reckoned up, with his generous, noble, and excellent performances.—Nor let the practice be condemned because of its rise and original; for why may not the customs of heathens, if just and laudable in themselves, and nowise pernicious to Christianity in their consequences, be followed by Christians? Only, since we are come into this practice, there is one thing we should take care to follow them in; and that is, not to make those sermons or orations for every one; but for those only whose characters are distinguished, who have been eminently useful in the world, and in the church of Christ. The old heathens honoured those alone with this part of the funeral solemnity, who were men of probity and justice, renowned for their wisdom and knowledge, or famous for warlike exploits: This, as Cicero* informs us, being part of the law for burials, * De Leibus, which directs, that the praises only of honourable persons shall be mentioned in the oration. It would be much more agreeable, therefore, if our funeral discourses were not so common, and if the characters given of the deceased were more just; devoid of that fulsome flattery with which they too often abound.