This device for measuring time is the same with the
clepsydra, or water-clocks, of the ancients.
- Purch.]
They keep yearly a solemn feast, or Lent, which they call Ram jan,
[Ramadan] about the month of August, which continues a whole moon;
during which time, those who are strict in their religious observances,
avoid the embraces of their women, and abstain from meat or drink so
long as the sun is above the horizon, but eat after it sets, at their
pleasure. Towards the close of this Lent, or ramadan, they consecrate
one day of mourning, in memory of their departed friends; on which
occasions, I have seen many of the meaner people making bitter
lamentations. Besides this ordinary and stated time of sadness, many
foolish women are in use, oft times in the year, so long as they
survive, to water the graves of their husbands or children with the
tears of affectionate regret. On the night succeeding the day of general
mourning, they light up innumerable lamps, and other lights, which they
set on the sides and tops of their houses, and all other most
conspicuous places, taking no food till these are burnt out. When the
ramadan is entirely ended, the most devout Mahometans assemble at some
noted mosque, where some portion of the Alcoran is publicly read; this
being their holy book, like our Bible, which they never touch without
some mark of reverence. They keep a festival in November, which they
call Buccaree, signifying the ram-feast; on which occasion they kill
and roast a ram, in memory, as they say, of the ram which redeemed
Ishmael, when about to be sacrificed by his father Abraham.
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