which he gives permission to have the body washed. The permission costs nothing; but the porter who delivers it has some perquisite, greater or smaller according to the rank and abilities of those who desire it. This paper is carried to the mordichour, or body-washer, which is an office he alone, or those whom he appoints, can perform, in order that the number of the dead may be known, and the particular distemper of which they died. The said mordichour sends men to wash the corpses of men, and women to wash the corpses of women. The washer takes off the clothes from the corpse, they being his perquisites, for no one can touch a dead person without being defiled, and he carries it to the washing-place. There are such places in every town, situated in a retired and covered part of it. Ispahan, for instance, being divided into two parts, has two mordichours; and, amongst other washing-places, there is a very large one in a back court of the Old Mosque, twenty steps under ground. This is done only to the poor, for the rich are washed at home in a basin covered with a tent, lest any one should see the corpse. When it is washed, all the openings are stopped up closely with cotton, to keep in the foul humours, which might defile it.

"This being over, the body is put into a new linen cloth, on which those who can afford it cause some passages of their holy books to be written. Some contain the Youchen, a book concerning the attributes of God, to the number of a thousand and one; which odd reckoning is to show the infinite perfections of God, which are not to be comprehended by a thousand ideas, more than by one. The linen about the corpse of Saroutaky, a eunuch grand vizier, who was murdered in the reign of Abas II, contained the whole Koran, written with holy earth steeped in water and gum. They call holy earth, that of those places of Arabia which the Mahometans look upon as consecrated by the bodies of the saints who died there.

"In this condition, the corpse is placed in a remote part of the house; and if it is to be carried to some distant burying place, they put it in a wooden coffin, filled with salt, lime, and perfumes, to preserve it. No other embalming is used in the East. They do not take out the bowels, a practice apparently to them uncleanly and wicked. Persia being a hot, dry country, the bodies are soon put into their coffins, otherwise it would not be possible to accomplish it, because they swell immoderately in eight or ten hours. The funerals are not accompanied in the East with much pomp. A molla comes with the coffin of the next mosque, an ill-contrived, rough, unhewn, and ill-jointed box, made up of three boards, with a cover which turns by a peg; the corpse is put into it, and, if the deceased were poor, carried off without any further ceremony; only the bearers go with it, very fast, and almost running, and pronouncing slowly the words Alla, Alla! that is, God, God.

At the funeral of a person of quality, or one who is rich, the ensigns or banners of the mosque are carried before the corpse: they are long pikes of different sorts; some have at the end a hand of brass or copper, which is called the hand of Ali; others a half-moon; others the names of Mahomet, of his daughters, and of his twelve first lawful successors, done in ciphers; the latter are called Tcharde Massoum, that is, the fourteen pure and holy ones.

More poles are still carried, at the top of which are put

some brass or iron plates, three fingers broad, and three or four feet long, but so thin that the least motion makes them bend; to them are tied long slips of taffety, which hang down to the ground. These banners are followed by five or six led-horses, with the arms and turban of the deceased: next to them comes the Sirpare, or the Koran, divided into thirty guisve or parts, written in large characters, each letter being an inch in size. The chief mosques have a similar one; thirty talebelme, or students, carry each one part, and read it, so that the whole is read over, before the body be put into the grave. At the burial of a woman, the tcharchadour, that is, a pall supported on four long sticks, is placed over the coffin. This is the greatest funeral pomp, which the friends and relations cannot exceed, unless by an addition of each sort of standards, &c.

"The neighbours or servants of the deceased carry the corpse, no bearers being appointed to perform that last duty; but the Mahometan law teaches its followers to grant their assistance, and carry the coffin at least ten steps. Persons of note alight when they meet a funeral, comply with that pious custom, and then remount and proceed on their journey. They do not bury any one in their mosques, because, though the corpse be purified, yet whatever it touches, or the place in which it is put, is looked upon as defiled.

"In small towns, the burying-places are on the road-side, without the gates, as a moral instruction to the living: but in great towns, which are situate in a dry air, several church-yards are to be seen. The graves

are smaller in Persia than in other countries, only two feet broad, six in length, and four in depth. On that side of them which is towards Mecca, they dig a slanting vault, which is as long and broad as the first grave; they thrust the corpse into it without a coffin, the face towards Mecca, and place two tiles to cover the head from the earth, when the grave is filled up. If the deceased were rich, or a warrior, his turban, sword, bow, and quiver full of arrows, are set by him, and the vault is plastered up with tiles.. The Sahieds, who pretend to be the descendants of Mahomet, have no earth thrown upon them; their grave is covered only with a stone or brick, or that sort of hard brown marble which is common in Persia.

