Besides this, a Brahmin, music, and female mourners, are necessary parts of the ceremony.
After the body has been burnt, the bones are collected, laid in a vase, and thrown into the Ganges, or some other holy river.

The nearest relation is obliged to set fire to the pile.
There are naturally none of these ceremonies among poor people.
They simply burn their dead on common wood or cow-dung; and if they cannot even buy these materials, they fasten a stone to the corpse and throw it into the river.
I will here relate a short anecdote that I had from a very trustworthy person.

It may serve as an example of the atrocities that are often committed from false ideas of religion.
Mr.N--- was once, during his travels, not far from the Ganges, and was accompanied by several servants and a dog.

Suddenly the latter disappeared, and all the calling in the world would not bring him back.

He was at last discovered on the banks of the Ganges, standing near a human body, which he kept licking.