A TURKISH FUNERAL.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 17, 15 December 1877, Page 3

A TURKISH FUNERAL.

No sooner has the soul of a devout Mussulman quitted its earthly tenement than the corpse is considered as mere clay and moreover is treated as such by the friends and relations of the deceased. No pompous rites, no useless ceremonies attend the burial of tefoue be-

liever who is hurried to his last testing place m a manner which would appear highly indecorous m the eyes of Europeans. Immediately life is extinct the body is stripped of all clothing, carried out into a yard, and laid on a table or bench, while the nearest kin proceed to waah the corpse by throwing buckets of water over it. "When this duty is performed, the body is dressed again and laid m a common deal coffin, m which are placed a jug of water, a loaf of bread; and generally a small jar containing money, presumably to pay the entrance . fee into Mohammed's Paradise. A green cloth, the holy colour, thrown over the coffin, to the head of which are attached the fez and turban of the defunct. The bearers than lift the coffin on their shoulders by means of pbles nailed to it and set off at a quick walk or half-run for the njearest mosque. In Europe it is customary to raise the hat on the passage of a funeral ; but the Mussulman's respect for the dead, even unknown to him, is of far more demonstrative a nature, for he joins the procession and himself assists m carrying .the coffin for a few yards. There is nothing of the order and regularity which mark European interments about a Turkish funeral ; for it is etiquette that the bearers should be constantly changed, not however, arresting the progress of the procession; and thus to allow all the followers to have their share of paying this last tribute of respect to the departed. On the arrival of the cortege at the mosque a few prayers are said by the mollah, and/it resumes rfcs way to the cemetery m the sa^e order. The body is then lowered into ' a grave— never more than two feet deep— the earth is rudely shovelled over it, and the ceremony is. at an end.— The " Pictorial Woria."