HOW THE SULTANS ARE BURIED.

Evening Star, Issue 4286, 21 November 1876, Page 3

HOW THE SULTANS ARE BURIED.

A correspondent of the 'Pall Mall Gazette ' at Constantinople reports a conversation with one who has long been resident there, and who has an intimate acquaintance with Turkish life atd manners. He says :—• 'And how are the Sultans buried»" I asked. "I will tell you," was the reply, "what was teld me by a Turk among Turks—one who knew and would tell the truth. The dead Sultans have always been buried like dogs. The great thing is to get rid altogether of the idea of a buried Sultan; for never was there a people among whom is so literally carried out the idea that 'Le Hoi ne meurt pas,' When it is quite certain that a ISultan is about to die, those round him hardly wait for the breath to leave his body. Most of them run away to be ready to do homage to the new occupant of the throne. Then follows an odd arrangement: All living homage is due to the Sovereign; nothing ranst interfere with that, not. even the corpse of the late Sovereign. Some one or two of his old servants only remain with the body, and when it is quite dead they roll it up in straw matting, and prop it up behind the door of his room, to be as much out of sight as possible, and when night falls it is carried out of the palace and buried very quietly. ivo train of mourning coaches here, you seebut, then, they never are used in Turkey; no elaborate preparation for the last resting-place of one all powerful a few hours before. " With us, in fact, a dead Sultan is nobody—his sacredness has descended to his successor. To him we turn our thoughts. We Osmanls could not do as you Frank's do —have a grand lying-in-state. We should bewail at the sight, and that would be incongruous with the rejoicing demanded of us on the accession of our new sovereign, and would be displeasing to him. Therefore, the custom of burying the* Sultans in this manner has never been interfered with ; and it is best so." "But how are grandees buried in Turkey'" I continued. "Ah ! " was the repiy, " I myself saw the funerals of Ali Pasha, Fuad Pasha, and Djemil Pasha, bo I can make you understand what the ordinary ceremony is at the burial of a person of rank. JV either Turkish ladies nor Turks ever wear mourning. That they dispense with. Let me tell you about the late Fuad Pasha's funeral, Minister for Foreign Affairs. Well, he, yon know, died in Italy, and his body was brought back to Stamboul 'for burial. They dug three different graves for him, because in preparing the first they came upon some animal—a scorpion, I believe—and it was thought that Turkish ground—sacred in the eyes of Turks—would not receive the body of him who had died | among unbelievers. The second grave was not completed when they found water, and again it was believed that the earth in this way refused to let the body lie there. But the third time no such impediments appeared, and the grave was dug on a hill within Stamboul, in a desolate place on a site once occupied by houses, and belonging to a mosque; but this waste place had been devastated by one of the great fires so common in Constantinople, and there were the ruins standing out like pillars on the burned up ground." "But about the cortege to the burial place?-' asked I. ' Well, this is the manner of it. First of all the body is taken to a mosque. Over the simple coffin of cypress wood which contains the body, magnificent shawls are thrown, many sent by friends of the dead Pasha, some provided by his own household. These shawls are very costly. Several Pashas help to carry the body to the grave, and as the procession goes on every one rushes forward to help to bear the coffin for a moment, as this is thought to be holy work. Imaums wearing blue, green, or violet tnrbans, according to the school to which they belong, walk before and after the body. At Fuad Pasha's funeral they walked four abreast, in green turbans, to escort the body to the mosque, chanting verses from the Koran. The dead are always taken to a mosque before burial, and there, after prayers recited by the Imaums, the Pashas present spoke of the virtues of the deceased over his bier, as is the custom, and then the funeral party started for the grave. The route to it lay through the beautiful new street of Constantinople called the Yeni Sokak. I here were lines of carriages filled with Turkish ladies in bright - colored feridgees; these ladies had waited there since nine o'clock that morning to see the sight. Among that multitude f mingled, dressed as a Turk ; and as I understood the Turkish language, I overheard much of the conversation and remarks of the crowd. A wooden railing only was placed at first round the grave. You see that a Pasha has the'respect paid him of a ceremonious I burial; but, as for the Sultans, you may depend on me when 1 assure you that a dead sultan is got out of sight as speedily and quietly as possible.', : ■