1867.] Notes on Sirdj'uddaidah and the toion of Murshiddbdd. 101 

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" Elegiac verses are also sung in Bengali by singers called Bhathiydl. 

 They sit in the Imanibarah and round about the building, arranged in 

 troops of 15 or 20. One of them who can read, has in his hand an 

 elegy written in Bengali characters. He reads out a verse, which 

 the others repeat with him in chorus. At the end of each verse they 

 exclaim Hy ! strike their chests with both hands and then the thighs, 

 Some strike also the ground with their feet at the same moment, 

 the sound of which motion produces a most saddening effect. 



" For the harem of the Begums likewise some reciters are appointed 

 and the chaunting continues here also to the 10th day of the Muhar- 

 ram. Couplets are sung and flags carried about in procession. 



" On the 6th day of the Muharram, i. e. the 7th night [as the 

 Muhammadans like the Jews commence the day at 6 o'clock p. m.], 

 the Mehndi of Haszrat Qasim* (blessings be upon him !) is brought 

 from the Nizam's palace and carried in procession to the imambarah 



* The day before a marriage a plate full of mehndi or hena is carried in 

 procession from the house of the bride to the house of the bridegroom who 

 stains his hands with it. The carrying about of this red dye is called in 

 Hind, mehndi uthdnd and in Persian hindbandi. The Shi'ahs perform this 

 ceremony during the Muharram also, in remembrance of Qasim, who the day 

 after his marriage [i. e. when the mehndi procession had been performed] was 

 slain at Karbala with his father Husain. 



14 



