bated by law and custom. The mother, however, is allowed to lament the death of her son, and to mourn for three days; and though all restrain their feelings, and at most indulge in melancholy, yet they decorate the tombstones of their parents, their chil·dren, or their friends, with epitaphs which express their fondness and affection, the regret which they feel, and the disconsolate situation in which they are left. They divert their melancholy by prayers, and other acts of devotion, for the relief of the departed soul; and are frequently seen kneeling by the side of a new made grave, and performing their pious supererogations*.

The prayer peculiarly consecrated to the burial service of the Mahometans is as follows. "Have mercy, O God, on the living and dead, the present and absent, the great and small, the males and females, among thy servants. May those to whom thou hast given life, live and die in the belief and profession of Islamism. May this thy servant deceased enjoy, through thy mercy, peace and rest. Pour upon him the blessings of thy grace and favour. Increase the merit of his good deeds if he be found in the number of the just, and blot out his iniquities if he have sinned before thee. Grant him, O God, peace and salvation; let him approach, and continually dwell before, thy eternal throne. Save him from the torments of the tomb, and the punishment of everlasting fire. Let him be numbered among the blessed in Paradise. Let his tomb be a place of refreshment and delight. Have mercy upon him, O thou whose attribute is mercy."

and funeral

inents.

They hasten to relieve the sufferings of Interments the soul on its quitting the body, by almost menuimmediate interment, and never willingly defer the burial till the morrow of the decease*. Such precipitation must sometimes be productive of the most dreadful consequences; and the evil is further extended by the practice being imitated by the Jews, and by the Greek and Armenian Christians.

The Turks conceal the body, during its passage to the place of interment, under a shell or coffin, called tabut, at the head of which is the turban, or muslin, denoting the rank, or sex, of the person. It is carried to the grave by the friends of the deceased; a duty enjoined by the prophet, who has declared, that he who carries a dead body the space of forty paces, procures for himself the expiation of a great sin. The graves are shallow, and the body is protected from the immediate pressure of the earth by thin

« On ne doit pas différer la sépulture d'un fidèle décédé ; et cela en vertu de ces paroles divines: Hâtez-vous d'inhumer vos morts, pour qu'ils puissent jouir aussitôt de la béatitude éternelle, s'ils sont décédés dans la vertu et dans l'élection ; et qu'au contraire, s'ils sont morts dans le vice et dans la réprobation, vous écartiez loin de vous des ames condamnées au feu de l'enfer."" (Tab. Gén. t. ii, p. 298.)

boards placed over it obliquely. The Greeks and Armenians carry the body through the streets dressed up in its greatest finery, and on the burying ground enfold it in a winding sheet. I have myself met a procession re-turning with the body of a Greek exposed on a bier, which, on the brink of the grave, had given signs of life; and I have heard of bodies being interred notwithstanding unequivocal symptoms of animation. De Tott, with his usual levity and exaggeration, says, that "in the Turkish burying grounds the voices of some unhappy people have been heard from beneath; and they were left to perish for want of immediate relief, which was withheld that the fees of interment might not be restored."

The tomb-stone at the head of a man's grave is erect, and decorated with a turban carved in stone, which distinguishes it from that of a woman. The cemetery is a wood of cypresses, as a tree is planted near every new grave. All persons, except the sultan's families and some few of high rank, are buried without the cities; and as a grave is never opened a second time, a vast tract of the country is occupied by the burying fields, among which one at the head of the

harbour, supposed to contain the remains of Ayub, a companion of Mahomet, who fell in the first siege of Constantinople by the Arabs, and was esteemed a saint and martyr, is distinguished by a great number of elegant mausolea, turbé. Those on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus are preferred by many persons, because the holy cities of Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, and Damascus, are situated in that quarter of the world.

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The epitaphs contain the name and quality of the deceased, the day of his death, and an exhortation to the passenger to repeat the introductory chapter of the koran, fatihha: they represent death as the term of human misery, congratulate the deceased on his happiness, and compare his soul to a nightingale of paradise. May the Eternal deign to envelop his soul in a cloud of mercy and gladness, and cover his tomb with the brightness of divine light." On the tomb-stones of their children, the parents bewail their affliction, and complain, that death has plucked the rose from the garden of beauty, has torn the tender branch from the parent stock, and left a father and a mother to consume the remainder of their lives in bitterness and wo.

VOL. II.

CHAPTER VIII.

WOMEN, AND DOMESTIC ECONOMY.

Distribution of apartments in Turkish families.Subjection of the women; and their privileges.-Marriage.Polygamy and divorce.-Reciprocal duties of the husband and wife. --Domestic arrangements.-Household establishment of the women.-House furniture, und mode of life.-Amusements,— Occupations, and character of the Turkish women.-Primary motives for the seclusion of women.- -Inquiry as to its effects in promoting marriages,-in enforcing the observance of the conjugal duties,-in influencing the public character.-Persons and dress of the women.-Harems of Turkish gentlemen,—and grandees.-Imperial harem.—Titles and degrees of precedency among the ladies.-Domestics and guards of honour.-State of the women. -Princesses of the blood.-The slave-market.Public women.- Eunuchs.

Distribu- THE Turks, in their families, allot certain

tion of

apartments

families.

in Turkish apartments to the women, which they distinguish by the name of harem, a word signifying a sacred retreat, a place of privacy and security, from which all men are excluded except the master of the family. Ac