﻿2-iO ON THE RZLIGIOU* CEREMONIES 



land, gold, silver, or other things, according to his 

 al3ilit3-, should be made by him ^ or if he be too* 

 Aveak, by another person in his name. His head 

 should be sprinkled with water drawn from the 

 Gcingcs, and smeared v/ith clay brovight from the 

 same river. A S^Uagrama * stone ouo ht to be ]>laced 

 near tlie dying man, holy strains from the Veda or 

 Jrom sacred poems should be repeated aloud in hia 

 ears, and leaves of holy basil must be scattered over 

 his head. 



Whex he expires, the coipse niust be washed, per- 

 fumed, and decked with wreaths of flowers ; a bit of 

 tntanag, another of gold, a gem of any sort, and a 

 piece of coral, should be put into the mouth of the 

 corpse, and bits of gold in both nostrils, both eyes, 

 and both ears. A cloth perfumed with fragrant oil 

 must be thrown over the corpse, which the nearest 

 relations of the deceased must then carry with modest 

 deportment to some holy spot in the forest, or near 

 M'ater. The corpse must be preceded by fire, and by 

 food carried in an unbaked earthen vessel ; and ritu- 

 als direct that it shall be accompanied by music of 

 all sorts, drums, cymbals, and wind and stringed 

 instruments. This practice seems to be now disused 

 in most provinces of Hhidustdn ; but the necessity 

 of throwing a cloth over the corpse, however poor 



the 



• The Salagramai are black stor.es, found in a part of the Gan. 

 *da<i river, within the limits of Nc^dl. They are mostly round, and 

 are conimonly perforated in one or more places by worms, or, as the 

 Hindus believe, by Vishn'u in the shape of a reptile. According to 

 the number of perforations, and of spiral curves in each, the stone is 

 supposed to cont.nin Vishx'^u in various characters. For example, 

 such a stone perforated, in one place only, with four spiral curves in the 

 perforation, and with marks refembling a cow's foot, and a long 

 wreath of flowers, contains Lacshmi' na'ra'yan'a. In like manner 

 stones are found in the Nermaddy near 0'?icdr mdndattd, which are 

 considered as types of Si'ta, and are called Bdn-Ung. The Sdla. 

 grama is found,' upon trial, not to be calcareous : it strikes fire whk 

 tieel, and scarcely at all effervesces with acids. 



