'The Expedition for the survey of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the British government, in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837; preceded by geographical and historical notices of the regions situated between the rivers Nile and Indus. In four volumes. With fourteen maps and charts, and embellished with ninety-seven plates, besides numerous wood-cuts. Volume the first.' [‎680] (779/905)

680
FUNERAL CEREMONIES. [CHAP. XXV.
Lamentations lamentations. Two of them stand with drawn swords, repeat-
for the dead. mourn f u l poetry made for tlie occasion ; and if it be death
according to the course of nature, the chief lamentation is that
the deceased has fallen without battle or golaya (a foray);
some of the women, having their feet stained with indigo, go
round the camp at the same time, putting ashes on their heads,
tearing their hair, and constantly calling out " death without
battle!" or if the man has been killed, extolling his valour,
and inciting the tribe to be ready to revenge his death. The
funeral takes place in the simplest way, and almost imme
diately after death; the women bewailing, and the men
following the corpse. The body is carried on an open bier,
which is unceasingly passed from the shoulders of one set of
bearers to those of another; and at length it is deposited in a
shallow grave, the head a little elevated and facing the east.
In the case of a sheikh or principal warrior, his camel, stained
a deep gray, approaching to black, is led after the body of his
master, bearing his cloak and arms, all placed in disorder;
and some tribes bury the sword, turban, and girdle with the
Periods of body. The men of the camp mourn three days, without
mourning. change of dress, and the women seven, fifteen, or forty days ;
the latter wear a black borko, or face veil, a black gown, and
even a black shift. 1 But those who have lost a near relative
mourn during two or more years ; and the children, of each
sex, cut off their tresses of hair in testimony of grief for the
loss of a father. The sedentary Arabs, and sometimes also
the Bedawins plant two cypress-trees by the grave of a friend,
and ornament it with flowers, which they afterwards tend
with care, in token of affection.
Employments Watching their flocks is the only occupation out of doors
Arabs male to which the sons of the desert submit; and their amuse
ments are hawking, boar-hunting, and horse exercise, in
which they use very short stirrups, that they may be enabled,
by raising themselves up, to give more effect to the lance and
the jerid. Within the tent the occupations of the men
border on those which properly belong to women, such as
1 Burckhardt's Travels in Arabia, vol. II., p. 214.