The ancient burial customs are evidence of an early belief in future existence, and that not only human beings but inanimate objects have souls.
It was considered necessary that the departed should be accompanied not only by his weapons and personal belongings, but also by attendants or slaves, who were immolated so that they could continue their ministrations in the future life.
The reverence with which burial places were regarded gave rise to the belief in the spirits of the dead as guardians, and this survives at the present day in the mysterious custom of “Taboo,” a Polynesian term which means “consecrated” or “set apart.”
It really has a double meaning: to consecrate, and to insure penalty, whereby dwellings are abandoned after the death of their owners in the supposition that they are sacred to the spirits of the departed.
The Lares of the Romans were domestic or public, the domestic Lares were the souls of the virtuous ancestors exalted to the rank of protectors. They took the form of images like dogs set behind the Entrance, or in the Lararium or shrine.
There were also public Lares, whose province was the protection of streets and roads.
This belief in the dead as guardian spirits accounts for a form of sacrifice in which the victims were buried under foundations, a custom modified in later times to the sacrifice of animals. It survives at the present day in burying current coins at the ceremony of laying the foundation-stone in public buildings.
Many of the legends of the Middle Ages associated with Architecture are reminiscent of the early customs of sacrifice in the oft-repeated traditions of demoniacal aid. The story generally deals with some difficult problem in design or construction for the solution of which the architect or builder enters into the usual compact with the evil one, the terms being that the latter party to the contract shall take possession of the first living being that enters into or crosses the structure.
Invariably the enemy of mankind is outwitted, a dog or some other animal being the first to enter, the builder’s sense of caution being in every instance greater than his vanity.
Similar in idea was the Hebrew custom of the scapegoat, which also anticipated and symbolised the Atonement.