Greese they do first expose their Daughters to any that will lye with them and then give them in Marriage They believe that after Death their Souls ascend unto the Stars and go down with them under the Horrison into a Paradise of Pleasure They believe also that God stuck a multitude of Arrows in the Beginning into the Ground and of these sprung up Men and Women They have divers ridiculous Opinions of God as That he once drank much Tobacco and then gave the Pipe to their Governour with a Command that he should keep it carefully and so doing he should want nothing but he lost the Pipe and so fell into Want and Misery They use to sing to the Devils Praises to dance about Fires which they make to his Honour and leap over them They bemoan the Dead a great while and bring Presents to their Graves In Florida the Chief Deities are the Sun and Moon which they honour with Dances and Songs Once a Year they offer to the Sun a Harts-hide stuffed with Herbs hanging Garlands of Fruits about his Horns so presenting this Gift toward the East they pray the Sun to make the Land produce the same Fruits again but to their Kings they use to sacrifice their first-born Males much of their Devotion like the rest of barbarous Savages consisting in singing dancing howling feasting and cutting off their own Skins Adultery in the Woman is punished with whipping In some parts of this Country the next of Kin is permitted to cut the Adulteresses Throat and the Woman to cut the Adulterers Throat In some parts also of the Country they worship the Devil who when he complains of Thirst humane Blood is shed to quench his Thirst When a King is buryed the Cup wherein he used to drink is still 〈◊〉 upon his Grave and round about the same are stuck many Arrows the People weep and fast three days together the neighbour Kings his Friends cut off half their Hair Women are hired who for six Months howl for him three times a day This honour the King and Priest have that they are buried in their Houses and burned with their Houses and Goods XII In Mexico besides their inferiour Priests they had one Chief whose Habit was a Crown of rich Feathers on his Head Pendants of Gold with green Stones at his Ears and under his Lips an azure Stone His Office was to receive the Body of the Dead King at the Temple door with a mournful Song to open the Breast of the sacrificed Man to pull out his Heart to offer it to the Sun and then to fling that to the Idol to which the man was sanctified The inferiour Priests in the interim holding the Legs Arms and Head of the sacrificed Wretch whilst his Heart was taking out They used also to flay off the Skins of men and cloath some therewith who went about dancing and forcing People to offer them Presents or else they would strike them over the face with the bloody Corner of the Skin The Priests Office also was to burn Incense before their Idols every Morning Noon-tide Evening and at Mid-night for then with Trumpets and Coronets they sounded a long time which done they burned the Incense in Censures with much Reverence and then they beat themselves and draw Blood with sharp Bodkins they preach also on some Festival days to the People The Revenues of the Priests were great the Temples in State Magnificence and Wealth exceed ours The Priests were all anointed and wear their Hair long for they never cut it They did sometimes anoint themselves with an Unguent made of venomous Beasts which made them without fear and armed them with Cruelty They painted their Skins black they washed their new born Children and let them Blood in their Ears they performed Marriages by asking the Parties mutual Consent and tying together a Corner of the Womans Vail with the Corner of the Man's Gown and so brought them to the Bridegroom's groom's House causing the Bride to go seven times about the Hearth They buried the dead either in their Gardens or on Mountains sometimes they burned the Body and if he was a great man they killed his Chaplain and his Officers to attend him burying also Wealth with him that he might not want in the other World The Priest used to attire himself in these great Funerals like a Devil with many Mouths and glass Eyes and with his Staff stirred and mingled the Ashes When the King dyed the Priests were to sing his Elogies and to sacrifice two hundred Persons to serve him Adultery was punished with Death and so was Dishonesty in their Nuns and Monks of which there were two great Cloysters at Mexico XIII The Indians of Peru believed commonly That the Souls lived after this Life and that the Good were in Glory and the Bad in Pain so as there is little difficulty to perswade them to these Articles But they are not yet come to the Knowledge of that point that the Bodies should rise with the Souls and therefore