The
Graves Are Decently Placed Together Usually, Though Some Of The Pious
Rich Have Large Isolated Burial Places.
The grave is dug by rule - i.e.,
the digger continues his work till his ear and the surface are on a
level.
It is shaped like ours, with one important exception, that a
chamber two feet high for the reception of the body is dug in the side.
The corpse, that of a man I believe, covered with a cloth and dressed
in cotton clothing, was carried on a bier formed of two planks, with
the male relations following. On reaching the grave the Imaum read a
service in a monotonous tone, and then the body was lowered till it
reached the level of the side chamber, in which it was placed, and
inclosed with the planks on which it had been carried. Some leaves and
flowers were then thrown in, and the grave was filled up, after which
some water was sprinkled upon it, and a man, not the Imaum, sitting
upon it, recited what the Singhalese said was a sort of confession of
faith, turning toward Mecca. The relatives bowed in the same direction
and then left the place, but on stated days afterward offerings of
spices and flowers are made. It was reverential and decorous, perhaps
even more so than the Buddhist funerals which I saw in Japan, but the
tombs are not so carefully tended, and look more melancholy. The same
dumpy, pawn-shaped pillars are placed at the head and feet of the
raised mounds of earth which cover the graves, as in Malacca.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 360 of 437
Words from 98871 to 99138
of 120530
