In Three Or Four Places The
Water Is Salt And Bitter, But In All The Rest Of The Journey It Is Very
Good.
In the whole of this journey there are no beasts or birds to be seen.
It is reported, that
Many evil spirits reside in the wilderness, which
occasion wonderful illusions to travellers who happen unfortunately to lag
behind their companions calling them even by their names, and causing them
to stray farther from the right course, so that they lose their way and
perish in the sands. In the night time also they hear noises as of their
friends, and sometimes the sound of music is heard in the air, and people
imagine that they hear the din of drums, as if armies were marching past.
To avoid the danger of separation, the travellers in the desert keep close
together, and hang bells about the necks of their beasts; and if any one
stays behind, they set up marks in the route, that they may know how to
follow.
Having crossed the desert of Lop, we come to the city of Sachion[6] or
Sachiou, which is subject to the great khan, and is situated in the great
country of Tangut. The inhabitants of this city are mostly idolaters, who
have a peculiar language, mixed with a good many Mahometans, and some
Nestorian Christians; this people are little addicted to merchandize or
manufacture, and live on the products of their soil. In this city there are
many temples, consecrated to various idols, with monasteries of priests
devoted to the service of these false deities, to which numerous sacrifices
are offered with great reverence. When a son is born to any person, he is
immediately consecrated to the protection of some particular idol, and the
father nourishes a sheep in his house for a year with great care; and on
the anniversary day of that idol, he presents his son and the sheep as a
sacrifice, with great reverence and many ceremonies, before the shrine of
this tutelary deity. The flesh of the sheep is boiled and set before the
idol during the continuance of the prayers and invocations, as an offering
for the preservation and protection of the boy, and the idol is supposed to
inhale the savour of the meat. After the religious ceremonies are finished,
the meat is carried home to the father's dwelling, where all the kindred of
the family are convened, and feasted with great joy and devotion; but the
bones are religiously kept in certain appropriated vessels. The priests
receive the head, feet, skin, and intrails, with a portion of the flesh for
their share.
When a person of any estimation dies, his funerals are celebrated with much
ceremony. An astrologer is sent for by the kindred, and informed of the
year, month, day, and hour when the deceased was born, when he calculates
the aspect of the constellation, and assigns the day when the burial is to
take place, sometimes at the distance of seven days, or perhaps the planet
may not have a favourable aspect for six months, during all which time the
body is kept in the house. For this purpose a fit chest or coffin is
provided, which is so artificially jointed that no noisome smell can
escape, and in this the body is placed, having been previously embalmed
with spices. The coffin is ornamented with painting, and is covered over
with an embroidered cloth. Every day, while the body remains unburied, a
table is spread near the coffin, and set out with meat, bread, and wine,
which remains for as long a time as a living person would require to eat
and drink, and the soul of the deceased is supposed to feed upon the
savour. The astrologers sometimes forbid the body to be carried out for
interment at the principal door of the house, pretending to be regulated in
this by the stars, and order it to be carried out by some other way; or
will even command a passage to be broken out in the opposite wall of the
house, to propitiate the adverse planet. And if any one object to this,
they allege that the spirit of the dead would be offended, and would
occasion injury to the family. When the body is carried through the city to
be buried, wooden cottages are built at certain distances by the way,
having porches covered with silk, in which the coffin is set down, with a
table spread out with bread and wine and delicate viands, that the spirit
of the dead may be refreshed with the savour. When the body is carried to
the place of the funeral, a number of pieces of paper, made of the bark of
trees, curiously painted with figures of men and women servants, horses,
camels, money, and garments of all kinds are carried in procession, all the
instruments of music in the city sounding as the cavalcade moves along; and
all these pieces of painted paper are burned in the same funeral pile with
the body, under the idea that the deceased will have as many servants,
cattle, and garments in the next world, and as much money, as there were
pictures of these things burnt along with his body, and shall live
perpetually hereafter in the enjoyment of all these things[7].
[1] The text is here obviously transposed. While the editor endeavours to
illustrate and explain the descriptions of the author, he does not
consider himself at liberty to alter the text, even in the most
obviously faulty places. - E.
[2] Charchan, Charcham, Carcam, Hiarkand, Jarkun, Jerket, Jerken, Urkend;
such are the varieties in the editions of these travels, for the
Yarkand of modern maps. This paragraph ought obviously to have
followed the account of Cashgar. - E.
[3] Cotan, Cotam, Hotum, Khoten, Khotan, from which the useful material of
manufacture, cotton, takes its name. But instead of being between
the east and north-east direction from Yarkand, as in the text, or
E.N.E. it is actually E.S.E. - E.
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