they did use a wonderful Care to preserve the Bodies which they honoured after Death To this end their Successors gave them Garments and made Sacrifices unto them especially the King 's Inguas being accompanied at their Funerals with a great number of Servants and Women for their Service in the other Life and therefore on the day of his decease they did put to death the Woman he had loved best his Servants and Officers that they might serve him in the other Life When as Guanacapa died who was Father to Ataguâ—lpa at what time the Spaniards entred Peru they put to death a thousand Persons of all Ages and Conditions for his Service to accompany him in the other Life after many Songs and Drunkenness they slew them and these that were appointed to death held themselves happy They did sacrifice many things unto them especially young Children and with the Blood they made a stroak on the dead man's Face from one Ear to the other This Superstition and Inhumanity to kill both Men and Women to accompany and serve the Dead in the other Life hath been followed by others and is at this day used amongst some other barbarous Nations And as Apollo writes it hath been in a manner general throughout all the Indies The Reverend Beda reports That before the English-men were converted to the Gospel they had the same Custom to kill men to accompany and serve the dead It is written of a Portugal who being Captive among the Barbarians had been hurt with a Dart so as he lost one Eye and as they would have sacrificed him to accompany a Noble-man that was dead he said unto them That those that were in the other Life would make small account of the dead if they gave him a blind man for a Companion and that it were better to give him an Attendant that had both his Eyes this Reason being found good by the Barbarians they let him go Besides this
Paint and Yellings for twenty four hours None but the King and Priest may enter these Houses where the Images of Devils and their Kings are kept Instead of saying Grace at Meat they fling the first Bit into the Fire and when they will appease a Storm they cast Tobacco into the Water sometimes they sacrifice Children to the Devil XVIII In Hispaniola they worshipped the Sun and Moon which they say at first shined out of a Cave and their Tradition is That out of two Caves came Mankind the biggest men out of the greatest Cave and the least men out of the lesser Cave They worship also divers Idols with ugly Shapes by which the Devil useth to speak to them these they call Zermes to which they kept divers Festivals In these they had their publick Dances with the Musick of Shells tyed about their Arms Thighs and Legs The King fits drumming when the People present themselves having their Skins painted with divers Colours of Herbs When they sacrifice they use with a sacred Hook to thrust down their Throats to turn up their Stomachs then they sitdown in a Ring cross-legged and wry-necked about the Idol praying their Sacrifice might be accepted In some places the Women dance about their Idols and sing the Prayers of their ancient Kings then both Sexes on their Knees offer Cakes which the Priests cut and give to every one a piece this each Man keeps as a Relick against Dangers If any fall sick the Priests impute this to their neglect in the Idol's Service therefore exhort them to build a Chappel or dedicate a Grove to their God they think the Ghosts of the dead walk who assault such as are fearful and vanish from them who are not afraid XIX In Malabar they have a Pagod or Idol which they worship seated upon a brazen Throne and crowned with a rich Diadem From his Head issue out four Horns from his Mouth four Tusks his Eyes fiery like a Glow-worm his Nose flat and ugly his Visage terrible his Hands like Claws his Legs and Thighs like those of a Lion in a word we cannot paint the Devil in a more ugly Figure than they do their God Unto this Pagod or his Priest they offer the Virginity of all their Daughters the Pagod having in the place of his Privy Parts a Bodkin of Gold or Silver upon which the Bride marryed most commonly at ten or twelve years of Age is forcibly set the sharpness of it being such that it forceth out the Blood in great Abundance and if she prove with Child that Year it is said to be of his begetting and the more esteemed Others with more Humanity instead of torturing their Daughters on this wretched Idol paralel almost to the offering their Sons to Moloch amongst the Syrians present them to the Bramini or Idol-Priest to be defloured the first Night of the Wedding and without one of these two Handsels no man is suffered to enjoy the use of his Wife not their Kings themselves More priviledged yet than many VVomen neighbouring on them in that they are not compelled to