国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

students, together with the relatives and friends of the deceased. They appoint a priest to per-
form a "complete recital of the Koran," and give him the deceased's shoes and stockings as his
perquisites, together with a suit of new clothes and a small sum of money. They pay the grave-
digger two or three tanga, and sacrifice a sheep over the grave, and its carcase is taken by the
officiating priest as his perquisite. This ends the funeral ceremony as observed by the common
people. The wealthy retain a priest to recite the Koran daily over the grave for forty days, and
feast the relations and friends, and the poor and priests on the third, the seventh, and the
fortieth days.

The grave and side sepulchre are on the Musalman plan, but tombstones are not used
except for saints and grandees, and in such cases the epitaph is found written on glazed tiles.
Most graves are seen with merely a heap of earth piled along their length, but some have
tombs raised over them. Generally the tomb is an oblong platform, two or three feet high, and
supports a cylindrical figure along its length, something in the shape of a coffin, and the whole
is built of raw bricks or clay, coated with a plaster of mud. Grave-yards are generally enclosed,
and their area held as sacred ground.

Habitations.—The cities and towns in general appearance and plan of arrangement much
resemble those of Afghanistan, and some parts of Persia to the west. They are surrounded
by fortified walls, and are everywhere built of clay, stone being never seen, and baked bricks
only in the more important buildings, such as mosques, colleges, and saraes. The streets are
unpaved, and wind irregularly amongst the blocks and rows of tenements, and are mostly
narrow and more or less filthy. There are no large open spaces, nor any public gardens or
plantations. The drains and gutters are mostly open, or indifferently covered for footway in
front of the shops; and empty on to some low ground only a few yards beyond the city walls,
or else stagnate within their enclosure. In some of the quarters, shut off from the main bazars
and thoroughfares, are open tanks 40 to 60 or 100 feet square; they are mere superficial
excavations, and, as their contents indicate, a collection of all the impurities of the vicinity
dissolved in the water. The main bazars are in parts covered in by a frame-work of rough
beams and rafters, thatched with a loose layer of straw and reeds, through which are numerous
gaps. The shops themselves are mean, low, and dark hovels, with a platform in front raised
some three or four feet above the level of the street. They are of small dimensions and have no
pretension to regularity, neatness, or decoration. In fact they cannot compare either in build
or in the display of stores to the shops of any cantonment bazar in India, far less to those of
the commercial cities of the Panjab.

The style of building is entirely devoid of architectural character, and the only structures
that attract attention amidst the jumble of mud walls and flat roofs, are some mosques and
colleges of ancient date, and one or two newly-built masonry saraes. The former are as notable
for their state of neglect and decay as are the latter for the opposite characters.

The dwelling-houses are mostly single-storied, in long rows, on each side of the streets;
but off the main lines of traffic the tenements are found more frequently double-storied. Those
of the gentry are enclosed with a court or garden plot inside high walls, the entrance to
which is through a double portal, between the gates of which is a roofed space for horses to
stand, and a raised platform on one side for the gatekeeper. The arrangement of the interior
is more regular, and consists of low chambers opening on to a central hall, which again conducts
to an open verandah covered in from the court and slightly raised above its level. The walls
are seldom white-washed, and are furnished with numerous little alcoves or recesses which serve
the purpose of shelves and cupboards. In the roof there is always a light and air-ventilator,
usually a simple square opening, 20 inches to 2 feet each way, protected by a grating of
wood-work for the interior apartments, but much wider and unprotected for the central hall.
The fire-places are similar to those in English houses in their plan, and have chimney-flues and
pieces, and a low line of masonry for fender. The doors are plain boards, single or double, and
work on pivot-sockets, and are secured by a bolt of wood which passes into a hole in one
side bracket, and is unlocked by an ingenious catch-key, also of wood. The windows are
large and double, and resemble the doorways. The outer one is of lattice-work covered with
paper, and opens by two folds; the inner one is of boards, and resembles the door in