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honoured in life; it is not then to be wondered at, that it was fome time before the perfecuted and murdered Jewish prophets had tombs raised over them, and that fome of them might not have been erected 'till the time, or very near the time of our Lord.

To the observations relating to the numeroufness of the tombs of the Mohammedan faints, and the erecting them from time to time to the honour of fuch as had been at firft neglected, I would add a third, refpecting the garnishing those that had been before built.

This poffibly may be understood of the whitening them, which is commonly done in Barbary, and of which practice our Lord makes mention, ver. 27: but as this among the Jews feems to have been universal, all tombs being whitened, in order to give warning to people not to approach too nigh, left they should, according to the Jewish ritual, be defiled'; the word garnishing should seem to mean fome different way of beautifying. The Mohammedan fepulchres of their faints are at leaft not only whitened, but otherwife adorned. It is to be confidered, whether the Jewish way of garnishing them was the fame.

Among the Mohammedans the tombs of their faints are adorned with lamps. Pitts fays, it is a mistake in those who have affirmed that there are no less than 3000 lamps about the tomb of Mohammed, their great faint • Numb. 19, 16,

Shaw's Trav. p. 219, 220.

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and lawgiver; but he acknowledges it is decked with fome lamps, though he believed hardly an hundred in number'. And elsewhere fuppofes that lamps, or wax candles, were used to garnish the tombs of their lefs celebrated faints, for he tells us, that the Algerines, when in the Straight's-mouth, are wont "to make a gathering of fmall wax candles, which they usually carry with them, and bind "them in a bundle; and then, together with a pot of oil, throw them overboard, as a prefent to the marabbot, or faint, which "lies intombed there on the Barbary fhore,

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near the sea, and hath fo done for many "scores of years, as they are taught to be"lieve; not in the leaft doubting, but the

prefent will come fafe to the marabbot's "hands." P. 172. The tomb affuredly was never illuminated by thefe candles and this oil, but the practice fhows in what manner they would wish to garnish the tombs of their righteous men. This is confirmed by what he fays in the next page, where he informs us, that in times of diftrefs and danger" they collect money, and wrap it in a "piece of linen-cloth, and make it faft to "the ancient-ftaff of the fhip, fo dedicating "it to fome marabbot; and there it abides 'till the arrival of the ship, when they

• P. 156.

• He mentions his obferving the like done in the RedSea, in honour of another marabbot interred on the shore there, p. 114.

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beftow it in candles, or oil to give light, or " in fome ornament, to beautify the marabbot's fepulchre. For these marabbots have generally a little neat room built over their graves, refembling in figure their mofques or churches, which is very nicely cleanfed, " and well looked after," &c.

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So Mr. Maundrell tells us, that at Damafcus he was fhewn an old tomb, faid to be Ananias's, but how he came to be buried there his guides could not tell, nor he guess: "however the Turks have a reverence for "his tomb, and maintain a lamp always burn"ing over it'.'

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Pitts, in fome of the preceding citations, fuppofes the money that was collected in times of danger, and dedicated to fome marabbot, which was frequently laid out in candles or oil to illuminate the fepulchre of the marabbot, was fometimes bestowed in the purchase of fome other ornament, but mentions no particulars. Other writers give us however an account of feveral.

A carpet, more or lefs valuable, is wont to cover the tomb itself, over which the fepulchral building, or vaulted chapel, is erected. This tomb is made like a great cheft, or one of our altar-tombs, to which carpet is fometimes annexed other ornaments. So Maundrell; fpeaking of a mofque on the coaft of Syria, built by one Sultan Ibrahim, in which he is

P. 13.

depofited,

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depofited, tells us, "We were admitted to "fee his tomb, tho' held by the Turks in great veneration. We found it only a great "wooden cheft, erected over his grave, and "covered with a carpet of painted calico, extending on all fides down to the ground. "It was also tricked up with a great many

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long ropes of wooden beads hanging upon "it, and somewhat resembling the furniture "of a button-maker's fhop. This is the "Turks' ufual way of adorning the tombs of "their holy men, as I have seen in feveral "other inftances. The long ftrings of beads.

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paffing in this country for marks of great "devotion and gravity '.

Several of their facred tombs have much more valuable ornaments than these : the feveral large incenfe-pots, candlesticks for altars, and other church furniture, being the Spoils of Christian churches at the taking of Cyprus, which Maundrell faw in the mofque where Sultan Ibrahim lies', being, I imagine, to be. understood to be devout donations to the tomb, not to the mofque.

So Chardin, defcribing the tomb of a Perfian female faint, gives an account of several vessels of filver that hang over it, of confiderable weight, called candils, in form fomewhat refembling lamps, but not used to give light, or indeed capable of holding any oil, besides

Shaw in like manner speaks of the tombs of the mar rab-butts as adorned with beads, ribbons, and fuch trinkets, p. 8, note. 2 P. 14.

the tomb's being inclofed with a grate of maffive filver, ten feet high, and crowned at the corners with four large balls of folid gold'. Other inftances might be produced of great riches lodged in the fepulchres of the Eaftern faints, reverenced by the difciples of Mohammed.

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It seems then by no means natural to fuppofe, the garnishing the tombs of the righteous means only the white-washing them but it may be difficult precifely to fay to what ornaments our Lord refers. Great riches, it is faid by Jofephus, were lodged in the tomb of David; and Benjamin the Jew, in his Itinerary, fpeaks of a lamp's burning in the cave of Machpelah, which he vifited with devotion, and fpeaks of casks of dry bones of many of the Jews as lodged there, but fays not at whofe expence the lamp was lighted up.

Dr. Shaw has given an account of the form of the Eastern fepulchres, but he has mentioned no other way of garnishing them, but the white-washing them, and ftrewing them with herbs and flowers. I thought these additional remarks might not be totally unacceptable.

OBSERVATION CXV.

Among other methods of doing honour to thofe that have been long dead, in the Eaft,

Tome 1, p. 204.

* P. 85, 86.

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