From their marriages, I am insensibly led to the subject of the burial
of their dead. Not that any idea strikes me of an analogy between the
situations of a married person, and one consigned to the "_narrow
house_," as Ossian poetically styles the grave; but from a certain
succession of thought, for which one is at a loss to account. In the
burial of their dead, they are decent and pious, without pomp or
show. The corpse is attended by the relations and friends, chanting
passages from the Koran, to the mosque, where it is washed, and it is
afterwards interred in a place at some distance from the town, the
Iman, or priest, pronouncing an oration, containing the eulogy of the
deceased. The male relations express their regard by alms and prayers,
the women by ornamenting the tomb with flowers and green leaves. Their
term of mourning is the same as ours, twelve months, during which
period the widows divest themselves of every ornament, and appear
habited in the coarsest attire. Their burial-grounds are inclosed by
cypress and other dark lofty trees, the lower parts of which are
interwoven with odoriferous shrubs and creeping plants, forming an
almost impenetrable hedge. Some of their tombs are very curious,
though they exhibit specimens of the rudest architecture. There are
also several saints' houses in their burying-places, which render
them doubly sacred; and no Christian or Jew is suffered to enter, on
pain of death.
Friday being their Sabbath, the day is kept perfectly holy; all the
Moors are employed in prayer, reading the Koran, or visiting the tombs
of their departed friends.
Curiosity prompted me to go and see an assemblage of fanatics, at a
celebrated saint's house, in the neighbourhood of this town. They
were to perform many wonderful things, such as tearing a live sheep in
pieces, and devouring the flesh, fighting with wild beasts, and
several other barbarous exhibitions. These people, called in Barbary
_Free Masons_, are nothing more than a set of canting, roaring
companions, surcharged with wine and other liquors, and assembled in
this holy place, for the sole purpose of giving free vent to their
brutal passions. This society is peculiar to itself, having no
connexion with our ancient or modern Free Masons. I have however
obtained a free access to their saints' houses and secret meetings,
with permission to go any where unmolested; but I always take the
precaution to go well armed, and escorted by the Emperor's guards, as
nothing can exceed the barbarous acts of this fanatic set of people.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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