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Being on horseback, they carry their young children upon their shoulders, with great dexterity. These children hold by the head of him who carries them, whether he be on horseback, or on foot, and do not hinder him from walking, or doing what he pleases."-DANDINI.

MATERNAL INFLUENCE.

1 SAMUEL XX. 30.

"Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said unto him, Thou son of the perverse rebellious woman."

"When the Eastern people are angry with any one, they abuse and vilify his parents. Saul did not intend to reproach his wife personally, but to intimate his wrath against her son. This treatment is acutely felt by the children. In every Eastern family, the great object of respect and devotion is the mother. Witness the familiar expression, 'Pull my father's beard, but do not speak ill of my mother.' In Africa, maternal affection is always conspicuous, and creates a correspondent return of tenderness in the child. 'Strike me,' said a traveller's servant to his master, but do not curse my mother.'"— URQUHART's Spirit of the East; and Note on this passage in Treasury Bible.

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LAMENTATIONS FOR THE DEAD-MOURNING FOR HOSSEIN MOURNING WOMEN - VIOLENT GRIEF OF THE MOURNERS SIGNS OF MOURNING-FORTY DAYS' MOURNING-OPEN BIERSSITTING, A POSTURE OF MOURNING IN THE EAST- BURNING AND EMBALMING-FUNERAL OF A JEWESS IN POLAND.

LAMENTATIONS, &c. FOR THE DEAD.

GENESIS xlv. 2.

"And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard."

EXODUS XXxiii. 4-6.

"And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned and no man did put on him his ornaments. For the Lord had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiff-necked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee. And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb."

LEVITICUS Xix. 28.

"Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the Lord."

DEUTERONOMY XIV. 1..

"Ye shall not make any baldness between your eyes for the dead."

1 KINGS Xviii. 28.

"And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner, with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them." (Jer. xvi. 5-7.)

JOB i. 20.

"Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped."

PSALM lvi. 8.

"Put thou my tears into thy bottle."

JEREMIAH ix. 17-18.

"Call for the mourning women, that they may come ; and send for cunning women, that they may come and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters." (Amos v. 16.)

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JEREMIAH Xxii. 18.

They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!" (1 Kings xiii. 30.)

EZEKIEL Xxiv. 17.

"Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of thine head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men."

MATTHEW ix. 23.

"...Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise."

LUKE Xxiii. 48.

"And all the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned." (xviii. 13.)

MOURNING FOR HOSSEIN.

Mr. Morier witnessed the celebration which takes place annually in Persia, of the death of Hossein, * grandson of Mahomet, who was slain. The commemoration of this event awakens the strongest passions of the Persians, entertaining, as they do, the highest veneration for the person of Hossein. "I have seen the most violent of them as they vociferated, Ya Hossein! walk about the streets almost naked, with only their loins covered, and their bodies streaming with blood by the voluntary cuts which they have given to themselves,

*Hossein was the grandson of Mahomet, and was by the Persians believed to be the rightful Khalif: he was, however, rejected by the majority of the followers of Mahomet, and was slain by the troops of his rival. The Persians mourn for him annually.

either as acts of love, anguish, or mortification.-MORIER'S Second Journey into Persia, pp. 176, 177.

On entering a large assembly of Persians, "we found them clad in dark coloured clothes, which, accompanied with their black caps, their black beards, and their dismal faces, really looked as if they were afflicting their souls. We observed that no man did put on his ornaments.' They neither wore their daggers nor any part of their dress which they look upon as ornamental. A priest without, surrounded by the populace, read a part of the tragic history of Hossein, which soon produced a great effect upon the audience. Most of them appeared to cry very unaffectedly. In some of these mournful assemblies, it is the custom for a priest to go about to each person at the height of his grief, with a piece of cotton in his hand, with which he carefully collects the falling tears, and which he then squeezes into a bottle, preserving them with the greatest caution. Some Persians believe that in the agony of death, when all medicines have failed, a drop of tears, so collected, put into the mouth of a dying man, has been known to revive him; and it is for such use that they are collected. . . . .

"In front of the palace a circle of the king's own tribe were standing barefooted, and beating their breasts in cadence to the chaunting of one who stood in the centre, and with whom they now and then joined their voices in chorus. Smiting the breast is an universal act throughout the mourning; and the breast is made bare for that purpose, by unbuttoning the top of the shirt."-MORIER'S Second Journey, &c., pp. 178, 179.

"The Moollâhs say, the angels descend and catch the tears of those who weep, on this occasion, to be preserved and presented as passports into Paradise."-PERKIN'S Residence in Persia, &c., p. 209.

On the occasion of a death in the East, the women of the family break out into the most violent lamentations, ng out,, "O my master! O camel of the house!

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