Observations on the Mussulmauns of India: Descriptive of Their Manners, Customs, Habits and Religious Opinions Made During a Twelve Years' Residence in Their Immediate SocietyMeer Hasan Ali, Mrs.
Islamic
Observations on the Mussulmauns of India: Descriptive of Their Manners, Customs, Habits and Religious Opinions Made During a Twelve Years' Residence in Their Immediate Society
Meer Hasan Ali, Mrs.
India -- Social life and customs; Muslims -- India
Lime is an article of great service in the domestic economy of the Natives.
I have experienced the good effects of this simple remedy for burns or
scalds: equal proportions of lime, water, and any kind of oil, made into a
thin paste, and immediately applied and repeatedly moistened, will
speedily remove the effects of a burn; and if applied later, even when a
blister has risen, the remedy never fails: I cannot say how it might act
on a wound, the consequence of a neglected burn.
The lime used with pawn by the natives of India is considered very
beneficial to health; and they use it in great quantities, considering
that they never eat pawn without lime, and the most moderate pawn eaters
indulge in the luxury at least eight times in the course of the day. The
benefit of lime is worth the consideration of the medical world--as a
preventive in some climates, as a renovater in others.
Shubh-burraat,[40] is the designation of one of the months of the
Mussulmauns (you are aware their month is the duration of the moon). The
night of the full moon Shubh-burraat is a period of great and interesting
importance to the Mussulmaun people of every degree; for on this night
they are persuaded the fate of every human being is fixed in heaven; and
that whatever is to be their doom is then registered in the Book of Life.
Those who are to retain health, life, prosperity, or any other blessing,
and those who are to be visited by sickness, sorrows, adversity or death;
in short, whatever is to occur throughout the year is on this night
assuredly noted in heaven for each individual on earth.
On this night they are instructed also to remember their friends and
relatives who have been separated from them by death, and the injunction
is followed up with much pious respect and marked veneration. Food is
cooked and portioned out in the name of each departed object of their
regard, over which the elder of the family,--if a Maulvee is not
available,--reads a certain form of prayer called Fahteeah[41]; this done,
each portion (if convenient) is conveyed to the several tombs wherein
those friends are deposited; or if not convenient to send the food to the
burying ground, it is distributed amongst the poor of the city and the
suburbs; the beggars congregating in those places to indulge in the
luxuries prepared to the memory of the dead. The food prepared on this
occasion must not contain any animal food. Bread of various kinds, sweet
rice, and meetah[42] (a mixture of sugar, ghee, and flour), are the usual
dainties I have observed in these offerings. Fireworks are in universal
request on the night of Shubh-burraat, which is required to be passed in
wakefulness; and to this may be ascribed the never-varying custom of
letting them off: it is an amusement these people take delight in at all
times, and on this occasion most usefully, to keep them awake. The younger
branches, at all events, derive this benefit from the pastime.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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