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.
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