Note 607 — Chapter XVIII · RELIGION IN THE HEROIC AGE.

Cremation is sometimes accompanied by a cult of the dead, e.g. among the heathen Prussians; cf. Matthias a Michov (Grynaeus, Novus Orbis, etc., Basel 1537, p. 520): Habebant praeterea in syluis praefatis focos, in familias et domos distinctos, in quibus omnibus charorum et familiarium cadauera cum equis, sellis et uestimentis potioribus incendebant. locabant etiam ad focos huiusmodi ex subere facta sedilia, in quibus escas ex pasta in casei modum praeparatas deponebant, medonemque focis infundebant, ea credulitate illusi quod mortuorum suorum animae quorum illic combusta fuerant corpora nocte uenirent escaque se exsatiarent. Inhumation however was also practised by the same nation; cf. Erasmus Stella (Grynaeus, op. cit., p. 582): Statuit (sc. Viduutus) et dies natalitios et funera pari modo celebranda, mutuis scilicet commessationibus et compotationibus, tum lusu et cantu, absque moerore cum summa hilaritate et gaudio, utque alterius uitae spem prae se ferrent. illo saltem ostenderunt quod exutos spiritu armatos uestitosque ac magna supellectilis parte circumposita humarunt. quo more usque nunc sepeliuntur, etc. Both these notices of course refer to a late period—the fifteenth century.