burn themselves with their Husbands Bodies but may have many Husbands either successively or at once as they list themselves and if at once she sends her Children to that Husband as we know who did who she thinks to have the best right to them XX. The former Story brings to mind a Custom amongst the Scots which took beginning as the Scottish Historians affirm in the Reign of Ewen the Third who is the fifteenth King in their Catalogue after the first Fergus This Ewen being a Prince much addicted or wholly rather given over unto lasciviousness made a Law that himself and his Successors should have the Maiden-Head or first Nights Lodging with every VVoman whose Husband held Land immediately from the Crown and the Lords and Gentlemen of all those whose Husbands were their Tenants or Homagers This was it seems the Knights Service which men held their Estates by and continued till the days of Malcolm Commor who at the Request of his VVife Margaret she was the Sister of Edgar Atheling abolished this Law and ordained That the Tenants by way of Commutation should pay unto their Lords a Mark in Money which Tributes the Historians say is still in force XXI In Loango a Country under the Line they worship Idols and are circumcised Every Tradesman appeaseth his God with such things as belong to his Trade the Husband-man with Corn the VVeaver with Cloath c. At the Death of their Friends they kill Goats to the honour of their Idols and make divers Feasts in memorial of the dead They will rather dye than touch any Meat which is prohibited by their Priests At Keaga the Sea-Port of Loango there is an Idol kept by an old VVoman which is once a Year honoured with great Solemnity and feasting There is another Idol at Morumba thirty Leagues Northward where Boys are sworn to serve this God and are initiated with hard Diet ten days Silence Abstinence from certain Meats and a Cut in their Shoulder the Blood of which is sprinkled at the Idol's Feet Their Tryals of Life and Death are in the Presence of this Idol At Anzichi they are circumcised worship the Sun and Moon and each man his particular Idol In some of these neighbouring Countries the People are Man-eaters and worship the Devil to whom they offer Sacrifice which they continue from Morning till Night using charming Vociferations dancing and piping XXII Gentilism is likewise professed in Guinea for they adore strawen things instead of God of whom they speak blasphemously calling him evil black and the Author of their Miseries and that they are no ways beholding to him for what they enjoy but to their own Industry They put within their Rings Wheat Water and Oyl for their God to feed upon such Rings are worn by many as Preservatives against Danger Their Priests use to preach to them on Festival days and after Sermon to besprinkle the Infants with Water in which a Newt doth swim They consecrate to their Idol the first Bit and Draught of their Meat and Drink But I believe this black God they rail against is the Devil whom their cunning Priests represent to that ignorant People in some black and ugly Shape sometimes of a black Dog If they paint themselves with Chalk they think they do good Service to their God When he is angry with them they use to bribe the Priest with Gold so their Fishermen are use to do when they have no success at Sea the Priest with his Wives walk in Procession knocking his Breasts and clapping his Hands then hanging some Boughs from their Necks and playing on a Timbrel the Priests fling Wheat into the Sea to appease the angry God They have certain Trees in great Veneration consulting with them as with Oracles using divers foolish Ceremonies They worship a certain Bird which hath Feathers like Stars and a voice like a Bull. The Tunny is
with Cerdon maintained his Heresie and became his Successor in the time of Marcus Antoninus Philosophus one hundred thirty three years after Christ He held three Gods a visible invisible and a middle one that the Body of Christ was only a Phantasm that Christ by his Descent into Hell delivered thence Cain and the Sodomites and other Reprobates He condemned the eating of Flesh and the married Life he held that Souls only were saved permitted Women to baptize and condemned all War as unlawful Polycarpus called him the first begotten of the Devil Justin Martyr wrote a Book against him XXXIII 7. Tutianus whence came the Tutiani was a Syrian by Birth an Orator and familiar with Justin Martyr under whom he wrote a profitable Book against the Gentiles He flourished one hundred forty two Years after Christ his Disciples were also called Eneratita from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Temperance or Continence for they abstain from Wine Flesh or Marriage When Justin Martyr was dead he composed his