361 Notes on Kdfiristdn. [No 4. 



They say : — " The manner of interring the dead among the Tartars is 

 not uniform. The Lamas are only called in to assist at extremely 

 grand funerals. Towards the Great Wall, where the Mongols are 

 mixed up with the Chinese, the custom of the latter in this 

 particular, as in others, has insensibly prevailed. There the corpse 

 is placed, after the Chinese fashion, in a coffin, and the coffin in a 

 grave. In the desert, among the true nomadic tribes, the entire 

 ceremony consists in conveying the dead to the tops of hills or the 

 bottoms of ravines, there to be devoured by the birds and beasts of 

 prey."* Exposing the dead to ravenous animals is also prescribed 

 by the precepts of the Magi. The way in which the G-abrs or 

 Parsis of the present day expose their dead in the Towers of Silence, 

 is so generally known as not to require description. 



In religious matters the Si'ah-posh tribes appear to be exceedingly 

 ignorant, and their few forms and ceremonies are idolatrous. They 

 consist chiefly of sacrifices of cows and goats to their deities, whom 

 they call Shuniyah, Lamani, and Panclii, which latter, the name 

 would lead us to suppose to be one and the same with the deity of 

 the Hindu pantheon known under the name of Yudhishthira. 



They have hereditary priests who assist at the different feasts and 

 ceremonies, and who are supported by voluntary contributions, and a 

 double share of victuals and wines at festivals. Their influence is 

 very slight ; and the elders and chief men of tribes appear to hold all 

 authority. 



Each village contains a temple or place of worship, differing but 

 little from the dwellings of the people themselves, and in which the 

 wooden representations of the three deities before mentioned are 

 placed. The walls are generally ornamented with the antlers of 

 deer. 



Fire appears to be necessary in most of their religious ceremonies ; 

 and a Kafir has great antipathy to extinguish it by water, or even 

 to blow out a flame with the breath ;f yet they do not keep up the 



* Travels in Tartaizy and Thibet (Illustrated London Library) Vol. I. 

 pp. 77. 



t Lieut. Wood remarks as follows of the inhabitants of Badakhshan. " I 

 have elsewhere mentioned the repugnance with which a Badakshee blows out a 

 light. Similar lingering remnants of Zoroaster's creed are to be detected here 



