We will only add a few words more touching the flowers, wreaths, and different kinds of garlands, which are found, either painted or sculptured, in many sepulchres. This, indeed, appertains to a custom of the old Romans, by them borrowed from the Greeks, of not only binding a wreath round the temples of the dead, but also of honouring their tombs by annually strewing flowers and roses, and by sprinkling odours [in them]; for they had a notion that this was grateful to the defunct. And such usages were so prevalent, that many, on the approach of death, tied down their heirs, by clauses in their wills, to the performance of this duty; a large sum of money being set apart for the purpose. This we learn, not only from ancient authors, both Greek and Latin, but likewise from sepulchral inscriptions and decorations: which last, as we gather from ancient tombs still remaining, consisted of wreaths, garlands, foliage, and flowers. Nor did they merely enjoin that these annual obsequies should be celebrated by roses and odours; but, moreover, with this very view, they purchased gardens [or orchards] adjoining their sepulchres, and appropriated the rents of them to their obsequies: which may be inferred from the following inscription.—Long: Patrollus, influenced by the religious observances of his order, did, during his lifetime, make a donation of a hundred fruit orchards, with the building adjoining this sepulchre, in order that, from their rents, an abundant supply of roses and herbs might be appropriated to his patron’s obsequies [might adorn his patron’s grave,] and, some day, his own.
The formula most used in ancient inscriptions is—‘That roses be brought annually to his monument:’ because roses were considered more costly than other flowers.
These remarks are quite in point, and make sufficiently clear the purpose of the ornaments painted in this sepulchre. For, when the survivors of a dead person were unable, for want of funds set apart for that purpose, to bring fresh roses, garlands, &c., and to give banquets in his honour, we may suppose that they then caused, as being next to the reality, a representation of such funereal ceremonies to be depicted on the walls of his sepulchre.
But what is somewhat in confirmation of this ancient custom is a usage which still obtains among the Christians and Mahometans of Egypt. Every year they perform funereal rites at the tombs of their deceased relations. These consist in going to the cemetery, a whole family together; and there, under a tent, or, if rich people, in a small structure raised for that purpose over the tomb, they pass several days, moaning and howling at certain intervals, and then quietly amusing themselves in eating, smoking, conversation, or whatever else they please to do.
Of the antiquity of tombs hollowed out in rocks we have the testimony of the Holy Scriptures, as used by the Jews, and of Herodotus, as common among the Egyptians. The Greeks originally burned their dead: and it was, probably, at the time of the invasion of the Persian empire by Alexander, that the custom of using stone coffins was first adopted by them.
CHAPTER XI.
Plague at Abra—Terror occasioned by it—Peasants forsake the village—Alarm of Lady Hester—Imaginary virtues of bezoar and serpent stone—Funerals—Embarrassment of the Author—Illness of his servant—Increase of the contagion—Medical Treatment—Arrival of the Kite sloop of war—Number of victims of the plague—Pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Haneh—Prickly heat—Lady Hester goes to reside at Meshmûshy—Costume of the Drûzes—Maronite monastery—Camel’s flesh eaten—Bridge of Geser Behannýn—Journey of the Author to Bteddyn—Sons of the Emir Beshýr—Wedding at Abra—Moorish Conjuror—Return of Giorgio—Vineyards—Wines—Dibs—Raisins—Olive Harvest—Figs—Country between Abra and Meshmûshy.
From the end of March the plague had been reported to have shown itself in Sayda: still, up to the middle of April, no sure information could be obtained. At last, however, the number of deaths put the matter beyond doubt, and the more prudent part of the inhabitants began to prepare for shutting up their houses: and in the village of Abra, the peasants consulted me on the propriety of forbidding any person to go to Sayda under any pretext whatever.[104] The order was easy of execution as far as regarded Sayda, but it was not so in respect to the gardens. Many of the peasants bred silkworms by mulberry leaves brought thence, which they fetched night and morning; and, as these poor people calculated on the profits of their silk, as those of Kent do on hop-picking, they conceived any risk preferable to such a loss.
On the 26th the repairs of the convent being concluded, Lady Hester desired a cask of wine to be given away among the workmen and the villagers. This was done at the door of my cottage, and both men and women drank with such avidity that one woman fell drunk in the road, and others were inebriated. A dance was performed by some of the young men, accompanied by singing in dialogue, which was very amusing. A group represents a party of Arabs, who, by a description of the charms of a damsel of their tribe, invite a youth to take her for his bride. In proportion as the youth’s imagination is warmed by their eulogy, they increase their demands for her price: at last, they work upon him so greatly, that, after having given his camel, mare, tent, and all he is possessed of, piece by piece, he strips off every article of dress from his person, and offers them also.[105]
On the 29th one of the peasants, named Constantine, who had been present at this ceremony, died; and his death, which was immediately attributed to plague, excited great consternation; as every body had mixed in the crowd before my door where he was. No suspicion was entertained even that he was ill, until the day of his death, when, of his own accord, he expressed a wish to confess himself; and the curate immediately afterwards gave notice that he was dying. The circumstances of his death were remarkable. He was about sixty years old, and had not, for many years, been to the hot bath; when, in an unlucky hour, the fancy took him to go to one at Sayda, wherein, or at which time, he caught the plague. It was not certainly known how many days he had been ill, but it was generally supposed seven or eight: although every body averred that he had been walking about, or at his accustomed labour of ploughing, up to the day preceding his death. Even on the morning of the day on which he died, he went with some other peasants to Dayr Makhallas, on business with his landlord, the patriarch. He saw the prelate, obtained his answer to his demands, and returned, as he went, on foot. At two he took to his bed; about three said he wished to confess; and at eight was a corpse. I afterwards witnessed some other remarkable instances of the sturdy resistance which these mountaineers made to sickness.