Tenents out of divers others He held that Adam after his Fall was never restored to Mercy that all Men are damned besides his Disciples that Women are made by the Devil He condemned the Law of Moses made use of Water instead of Wine in the Sacrament and denied that Christ was the Seed of David he wrote a Gospel of his own which he called Diatesseron and spread his Heresie through Pisidia and Cilicia XXXIV 8. Montanus Father of the Montanists His Heresie began about one hundred forty five Years after Christ by Nation he was a Phrygian and carried about with him two Strumpets Prisca and Maximilla who fled from their Husbands to follow him these took upon them to prophesie and their Dictates were held by Montanus for Oracles but at last he and they for Company hanged themselves his Disciples ashamed either of his Life or ignominious Death called themselves Cataphrygians He confounded the Persons in the Trinity saying That the Father suffered he held Christ to be mere Man and gave out that he himself was the Holy Ghost his Disciples baptized the dead denied Repentance and Marriage yet allowed of Incest They trusted to Revelations and Enthusiasms and not to the Scripture In the Eucharist they mingled the Bread with the Blood of an Infant not a Year old In Phrygia this Heresie began and spread it self over all Cappadocia XXXV 9. Origen gave Name to the Origanists whose Errors began to spread Anno Dom. 247. under Aurelian the Emperour and continued about three hundred thirty four years They were condemned first in the Council of Alexandria two hundred years after his death and again in the fifth General Council of Constantinople under Justinian the first They held a Revolution of Souls from their estate and condition after death into their Bodies again They held the Devils and Reprobates after one thousand years should be saved That Christ and the holy Church do no more see the Father than we see the Angels That the Son is co-essential with the Father but not co-eternal because say they the Father created both him and the Spirit That Souls were created long before this World and for sinning in Heaven were sent down into their Bodies as into Prisons They did also overthrow the whole Historical truth of Scriptures by their Allegories XXXVI 10. Paulus Samosatenus so called from Samosata near Euphrates where he was born a man of infinite pride commanding himself to be received as an Angel His Heresie broke out two hundred thirty two years after Christ and hath continued in the Eastern Parts ever since He held that Christ was merely Man and had no Being till his Incarnation That the Godhead dwelt not in Christ bodily but as in the Prophets of old by Grace and Efficacy and that he was only the external not the internal Word of God therefore they did not baptise in his Name for which the Council of Nice rejected their Baptism as none and ordered they should be re-baptized who were baptized by them He denied the Divinity of the Holy Ghost allowed Circumcision took away such Psalms as were sung in honour of Christ and instead thereof ordered some in honour of himself to be sung in Churches by Women In the Synod of Antioch he was convicted by Malchion a Presbyter and condemned Anno 273. This Heresie was also embraced by Photinus Gelatian Bishop of Sirmium and propagated by him Anno 323. and thence they took the name of Photinians XXXVII 11. Manis a Persian by Birth and a Servant by Condition was Father of the Manichoran Seat he was flead alive for poysoning the King of Persia's Son yet his wicked Opinions raged in the World for three hundred and forty Years after his Death He held two Principals or Gods one good one bad condemned eating of Flesh Eggs and Milk held that God had Members and was substantially in every thing how base soever but was separate from them by Christ's coming and the Elect Manichorans He rejected the Old Testament and curtailed the New by excluding Christ's Genealogy he held Christ was the Serpent which deceived our first Parents saying that he feigned to dye and rose again and that it was really the Devil who truly was crucified He denyed the Resurrection and held Transmigration he affirmed that he was the Comforter whom Christ promised to send They worshipped the Sun and Moon and other Idols they condemned Marriages and permitted promiscuous Copulation they rejected Baptism as needless and all works of Charity they taught that our Will to Sin is natural and not acquired by the Fall that Sin is a Substance and not a Quality communicated from Parents to their Children they say they cannot sin deny the last Judgment and affirm that their Souls shall be taken up to the Globe of the Moon XXXVIII 12. Arrius whence sprung the Arrians was a Lybian by Birth by Profession a Presbyter