AND THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO.
It was a great day ! Every soul was there, man and woman, Musulman and infidel. All were dressed in mourning, that is, the Pagans wore short white dresses, and the Musulmans long white dresses. The Kân's ladies and favourites remained in tents near his tomb for forty days ; some remained longer ; some a full year. A bazar had been established in the neighbourhood, where all necessary provisions, etc., were for sale. I know no other nation in our time that keeps up such practices. The pagans of India and China burn their dead ; other nations bury them, but none of them thus bury the living with the dead. However honest people in Sridhn have told me that the pagans of that country, when their king dies, dig a great pit, into which they put with him several of his favourites and servants together with thirty persons of both sexes, selected from the families of the great men of the state. They take care first to break the arms and legs of these victims, and they also put vessels full of drink into the pit.
An eminent person of the tribe of Mastifah, living among the Negroes in the country of Ktiber,' who was much held in honour by their king, told me that when the king died they wished to put a son of his own into the tomb with some other children belonging to the country. " But I said to them," continued this eminent person, " how can you do this, seeing the boy is neither of your religion nor of your country? And so I was allowed to ransom him with a large sum of money."
exige usque ad os, et ita dimittit equum impalatum, et suspendit eum, et mandat ei quod sit paratus, quandocumque vult dominus surgere, et tune cooperiunt mortuum in sepultura. Cum vero moritur imperator, adduntur prædictis omnes lapides preciosi et etiam magni thesauri. Et consueverunt etiam sepelire cum domino mortuo usque viginti servos vivos ut essent parati servire domino cum voluerit surgere." Such proceedings took place at the burial of Hulagu.
(Rawlinson's Herodotus, bk. iv, c. 71-72, and notes ; Deguignes, ii, 395-6 ; Peregrin. Quatuor, p. 117 ; see also M. Polo, ii, 54 ; Rubruquis, p. 337; and Plano Carpini, p. 629.)
4 I suppose the Gober of Dr. Barth's map, near Sakatu.
IIIF Color HighRes