"Stones are erected at the end of each tomb, with a turban, if it be a man's grave; but plain, if a woman's. These tomb-stones ought not to exceed the height of four feet; commonly they are but two feet high; the inscription on them does not declare the name nor praises of the deceased-it only contains some passages of the Koran. The common people begin to visit the grave at the end of eight or ten days; the women particularly never fail: the church-yards are full of them, morning and evening, and on some particular festivals; they bring their children with them, and lament the loss of their friends with tears and cries, beating their breasts, tearing their hair, scratching their faces, repeating the several dialogues and long discourses which they heretofore held with the deceased; every now and then saying, Rouh, Rouh, soul, spirit, whither are you gone? Why do you not animate this body? And you, corpse, what occasion had you to die? Did you want gold, silver, clothes, pleasures, or tender treatment? They are then comforted, and led away by their friends: sometimes they leave behind them cakes, fruits, sweetmeats, as an offering to

the angels, guardians of the grave, to engage them to be favourable to the deceased.

"People of quality generally order their corpse to be buried near some great saint of theirsect. They are seldom carried to Mecca or Medina, these places being at too great a distance; but either to Negef, a town in the country, called Kerbela, where Ali, the grand saint of Persia, lies interred; or to Metched, near the grave of Iman Reza, or to Com near Fatime (both were descendants of Ali), or to Ardevil, near Cheik Sephy, at the distance of two or three months' journey. Whilst they prepare themselves for this long voyage, the coffin is put in some great mosque, where vaults are made for that purpose, which are walled up to keep the body from being seen; and they do not take it out till everything be ready to carry it off. The Persians fancy that corpses, under these circumstances, suffer no alteration; for, they say, before they putrify, they must give an account to the angels, who stay at the grave to examine them. The funeral convoy never goes through a town; this, as they think, would be a bad omen; the dead must go out, but not come in, is a common saying amongst the Persians.

"The mourning lasts forty days at most; it does not consist in wearing black clothes, (that colour is looked upon in the East as the devil's colour, and a hellish dress,) but in loud cries and lamentations, in sitting without motion, half-clad with a brown gown or one of a pale colour; in fasting for eight days, as if they were resolved to live no longer. Other friends send or come themselves to comfort the mourners. On the ninth day, the men go to the bagnio, have their head and beard shaved, put on new clothes, return their visits, and the mourning ceases abroad; but at home the cries are renewed now and then, twice or thrice a week, chiefly at the hour of the death. These cries diminish gradually till the fortieth day; after which, no further mention is made of the deceased. The women are not so easily comforted, for the state of widowhood is generally for life in the East.

"The motives of consolation alleged in Persia on the death of friends and relations are rational, and grounded on solid philosophy. They compare this life to a caravan, or a company of travellers; all come at last to the caravansary or inn; yet some arrive sooner, some later."

Friday is kept holy by Mahometans, as the Saturday is by the Jews, and Sunday by the Christians; either upon account of the entry of Mahomet into Medina, or because God completed the creation. Festivals. on that day, or rather out of policy; this being the day on which the ancient Arabians held their public and solemn meetings. Whatever may have been the cause of the sanctification of that day, it is certain that Mahomet always kept it holy; for, as Abulpharage observes, the real motive of establishing festivals was in order, by public assemblies, to render the people more united, and to have some rest from their labours. The Mahometans are, however, very profuse in their praises on that day, which they call the "chief and most excellent of all days," for on it it is supposed that the last judgment will take place.

Their months are twelve, alternately of thirty and twenty-nine days, in all 354: according to which computation, their year is eleven days shorter than ours; which inconvenience is remedied by adding a month

at proper periods. We shall here observe, that by the most exact computation, the Mahometan Hejira began July the 16th, in the year of Christ 622. The names of the months are, 1. Moharram. 2. Saphar. 3. Rabia the First. 4. A Second Rabia. 5. Sjumada the First. 6. A Second Sjumada. 7. Resjeb. 8. Siaban. 9. Rhamadan. 10. Sjewal. 11. Dulkadha. 12. Dsulkassja, or Dulhaggia.

Four of them, viz., Moharram, Resjeb, Dulkadha, and Dulhaggia, were looked upon as sacred by the ancient Arabians. No war nor hostility was lawful, if begun or carried on in these months; and the majority of the Arabian tribes observed this law so punctually, that even the murderer of their father or brother was not to be punished, nor any violence offered to him, at that time. Dulhaggia was sanctified by the pilgrimage of Mecca, Dulkadha as a preparation to it, and Moharram as coming from it; Resjeb was held still in greater veneration, being kept as a fast by the Arabian idolaters, who, on the contrary, spent the month Rhamadan in debauchery and drunkenness. Mahomet seems to approve of this institution of the sacred months in his Koran, in which he blames those Arabians who, being tired with living so long without robbing, deferred of their own authority the sanctification of Moharram to the month following. To defeat the artful proceedings of these men, he enforces the keeping of the said three months, except in case of a war against infidels.

