‘The travels of Sig. Pietro della Valle, a noble Roman, into East-India and Arabia Deserta. In which, the several countries, together with the customs, manners, traffique, and rites both religious and civil, of those Oriental princes and nations, are faithfully described: In familiar letters to his friend Signior Mario Schipano. Whereunto is added a relation of Sir Thomas Roe’s voyage into the East-Indies’ [‎432] (453/508)

i 432 A E AST-INDI A 7 f &c.
befides that day of general lamentation att^e end of their Ram*
jan^ or Lent, (before-mentioned ) they ^oul'-and cry many
whole days for their friends departed, immediately after they
have left the.world 5 and after that time; is ,paffed over many
foolifh women, fo long as they Survive;'{very often in the year,
^obferve fet days to renew their mourning for it heir deceafed
friends5and as a people without hope, bedew the.graves of
their husbands, as of other their near relations, with abundance
of (feemingly) affeftionate tears ^ as if they were like thofe
mourning women mentioned jfer. 9. _ 17^ who;;feemed to have
tears at command 5 and therefore were hired to mourn and weep
in their folemn lamentationsi " ,
And when they thus lament over their dead, they will often
put this quefHon to their deaf and dead Carkafles, Why they
would die ? they having ftich loving wives,; fuch loving friends^
and many other comforts :, as if it had been in their power to
have refcued themfelves from that moft impartial wounding
hand of death. /< : ] , .
Which carriage/®f. theirs deferves nothing but cenfure and,
pity ^ thoughjif it be not 1 heatrical, we may much wonder at it,
and fay of it, as,it was faid of the mourning in the- fioot of Atad^
Gen. 50. 1 j. That it is a,grievous monrning^oXyd^tht mourning
of Hadaclrimmow in the valley of Megiddpn^ Zech, if we
take thole lamentations only in a literalienee* ). . :f
:But now further concerning their places of BuriaJ^ many Ma -j
hometans of the greateft quality in tieir life-time provide fair?
Sepulchres tor themfelves and Jieareds frjends, compaffing with;
a firm wall a good circuit of ground near fome Tank, 1 (before
fpoken of ) about which they delight to bury their dead 5 or elfe
they clofe in, a place for thjs ufe, near fpnngs ©f water, that
may make pleafant fountains, near which they ereft little Mof-
quits, or Churches, and near them Tombs built round, or four-
fquare, or in fix, or eight fquares, with round Vaults, or Ca-
v nopies of ftone over-head , all which are excellently well
wrought, and erefted upon Pillars; or elfe made clofe to be en
tered by doors every way, under which the bodies of their
aead lye interred. The reft of that ground thus circled in, they
plant with Fruit-trees, and^ further fet therein all their choiceft
flowers, as if they-would make Elyfian fields (fuch as the Poets
dream 3 d of) wherein their foul^ might take repofq. • (, :
There are many goodly Monuments which are richly ador
ned, built (as before was obferved) to the memory of iuch as v
they have efteemed Fares^ or Saints (of whom they have a large
Kalender} in which are Lamps continually burning s attended by
votaries, unto whom they allow Penfions for. the maintaining of
thofe lights, and many (trarifported there with wild devotion)
daily refort to thofe Monuments, there to contemplate the hap-
pinefs. thofe Tares (as they imagine) now enjoy. • a p.
-f And certainly of all the places v t}iat Empire affords, there are
none