The Ethiopians had very particular ceremonies in their funerals. According to Ctesias, after having salted the bodies, they put them into a hollow statue of gold, which resembled the deceased, and are placed in a niche, on a pillar set up for that purpose. The remains of the richest Ethiopians were thus honoured: the bodies of those of the next class were contained in silver statues; the poor were enshrined in statues of earthenware. Herodotus informs us, that the nearest relations of the dead kept the body a year in their houses, and offered sacrifice and first-fruits during that time to their deceased friend; and at the end of the year, they fixed the corpse in a place set apart for the purpose near their town. The inhabitants of the country above Meroe had various methods of paying respect to their deceased friends. Some threw their bodies into the river, thinking that the most honourable sepulchre. Others kept them in their houses in niches, thinking that their children would be stimulated to virtuous deeds by the sight of their ancestors; and that grown people, by the same objects, would retain their parents in their memories. Others put their dead bodies into coffins of earthenware, and buried them near their temples. To swear with their hand laid upon a corpse, was their most sacred and inviolable oath.