An immense pit or trench is dug, capable of containing several hundred
people.
This pit is neatly lined with new bark-cloths.
Several wives of the late king are seated together at the bottom, to
bear upon their knees the body of their departed lord.
The night previous to the funeral, the king's own regiment or body-guard
surround many dwellings and villages, and seize the people
indiscriminately as they issue from their doors in the early morning.
These captives are brought to the pit's mouth.
Their legs and arms are now broken with clubs, and they are pushed into
the pit on the top of the king's body and his wives.
An immense din of drums, horns, flageolets, whistles, mingled with the
yells of a frantic crowd, drown the shrieks of the sufferers, upon whom
the earth is shovelled and stamped down by thousands of cruel fanatics,
who dance and jump upon the loose mould so as to form it into a compact
mass; through which the victims of this horrid sacrifice cannot grope
their way, the precaution having been taken to break the bones of their
arms and legs. At length the mangled mass is buried and trodden down
beneath a tumulus of earth, and all is still. The funeral is over.
Upon my return to Egypt I was one day relating this barbarous custom to
a friend, when Mr. Kay, of Alexandria, reminded me of the curious
coincidence in the description of the travels of Ibn Batuta, written
A.D. 1346.