Feast to the Moon.

The first Feast of which we shall take notice is the Moon, of the month Sjewal, because the Bairam celebrated in that month has some affinity with our new year, by the good wishes and congratulations then in use with the Mahometans. This Bairam follows the Rhamadan Fast, as Easter does that of Lent, and the Mussulmans begin it by a solemn and general reconciliation, as our Easter is remarkable by the Paschal Communion. They have two Bairams, the greater one, which we are now describing, and the less, which takes place seventy days afterwards, viz., on the 10th of Dulhaggia. The latter is called the Feast of Sacrifices, on account of the victims offered during the pilgrimage of Mecca. The Bairam is published at the first sight of the moon of Sjewal, or, if the weather be so cloudy that the moon cannot be seen, as expected, the feast begins on the following day; for in that case, they suppose the moon is changed. Amongst the numerous diversions then in use, seats are set in the streets, and contrived in such a manner that those who sit in them may swing in the air, accordingly as they are pushed faster or slower. These seats are adorned with several festoons. They have also wheels, on which people are alternately at the top, middle, and bottom. The night betwixt the 4th and 5th day of Resjeb is solemnized, on account of the Rhamadan Fast, though it happens two whole months afterwards. The night from the 26th to the 27th of the second Rabia is sacred, because Mahomet went then to heaven upon the Borak, in the same manner as the birth of the Prophet has occasioned the keeping holy the night of the eleventh to the twelfth of Rabia the First. The Rhamadan is, according to travellers, a mixture of devotion and debauchery. It begins with a kind of carnival, which Thevenot, who was an eye-witness, describes in the following words :- "The 12th of June, 1657, was the Turks' carnival, or beginning of their fast. It is called

Laylet el Kourat, that is, the Night of Power, because the Mahometans believe that the Koran then came down from heaven. After sunset, lamps are lighted in all the streets, chiefly in that called Bazaar, a long, broad, and straight street, through which the procession marches. Ropes are hung every ten steps, to which are tied iron hoops and baskets, each holding several lamps, thirty at the least. All these being in a direct line, furnish a fine prospect, and give a great light. Besides these several figures, the towers or minarets of the mosques are likewise illuminated. An infinite number of people crowd the streets, and with the Santons, &c., who make part of the ceremony, repair to the Cadilesquer, who informs them whether the Ramesan is to be kept that evening. Being informed that the moon has been seen, and that this is the night appointed for the solemnity, about two hours in the night, the Santons on foot, and armed with clubs, begin the march, each of them holding a taper in his hand, accompanied with other men carrying cresset-lights. They dance, sing, bawl, and howl; in the midst of them Scheik-el-Arsat, that is, the Prince of the Cornutos,' rides upon a mule; as he passes them, the people make loud acclamations. After him several men come upon camels, with drums, kettle-drums, &c., followed by others in masquerade-dress, on foot, carrying cresset-lights, or long poles, at the end of which are large iron hoops filled with squibs and fireworks, which are thrown amongst the mob. Next to these the men of the beys proceed on horseback, with their hand-guns, &c. ; and the procession is closed by other Santons, who celebrate by their songs the beginning of Ramesan. The whole assembly is composed of scoundrels met together, yet it is on the whole comical and diverting." Their fast continues the whole moon, and whilst it lasts, eating, drinking, even smoking, and putting anything into their mouths, is absolutely forbidden from sunrise to sunset; but in recompense, they are allowed, during the whole of the night, to eat and drink whatever they please without any restraint, with the exception of wine. Formerly, the law punished those who were convicted of drinking wine, by pouring melted lead into their throats.

The Persians have three feasts peculiar to themselves, viz., the next day after their Lent, the sacrifice of Abraham, and the martyrdom of the children of their great prophet Ali. To these religious Persian feasts. festivals, a fourth must be added, which is a civil ceremony, at the beginning of the new year, and usually lasts three days; but at court it is kept eight days successively. On the first day of the month Zilaje (Dulhaggia), at the moment of the sun's entering into Aries, this festival is proclaimed. It is called the Royal or Imperial New Year, to distinguish it from the real new year, which the Persians begin on the day of Mahomet's flight from Mecca. Chardin gives a full account of this feast; but we shall merely notice, that it had grown into disuse for many years, but was re-established from a principle of policy or superstition, or from the interested views of some astronomers, who were very powerful at court, and who pretended that the beginning of a solar year was a better omen than that of a lunar year, especially considering that the first ten days of it, and of the month Moharram, are days of mourning, in memory of the martyrdom of Ali's children.

This last-mentioned solemnity is better known by the name of Hussein,