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Mahomed, is celebrated with great parade by all the Mussulmans 

 in Hindostan of the sect of Ali. They call it the death of Hous- 

 sain and Hussen, two imans or successors to Mahomed in his reli- 

 gious and civil government. Houssain was murdered on the 

 plains of Kerbela, by an officer of the usurper Yezid, on the 10th 

 of the month Mohurrum, in the 6'lst year of the Hejira. Houssain 

 was grandson to Mahomed, by his daughter Fatima, who was 

 married to Ali; and this murder was the cause of the enmity 

 which subsists to this day between the Ommiades and Abassides". 

 On the anniversary of that catastrophe the Mahomedans at Ba- 

 roche, and other large towns in India, of the sect of Ali, go in 

 procession through the streets, making the most dismal bowlings 

 and lamentations, and often inflict severe wounds on each other, 

 in the mock combat, in memory of the attack on the plains of 

 Kerbela, where Houssain, with seventy-two of his family, were 

 cut to pieces. They were surrounded by ten thousand of Yezid's 

 cavalry, and after fighting desperately, himself, his children, and the 

 whole party were destroyed. 



This combat is rather the termination of the tragedy ; for the 

 spectacle commences with solemn processions, plaintive music, 

 and religious ceremonies. According to Chardin the Persians an- 

 nually solemnize this massacre to the fullest extent. They con- 

 tinue the mourning for ten days, during which they suspend all 

 appearances of joy and pleasure, and appear as mourners in their 

 dress; affecting discourses relating to the murder are pronounced 

 in numerous assemblies; mournful cries of Houssain unite with 

 melancholy music; numbers personate Houssain, at the time of 



