A TURKISH FUNERAL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5267, 9 February 1878, Page 5 (Supplement)

A TURKISH FUNERAL.

(From the Pictorial TFoJ'W.) No sooner lias the soil 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 dec.ased. No pompous rites, no useless ceremonies attend the burial of the true believer, who is hurried to his last resting place in a manner which would appear highly indecorous in 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 wash the corpse by throwing buckets of water over it. When this duty is performed, the body is dressed again and laid in a common deal coffin, in 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 color, is thrown over the coffin, to the head of which are attached the fez and turban of the defunct. The bearers then lift the coffin on their shoulders by means of poles nailed, atid set off at a quick walk or half nm tor the nearest 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 if unknown to hiir, is of a far more demonstrative nature, for he joins the procession, and himself assists in 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 its way to the cemetery in the same 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.