200 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
melancholy sight to see cattle stalled under the shel- 
tering walls of some splendid ruin which had once 
perhaps been the pride of kings, the sanctuary of a 
nation’s idolatry, or the birth-place of heroes. The 
Mootee Musjid, a noble mosque within the fort, is 
said to have been built with the marble that was 
left after the completion of the Taje Mahal. 
Cremation is known to be the general mode of dis- 
posing of the dead in the East, but it is not the uni- 
versal mode, and though inhumation is rare, we had 
an opportunity of witnessing this method of sepulture 
during our stay at Agra. The funeral took place at 
a village a few miles from the city. The sect who 
prefer interment to burning their dead are Hindoo 
worshippers of Siva, and their plan of burial, as it is 
of rather rare occurrence in India, for the sect is not 
numerous, may therefore prove interesting even to 
Anglo-Indian readers. When the body is properly pre- 
pared for the grave, it is placed in a sitting posture 
upon a kind of bier, borne upon the shoulders of 
four men. The corpse has no shroud, but is as it 
came into the world, naked, except the head, round 
which a large turban is carefully bound covered with 
flowers. The body is thickly sprinkled with wood- 
ashes, and thus opposed in striking contrast with the 
bright flowers which adorn the head, appears perfectly 
hideous. The friends and relations of the deceased 
assemble and form a funeral procession, following the 
bier with tomtoms, trumpets, and other instruments 
of din and discord, at the same time pealing their yells 
and lamentations to the very skies, and sending forth 
such “ a multifarious din,” as would awake from any 
