1837.] condition of Oujein or Uj 'jay ani. 847 



it from injury) is concealed under stuffed rezais, so that the place 

 altogether presented but a mean and shabby appearance ; though of 

 course I expressed with uplifted hands and eyes all the admiration 

 I was expected to feel. 



A Persian historian quoted by Colebrooke tells us that many 

 bohras were converted in the orthodox tenets by the first Mu- 

 salman king of Guzerat in 1391: but the " Arguments" of the tra- 

 ditionists, (we may guess their nature) doubtless prevailed only 

 so long as they had the power of enforcing them ; for I am 

 assured, that there is not at present a single sunni included in the 

 sect. They appear with a few ceremonial exceptions to be strictly 

 shtahs ; and reverence the six last Imams which distinguishes them 

 from Ismaelis. Their burial-grounds have a pleasing appearance, the 

 tombs being regularly arranged in streets east and west. The tombs 

 themselves, which are of course north and south, the corpse resting on 

 its right side, differ in no respects from those of sunnis, with the excep- 

 tion of a small chirdgh takia cut out of the north face, just like the 

 cavity for the inscription of our own tombs. In a churchyard of 

 this description at Kargaon I counted more than 1000 tombs ranged 

 in about nine streets, some of them for children smaller than the rest, 

 and one, covered with a singularly elegant, though perhaps tawdrily 

 painted dome. They formerly, we are told, sent a fifth of their 

 gains to the Sayyads of Medina, but a practice which imposed such a 

 strain on the conscience could not have been expected long to 

 obtain, among a money-loving people. Now and then perhaps a 

 twinge of conscience, may induce the driver of a hard bargain to 

 devote a pittance of his gains, to the holy Sayyads, but this is a volun- 

 tary, unusual, and supererogatory act of piety. Like other shiahs, 

 they pray singly without an Imam. At their devotions they use a par- 

 ticular dress which consists of a tahband, a chadar thrown over their 

 shoulders, and a small dark-colored cap, some adding to this a sort 

 of surtout. After praying they wrap up the clothes in the mosalla or 

 praying carpet. They are not so nice with respect to the cleanliness 

 of this dress as Colebrooke supposed, for all that is required is that it 

 shall be washed by their own hands after coming from the not suffici* 

 ently orthodox fingers of the dhobi, but it is only again changed, when 

 become even in their eyes, dirty, or when it may have acquired a 

 peculiar defilement*. So cleanly a precept as that of daily washing it, 

 would be an exception to their general habits ; for they are a very 



* Quum crepitum ventris ediderint. They have generally two sets of 

 this dress one of which is always kept at the mosque. 

 5 p 2 