of Alexandria His Heresie brake out two hundred and ninety Years before Christ and over-ran a great part of the Christian World They held Christ to be a Creature that he had a Man's Body but no humane Soul the Divinity supplying the room thereof they also held the Holy Ghost a Creature proceeding from a Creature that is Christ their Doxology was Glory be to the Father by the Son in the Holy Ghost they re-baptize the Orthodox Christians This Heresie was condemned by the Council of Nice under Constantine and Arrius himself in the midst of his Pomp seized with a Disentery voided his Guts in the Draught and so dyed XXXIX 13. Macedonius Bishop of Constantinople gave Name to the Macedonians They held that the Holy Ghost was a Creature and the Servant of God and that by the Holy Spirit was meant only a Power created by God and communicated to the Creatures This Heresie sprung up or rather was stifly maintained under Constantius the Son of Constantine three hundred and twelve Years after Christ and was condemned in the second Occumenical Council at
of his afflicted Condition As soon as the King knew him though he was not ignorant how he had sought his Restauration both by Force and Fraud yet he lovingly embraced him and caused him privately to be conveyed into the City The King pretended he was sick and giving forth that he would dispose of the Affairs of his Realm by his last Will and Testament he called his Nobles together He then signified that he would confer in private with each of them singly and as every Man entred his Chamber he caused him to be laid hold on threatning him with Death if he would not consent to the sparing of his Brother and that he should resign the Throne and Kingdom to him Having by this means gained an universal Assent he then opened the business in the presence of them all together So Archigallus was restored to the Kingdom and he dying in few Years Heliodorus succeeded him with equal Justice and Glory CXXV Rare and memorable was the Love that was betwixt the Vitellii they were named Johannes Camillus Paulus and Vitellorius these four were the Sons of Nicolaus Vitellius a principal Person in the City of Tifernas to whom while he lived they performed all due Obedience He dead all the rest were all ways and in all things obedient to the Commands of their elder Brother and although for the greatness of their Military Virtue they were all in high Reputation amongst them that bare Arms and were Leaders of Armies in Italy and were hired with great Stipends to assist on this or the other side yea tho they were all married and had attained the Name of their Father yet were they not affected with the least Ambition amongst themselves nor was there ever any Breach of Love betwixt them When the eldest of them died the other yielded the Power of Command to him that was next in Age in all things else they were alike in such manner that it is a difficult thing to find such another example of brotherly Love and Concord CXXVI Darius King of the Persians extreamly provoked by Crimes of an extraordinary Nature had pronounced a Sentence of Death upon Ithaphernes his Children and the whole Family of them at once the Wife of Ithaphernes went to the King's Palace and there all in Tears was so loud in her mournful Lamentations that her Cries coming to the King's Ears moved him in such manner to Compassion that the King sent her word that with her own he gave her the Life of any single Person whom she would make choice of among the condemned The Woman begged the Life of her Brother Darius wondred that she should rather ask his Life than the Life of her Husband or any of her Children and therefore asked the Reason who replied That since her Father was dead she could never hope for a Brother more if she should lose this but that her self being but young as yet might hope for another Husband and other Children Darius was moved with this answer and being himself repleat with brotherly Love as well as prudence he gave her likewise the life of her elder Son CXXVII In the division of the Norman Empire Robert promised to his Brother Roger the half of Calabria and all Scicily but when it came to sharing and dividing Robert would give his Brother nothing in Calabria but Meto and Squillaci and bade him the purchase of the Realm which he already began to possess meaning Scicily and in the end resolved as Artaxander wrote to Darius that as the World could not endure two Suns so one Realm could not endure two Sovereign Lords Roger being much displeased herewith made War upon him and after many adventures having taken him Prisoner in a Castle where Robert was unwisely entred in the habit of a Peasant with a purpose to bring it to his own Devotion Roger of a Brotherly love and pity not only saved his