THE RAGE FOR SEPULTURE AT KOOM. 377 
and therefore free of all chastisement for sin! Pilgrims and 
lamenting relatives used to come from all parts of the country, 
with offerings to the several shrines ; and to weep over the 
tombs of the departed. But these mummeries are gradually going 
out of fashion; though the clinging after a happy immortality, 
which influenced the first devotees, to purchase holy sepulture, 
continues as strong as ever. Those who are not rich enough to 
bequeath their relics, with the due consideration, to partake the 
sanctity of Hossein at Kerbela, or to draw on that of the holy Ali, 
at Mesched, are content to seek Paradise under the auspices of 
the female saint at Koom. During the course of our last day’s 
march to this city, we overtook a train of mules ; one or two of 
which were loaded with a couple of coffins, nicely balanced on 
each side of the pack-saddle. The muleteer was the only 
attendant on the caravan, the only horse-driver, the only mourner 
of the deceased ; and, which triple-dutied gentleman, seemed to 
pay as little respect to the fulfilment of the two last, as if his 
beasts carried the commonest ware. Ridiculous as the spectacle 
might appear, it was not the less a sad one ; to see those poor 
cased-up remains, once the animated bodies of beings like our¬ 
selves, consigned to the sole care of a common carrier; thus 
depriving it of the last offices of affection, to fulfil a superstitious 
wish on one side, and as an absurd compliance on the other; when, 
ten to one, that after all, the dead, so brought, would be interred 
even within view of the places, to lie in whose sacred inclosures, 
probably some enormous sum had been paid. 
Besides this traffic of holy supererogation, Koom was formerly 
celebrated for an extensive commerce in silks. But every 
manufacture has ceased ; and nothing is now done in the way of 
employment by the present inhabitants, but cultivating a little 
3 c 
VOL. I. 
