from its provisional grave and, being clad with a costly garment, was seated in the boat on a richly ornamented arm-chair, around which were arranged the weapons of the deceased, together with intoxicating beverages; while not only bread and fruit, but also flesh of killed animals, such as dogs, horses, cows, cocks, and hens, were put into the boat. That one of his wives who had voluntarily agreed to be burned together with her dead husband was led to the boat by an old woman called "the Angel of Death," and was stabbed at the side of the corpse, whereupon the wood piled up under and around the boat was set on fire. After the boat with the dead bodies and all the other articles placed upon it had been consumed, the ashes were collected and scattered over the cairn; and a banquet, lasting for days and nights without interruption, closed the ceremony.
We know from the evidence of the Arabian writer Mas'ūḍī3 that this cremation of the dead existed among most of the Slavs and that they worshipped the departed. Mules, weapons, and precious articles were burned, and when the husband died, his wife was cremated with him, a man who died a bachelor being married after his decease.4 Wives are said to have chosen death in the flames because they wished to enter paradise together with their husbands; and there are also reports that slaves, or even many of a prince's retinue, were killed and put into the grave with their masters.
In Bohemia a certain sort of games (scenae) were performed according to pagan rites at places where roads met or crossed each other; and "profane jokes" (ioci profani) were practised at the grave by masked men; while the Polish chronicler Vincentius Kadlubek (thirteenth century) tells5 how virgins tore out their hair, matrons lacerated their faces, and old women rent their garments.
The Idolatry of the ancient Prussians, Lithuanians, and Russians In 1551 is described by Jan Meneclus, who tells6 of the funeral ceremonies, the banquet In the house of the deceased, the lamentations at the grave, and the gifts devoted