life but also restored him to his Estate which by right of War and bring a Prisoner he had lost CXXVIII there was a Souldier in the Camp of On. Pompeius who was in the War with Scitorius perceiving a Souldier on the other side to press hard upon him he fought with him hand to hand and having slain him he went about to strip him of his Arms here it was that he found it was his Brother who had fallen under him which when he discerned having long and much reproached the Gods for their gifts of so impious a Victory to him he carried his dead Brother into the Camp and having covered the Body with a precious Garment he laid the Corps upon the Funeral Pile and put fire to it which done he immediately drew the same Sword wherewith he had slain his Brother he thrust it into his Breast and so falling prostrate upon the dead Body of his Brother they were both burned together CXXIX And now an Example or two of the singular love of some Servants to their Masters and for that purpose tell how Grimoaldus Duke of Benevento was invited by Gondibert King of the Lombards to assist him against Partharis his Brother he came accordingly and having ejected the one he slew the other Brother he came to defend and so made himself King of the Lombards and when he knew that Partharis was retreated to Cacanus Duke of Bavaria he wrought so that he was expelled from thence Partharis not knowing wither to betake himself in safety comes as a Suppliant and commits himself to the Faith of Grimoaldus But he observing that Numbers of the Scicinensians flocked daily to him and fearing lest by the favour of the People he should some time or other recover the Kingdom not regarding his Oath he resolved to make him away and that he might perform it with less noise and tumult he intended first to make him Drunk and then send his Guards to cut his Throat while he lay baried in Wine and sleep This counsel of his was not so privately carried but that it came to the Ear of Partharis he therefore commands his Gup-bearer to give him Water in stead of Wine knowing then he could not indulge his Genius lest his troubled head should prove unmindful of the danger he was in nor could he abstain altogether from drinking lest Grimoaldus's Spies should discover that he had intimation of his intentions The better therefore to colour the matter after large drinking he caused himself to be carried by his Servants into his Chamber as to sleep out his Debauch There he consults with Hunnulphus his most faithful Servant who thought it not safe to go forth since the Servants of Grimoaldus stood at the Gate But in regard necessity compelled and that there was no other way of escape he orders it thus he covers his Head and Shoulders with the Skin of a Bear which was there by chance after the manner of a Rustick and layeth upon his back a Mattriss as if he was a Porter to carry it away and then with good Blows of a
would but desire it with no less morossity answered he would indeed petition Alexander not for life but liberty to burn himself giving this reason that death was in no wise terrible where it is only an inlet unto immortality in exchange of his old perishing Flesh expecting a more durable and excellent condition CLXXIII The Funerals of the Chinezes are after this sort When any dies they first wash then perfume and lastly apparel the Corps and put his best Cloaths on then cover his head and having set him a Chair his Wife entring the Room first gives him a respect and then kisses him After that she takes her farewel with as much sorrow as can be imagined she is no sooner gone but his Children enter in order according to their Seniorities they first kneel and then kiss the dead mans's hand yea strive to outvie each other in their ejaculations expressing their Love by sorrowfull countenances and gestures as beating their Breasts and pouring out tears in abundance being withdrawn next his kindred act their parts and lastly his Friends and other more remote acquaintance the third day they lay him in a Coffin of precious Wood which they cover with a Silk Cloth and over it place his Picture for fifteen days in that sort the Corps rests and each day a Table is spread with meat which nightly the Priests have the liberty to eat for 't is they who burn the Incense and offer Sacrifice When they carry it to the Grave Women are hired to howl the better to move others to compassion sometimes upon his Coffin they place the Image of a dead man whom they expect should shew him the surest and readiest way to Elizyum that done the Women and Children for some daies seclude themselves and when abroad go dolourously habited for they put course Sack-cloath near their Skin have their Cloaths made long and plain and for three years are not seen to laugh or joy in