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THE FUNERAL CEREMONIES OF THE HINDUS.
earth with pale leaves, propitious earth with blessed fruits! go and be well embraced by a frog (a shower of rain), and make this fire cheerful ”-Rv. X, 16, 14.
The bones are to be taken up carefully with the thumb and the little finger, without cracking them. They are to be placed in a vessel, the feet first, the head last. For a man the vessel is to be a simple kumbhá or water pot (without a spout); for a woman a simple kumbhí (with a spout). After the bones have been well put together, the place is to be swept with a broom (pavana), and the vessel or coffin is placed in a hole in a place over which the water cannot flow, except perhaps in the rainy season. It is now that the concluding verses of the hymn are recited: “Go to the mother earth,” &c. (Rv. X, 31, 10), as the earth is thrown upon the coffin and heaped up over the spot in which it is deposited.
Thereupon all walk home without looking back, and after they have performed an ablution, they offer the first Sraddha to the deceased (ekoddishta), who thenceforth is enrolled amongst the Pitiis or Manes, and receives oblations with them on their appointed days.
