Alternative Yelmalion funerals from Neil Smith on 1995-05-16 (Glorantha Digest Vol 01)

From: Neil Smith <NSMITH_at_dmu.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 16 May 1995 14:59:03 GMT

I was talking to a colleague by the photocopier the other day (as you do) when the conversation moved to Tibetan funeral rites (as it does). They mentioned that some Westerner had stumbled across a Tibetan "air burial", where the deceased was cut up into little bits and fed to vultures, which then flew away.

I thought this would be an ideal funeral for (high-ranking) Yelmalions. Their body, and hence their spirit, could be given to Vrok hawks and other raptors to be returned to the Sky, without being sent off by Yelmalio's lost fire powers. In addition, the attendant priest could use the type, number and direction of the birds as the basis for one of Sandy's non-standard divinations to see where (if at all) the deceased's spirit would be reincarnated.

Comments?

(If I find the person I had the original conversation with, I'll give more details of the original Terrestial ceremony, if anyone's interested.)

Neil.

Neil Smith                           E-mail:   nsmith_at_dmu.ac.uk

Junior Research Fellow, Computer Sci. Tel: (01908) 695511 x4933 De Montfort University, Milton Keynes Fax: (01908) 834948

http://www.mk.dmu.ac.uk/cms-www/ken.html