any thing but to the utmost of their Power exercise their Love by their continual lamentation abstinence from Feasts and Pastimes and in all their Letters subscribe themselvs such one 's disobedient and unworthy Widdow Child or what may best set forth Observance CLXXIV The Gowers being such as follow the old Religion of the Persians differ in their Funeral Ceremonies from the Persees who live at present in the Indies for in reverence to the Fire these not only forbear to burn the dead fearing to offer it an unclean thing but even hold it a Crime to spit into the Fire which yet they repute Sacred But whereas the Egyptians powder the dead with Salt and Spices to preserve them from putrefaction the Perse in India expose the dead to the Sun's rage till he have eaten them And these Gowers oft times put them in the hollow of a Tree standing upright supported by the Bole till observation release them For if the Vultur pick out his right Eye first then they conclude that he is in Paradice if the left then a Cacodaemon vexes him and they feast or fast by that observation as Joy or Sorrow is occasioned Contrary to the Persian Satrapae who had their Graves so deep in the sides of Rocks and Mountains that they were usually let down by cords or other like device many Fathoms the Corps being first embalmed The Burials of the Persians revive some Ceremonies that of old were used amongst the Jews and Gentiles at his farewel to the World the next of Kin close the Eyes as did Joseph in the 46 cap. of Genesis and Telemachus in Ovid Ille meos Occulos comprimat ille tuos The nobler sort of People had their Sepulchres in the sides of Mountains or Hills about Persepolis howbeit some used to embalm the Brains being exhausted by a silver Engine the Belly so soon as dissected and the Bowels extracted cleansed with Wine farced with Cassica Myrrhe and other Spices was then closed and buried in extraordinary deep Pits or Vaults or in places boarded in the sides of Mountains But the poorer sort used only Bitumen or else the Juice of Cedars which resists Putrefication Howbeit the most useful way of Burial is this first They wash the Corps with clean Water as we find practised to Tabitha in Act. 9. they carry it orderly and with Silence to the Grave then lodge the Carcass not in Machits or Churches but Church-yards and where none lay formerly supposing it a vile part to disturb the dead whom in the Grave they think sensible of Torment they place his Head towards Medina and for seven days the next of Kin watch to keep if possible the evil Angel from his Grave incessantly warbling out Elegiac Threnodies as the last expression of Love they can shew Others thus In the first place go those of his Blood next them his Varlets naked to the Waste the rest in Trouses who to express their Zeal burn or scratch their Arms and Breasts and cut and print Circles in their Flesh a Mode borrowed from the Jews prohibited by Moses Levit. 19.28 Deut. 14.1 so that the Blood oft trickles down in many places next them are ranked Youths whose Shoulders bear some Texts out of the Alcoran mixing with them Eulogies of the Defunct which they ingeminate next these follow many Persons of best rank each putting his hand to the Cord that draws the Hearse and on every side throng the Multitude some bearing in their hands Lawrel or Cypress others Garlands of Flowers Fruits and what best befits the Season some seminated Horse-men play along and oft times to demonstrate their Love spare not to wound their Carcasses in the last place go the Preficae or Women hired to weep and howl who tear their false Hair probably smell to Onions for the procuring of Tears and use such impostures as did the Antick Romans who made it an Art to mourn and by their counterfeit Tears and Shricks to provoke others to Passion and like Lamentation But the Funerals of the Persees is in this Manner They neither burn nor bury their dead but having first put the Body into a Winding-sheet all the way they pass towards the Grave his Kindred beat their Breasts but with little noise till they come within fifty or a hundred Paces of the Burial place where the Herbood meets them usually attired in a yellow Scarf and on his head wearing a thin Turband The Necessilars or Bearers bear the Corps upon an iron Bier for Wood is forbidden in that it is dedicated to the Fire to a little shed where so soon as some Mistiques are acted they hoise up to the top of a round Building some of which are twelve foot high and eighty in circuit the entrance is for the most part at the North-east side where through a small Grate they convey the Carcass into a Monument good men into one bad into another 't is flat above open to the Air plaister'd with white Loam hard and smooth like that of Paris in the midst