West-Jersey pioneer., 1877-01-11
TURKISH FUNERAL CUsT0MEs.

"And how are tho Sultans buried?"
asked. ~ will tell you," was the reply,
--one who knew, and would tell the truth.
The dead Sultans have always been buried
like dogs. The great thing is to get rid
altogether of the idea of dead Sultan; for
never was there a people among whom is SO
literally carried out the idea that lie Ros
ne naeurt pas When it is quite certain
that Sultan is about to die, those round
him hardly wait for the breath to leave the
body. Most of them run away to be ready
to do homage to the new occupant of the
throne. Then follows an odd arrangement
All homage is due to the living sovereign;
nothing must interfere with that, not even
the corpse of the late sovereign. So one or
two Of his old servants only remain with
the body, and when it is quite dead they
roll it up in straw mating and prop it up
behind the door of his room, to be as much
out of sight as possible, and when night
falls it is carried out of the palace and buri-
ed very quietly. No train of mourning
coaches here, you see-but, then, they
never are used in Turkey-no elaborate
all powerful few hours before. With us,
in fact, dead Sultan is nobody-his sacred
ness has descended to his successor. To
him we turn our thoughts We Osmanlis
Io Frarl-S Hn-h1Vn a
grand lying -in-state. We should bewail at
the sight, and that would be incongruous
with the rejoicing demanded of us on the
accession of our new sovereign, and would
be displeasing to him. Therefore, the Gus
tom of burying the Sultans in this manner
has never been interfered with; and it is
best so."
"Buthow are grandees buried in Turkey?'
continued. 'sAh ~ was the reply, 81
myself saw the funerals of Ali Pasha, Fund
Pasha, and Djemil Pasha, so can make
you understand what the ordinary ceremony
is at the burial of person of rank. Neith-
or Turkish ladies nor Turks ever wear
mourning. That they dispense with. Let
me tell you about the late Fund Pasha's
funeral, Minister for Foreign Affairs. Well,
he, you know, died in Italy, and his body
was brought back to Stamboul for burial.
They dug three different graves for him,
because in preparing the first they came
upon some animal "a scorpion, believe
and it was thought that Turkish ground
(sacred in the eyes of Turks would not re-
ceive the body of him who had died among
unbelievers. The second grave was not
completed when they found water; and
again it was believed the earth in this way
refused to let the body lie there. But the
third time no such impediments appeared,
and the grave was dug on hill within
Stamboul, in desolate place on site once
occupied by houses, and belonging to
vastated by one of the great fires so common
in Constantinople, and there were the ruins
standing out like pillars on the burned-up
ground"
place ?" asked 1. "Well, this is the man
ner of it. First of all the body is taken to
amosque. Over the simple coffin of cypress
wood which contains the body magnificent
shawls are thrown, many sent by friends of
the dead pasha, some provided by his own
household. These shawls are very costly.
Several pashas help to carry the body to the
grave, and as the procession goes on every
wi hn1,, {oh hoop +ho
for momeut, as this is thought to be holy
work. Imaums, wearing blue, green, or
violet, turbans, according to the school to
which they belong, walk before and after
the body. At Fuad Pasha's funeral they
walked four abreast, in green turbans to
escort the body to the mosque, chanting
verses from the Koran. The dead are al
ways taken to a mosque before burial, and
there, after prayers recited by the imaums,
the pashas present spoke of the virtues of
the deceased over his bier, as is the custom,
and then the funeral party started for the
grave. The route to it lay through the
beautiful new street of Constantinople called
the Yeni Sokak. There were lines of car
riages, filled with Turkish ladies in bright
colored coridgees, these ladies having waited
there since nine o'clock that morning to
mingled, dressed as Turk; and, as un-
derstood the Turkish language, overheard
much of the conversation and remarks of
the crowd. A wooden railing only was
placed at first round the grave. You see
that pasha has the respect paid him of
ceremonious burial; but as for the Sultans,
you may depend on me when assure you
that a dead Sultan is got out of sight as
speedily and quietly as possible"
WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES has
established a custom, of late years, of Ger
tain anniversaries of the marriage, these
being named as follows: The celebration
at the expiration of the first year is called
the cotton wedding; at two years comes
the paper; at three the leather; at the close
of five years comes the wooden; at the sew
enth anniversary the friends assemble at
the wooden, and at ten comes the tin At
twelve years the silk and fine liren; at fif-
teen the crystal wedding. At twenty the
friends gather with their china, and at
twenty-five the married couple that have
been true to their vows for a quarter of a
century are rewarded with silver gifts
From this time forward the tokens of es-
TEEN become rapidly more valuable. When
the thirtieth anniversary is reached they
are presented with pearls; at the fortieth
comes the rubies; and at the fiftieth occurs
the glorious golden wedding. Beyond that
time the aged couple are allowed to enjoy
their many gifts in peace. If, however, by
any possibility they reach the seventy fifth
anniversary, they are presented with the
rarest gifts to be obtained, at the celebra-
+;o,, of tbo;r al IN ,,Ond wod6ino