The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c35.10

v2.c35.10

⁷ iv. 5. 2. 13. A similar custom is recorded of the Colchians (Ap. Rhod. iii. 200 ff.), who buried women. Cook (*Zeus*, i. 533, 534) conjectured that it was to bestow life on the tree or on the dead; and elsewhere (p. 687) adopts the view that trees planted round graves were originally homes for the spirits of the dead. Zimmer (*l. c.*) thinks the reference is to persons exposed in old age to death as among the Massagetae and others (*ibid.*, p. 328).