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on all sides, at others closed like a sepulchral chamber, with only 

 one door; each has a marble tomb in the centre, under which is 

 deposited the body of the deceased. These burying-grounds fre- 

 quently afford shelter to the weary traveller when overtaken by the 

 night, and at a loss for better accommodation; and their recesses 

 are also a hiding-place for thieves and murderers, who .'■ally out 

 from thence to commit their nocturnal depredations. Thus we read 

 in scripture of demoniacs dwelling among the tombs in Judea; 

 they are likewise the scene of many adventures in the Persian and 

 Arabian tales. 



Except among the Parsees, whom I have mentioned as the fol- 

 lowers of Zoroaster, there seems to prevail throughout India the 

 greatest respect and affectionate veneration for the dead. The 

 pious attentions of the mahomedans, from the magnificent mauso- 

 leum of Taje Mahal, the crown of the seraglio at Agra, to the hum- 

 blest grave strewed with flowers in the village cemetery, confirm 

 this pleasing truth; and although the Hindoos in general, after 

 burning the body of the deceased, and scattering the ashes into the 

 air, do not erect a monument or a cenotaph in any particular spot, 

 yet the parent lives in the memory of his children, and the husband 

 in that of his wife, if she survive him. Numerous annual ceremo- 

 nies are enjoined, and most affectionately performed by the Hin- 

 doos to the manes of their ancestors. Mr. Wilkins, in a note upon 

 the Heetopades, informs us, that a Hindoo's hope of happiness after 

 death depends upon his having a son to perform the offering of the 

 consecrated cake, and other ceremonies, by which he expects that 

 his soul will be released from the torments of Naraka. And we 

 find that Absalom in his lifetime reared up for himself a pillar in 



