216 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XIX, 
Within it burns a wondrous light, 
To chase the spirits that love the night. 
‘«' These are the monk’s words to Sir William of Delorain. 
And when the grave stone has been raised, we read, of the 
lamp within the tomb, that— 
No earthly flame blazed e’er so bright. 
It shone like Heaven’s own blessed light, 
Showed the monk’s cowl, and visage pale, 
Danced on the dark-brow’d warrior’s mail, 
And kissed his waving plume.”’ 
It is still a common practice among the Christians of 
Southern India to burn lamps on tombs. Armenian graves 
often have a niche to keep ake in Whether the practice 
came from Europe or from Asia, I cannot say. It was 
very prevalent in the West, as we see in H. Kenelm Digby, 
0-811 
‘The body of the blessed Francis is placed in a 
vault under the Marble Chapel in the great Church of 
Assisi. It stands in an upright posture ; but the vault 
having been shut by Gregory IX, no one can enter to 
behold it. A small opening, however, is left, through which a 
person may look by the light of a lamp burning in it. In the 
Convent of the Poor Clares of Assisi, in a vault under the high 
altar, lies the body of St. Clare, with a lamp burning before the 
opening into it. This was an ancient custom as may be 
collected from the mode of episcopal burial in the thirteenth 
century, according to the description of the tomb of the Bishop 
of Angers. He was buried in the mitre in which he had been 
consecrated, his crosier was by his side, and on his breast was 
placed the chatice. and a lead paten, containing wine and 
bread, and, in this instance, behind his head there was a kind 
np. 154, 3. No heretic or infidel can live among the Chris- 
tians at the place whence came the Patriarch of the Indians ahout 
1124.—Compare with this a statement in Sir John d 
Mandeville, where it is the other way about. ‘‘ That is the _ 
best City that the Emperor of Persia hath in all his _— 
And they call it Charabago and others call it Vapa. A 
Paynims say that no Christian Man may long dwell or son 
with his Life in that City, but dieth within short Time, and 
no man knoweth the Cause.” Ch. 13, p. 182, of Constable’s 
edition, 1895. 
This curious reflection is also to be found in Friar Odoric, 
but in connection with the town of Yezd in the great Pers jan 
