When A Person Of Note Dies, The Kindred
Clothe Themselves In Canvas Or Sackcloth, And Accompany The Body To The
Funeral, both men and women, people being employed to play on musical
instruments, and singing all the way prayers to
Their idols; and being come
to the place, they cast into the fire in which the body is burnt, many
pieces of cotton paper, on which figures of slaves, horses, camels, stuffs
of silk and gold, money, and all other things are painted, which, by this
means, they believe the dead person will really possess in the next world;
and they make a grand concert of music, under the idea of the joy with
which the soul of their departed friend will be received by their idols in
the other life which he is now to begin. As their timber houses are very
liable to accidents by fire, there are stone towers in every street, to
which they carry their goods for security on such occasions. On most of the
bridges there are guard-houses, in which soldiers continuallv watch, five
in each by day, and five by night, in case of any alarm or disturbance. In
every guard-house there hangs a great bason[8], on which the warders strike
the successive hours, beginning one at sunrise, and beginning a new series
at sunset. These guards patrole during the night, and if they see any light
or fire in a house after the appointed time, or meet any person in the
streets after legal hours, they cause them to answer before the judges or
magistrates of the district.
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