emblems, I observed, were all gayly colored, which seemed strange, for
in most places white flowers are used in funeral ceremonies. Some of the
men who had followed the body carried in their hands broad,
three-cornered bronze shovels, with short black handles, and these they
had dropped upon the grass on arriving at the grave. Presently the old
man stooped and drew the covering back from the dead one's face--a
rigid, marble-white face set in a loose mass of black hair. The others
gathered round, and some standing, others kneeling, bent on the still
countenance before them a long earnest gaze, as if taking an eternal
farewell of one they had deeply loved. At this moment the the beautiful
girl I have described all at once threw herself with a sobbing cry on
her knees before the corpse, and, stooping, kissed the face with
passionate grief. "Oh, my beloved, must we now leave you alone forever!"
she cried between the sobs that shook her whole frame. "Oh, my love--my
love--my love, will you come back to us no more!"

The others all appeared deeply affected at her grief, and presently a
young man standing by raised her from the ground and drew her gently
against his side, where for some minutes she continued convulsively
weeping. Some of the other men now passed ropes through the handles of
the straw mat on which the corpse rested, and raising it from the
platform lowered it into the foss. Each person in turn then advanced and
dropped some flowers into the grave, uttering the one word "Farewell" as
they did so; after which the loose earth was shoveled in with the bronze
implements. Over the mound the hurdle on which the straw mat had rested
was then placed, the dry brushwood and faggots heaped over it and
ignited with a coal from the brazier. White smoke and crackling flames
issued anon from the pile, and in a few moments the whole was in a
fierce blaze.