The Mahommedans who adopted so many of the Rabbinical fables,
dispensed in one case for reasons of obvious convenience, with all
ceremonies of sepulchral costume. For the funeral of their martyrs, by
which appellation all Musselmen who fell in battle against the
unbelievers were honoured, none of those preparations were required,
which were necessary for those who die a natural death. A martyr needs
not to be washed after his death, nor to be enveloped in
grave-clothes; his own blood with which he is besmeared serves him for
all legal purification, and he may be wrapt in his robe, and buried
immediately after the funeral prayer, conformably to the order of the
Prophet, who has said, “bury them as they are, in their garments, and
in their blood! Wash them not, for their wounds will smell of musk on
the Day of Judgement.”
A man of Medina, taking leave of his wife as he was about to go to the
wars commended to the Lord her unborn babe. She died presently
afterwards, and every night there appeared a brilliant light upon the
middle of her tomb. The husband hearing of this upon his return,
hastened to the place; the sepulchre opened of itself; the wife sate
up in her winding sheet, and holding out to him a boy in her arms,
said to him take “that which thou commendedst to the Lord. Hadst thou
commended us both, thou shouldest have found us both alive.” So saying
she delivered to him the living infant, and laid herself down, and the
sepulchre closed over her.
* * * * *
PARS IMPERFECTA MANEBAT.—VIRG. ÆN.
_The following materials, printed verbatim from the MS. Collection,
were to have completed the Chapter. It has been thought advisable in
the present instance to shew how the lamented Southey worked up the
collection of years. Each extract is on a separate slip of paper, and
some of them appear to have been made from thirty to forty years ago,
more or less._
* * * * *
And so the virtue of his youth before
Was in his age the ground of his delight.
JAMES I.
* * * * *
_Ἔνθεν δὲ Σθενέλον τάφον ἔδρακον Ἀκτορίδαο·
Ὅς ῥά τ Ἀμαζονίδων πολυθαρσέος ἐκ πολέμοιο
Ἄψ ἀνιὼν (δὴ γὰρ συνανήλυθεν Ἡρὰκλῆΐ)
Βλήμενος ἰῷ κεῖθεν ᾽επ᾽ ἀγχιάλον θάνεν ἀκτῆς.
Ὀυ μέν θην προτέρω ἀνεμέρεον· ἧκε γὰρ αὐτὴ
Φερσεφόνη ψυχὴν πολυδάκρυον Ἀκτορίδαο
Λισσομένην, τυτθόν περ ὁμήθεας ἄνδρας ἰδέσθαι.
Τύμβου δὲ στεφάνης ἐπιβὰς σκοπιάζετο νῆα,
Τοῖος ἐὼν οἷος πόλεμονδ᾽ ἴεν· ἀμφὶ δὲ καλὴ
Τετράφαλος φοίνικι λόφῳ ἐπελάμπετο πήληξ,
Καὶ ῥ᾽ ὁ μὲν αὖτις ἔδυνε μέγαν ζόφον· οἱ δ᾽ ἐσιδόντες
Θάμβησαν. τοὶς δ᾽ ὦρσε θεοπροπέων ἐπικελσαι
Αμπυκίδης Μόψος, λοιβῆσί τε μειλίξασθαι.
Ὃι δ᾽ ἀνὰ μὲν κραιπνῶς λαῖφος σπάσαν, ἐκ δὲ βαλόντες
Πείσματ᾽ ἐν αἰγιαλῷ Σθενέλου τάφον ἀμφεπένοντο,
Χύτλα τέ οἱχεύαντο, καὶ ἥγνισαν ἔντομα μήλων._
APOLLONIUS RHODIUS.
* * * * *
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