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The leaf of eglantine, whom not to slander, 
Out-sweeten’d not thy breath .... 
Yea, and furr’d moss besides, when flowers are none, 
To winter-ground thy corse.” 
Evelyn, in his Sylva, alludes to this practice as a 
thing of ordinary occurrence in his day, subjoining 
this beautiful moral: — “ We adorn their graves with 
flowers and redolent plants, just emblems of the life of 
man, which has been compared in Holy Scriptures to 
those fading beauties, whose roots, being buried in 
dishonour, rise again in glory.” 
It is only in remote villages that this significant 
custom still holds with us; for the poor seem to have a 
sort of practical sentimentalism about them, which 
makes them cling to those ancient rites, once alike 
common to the palace and the cottage. 
In foreign lands, however, and in the East more 
especially, where manners and fashions are less liable 
to change, such rites are observed amongst all ranks. 
“ The women in Egypt,” says Maillet, “ go at least two 
days in the week to pray and weep at the sepulchres 
of the dead; and the custom then is to throw upon the 
tombs a sort of herb which the Arabs call rihan, which 
is our sweet basil.” 
Hasselquist also mentions, with much commendation, 
