D’Ohsson.
[139] In the Meidan, or Great Place of the city of Tauris, there are people appointed every evening when the sun sets, and every morning when he rises, to make during half an hour a terrible concert of trumpets and drums. They are placed on one side of the Square, in a gallery somewhat elevated; and the same practice is established in every city in Persia.
Tavernier.
[140] If we except a few persons, who are buried within the precincts of some sanctuary, the rest are carried out at a distance from their cities and villages, where a great extent of ground is allotted for that purpose. Each family hath a particular portion of it, walled in like a garden, where the bones of their ancestors have remained undisturbed for many generations. For in these enclosures[l] the graves are all distinct and separate; having each of them a stone, placed upright, both at the head and feet, inscribed with the name of the person who lieth there interred; whilst the intermediate space is either planted with flowers, bordered round with stone or paved all over with tiles. The graves of the principal citizens are further distinguished by some square chambers or Cupolas[m] that are built over them.
Now as all these different sorts of tombs and sepulchres, with the very walls likewise of the enclosures, are constantly kept clean, white-washed and beautified, they continue, to this day, to be an excellent comment upon that expression of our Saviour’s, where he mentions the garnishing of the sepulchres, and again where he compares the scribes, pharisees and hypocrites, to whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. For the space of two or three months after any person is interred, the female relations go once a week to weep over the grave and perform their parentalia upon it.
Shaw.
About a quarter of a mile from the town of Mylasa, is a sepulchre of the species called by the antients, Distœya or Double-roofed. It consisted of two square rooms. In the lower, which has a door way, were deposited the urns with the ashes of the deceased. In the upper, the relations and friends solemnized the anniversary of the funeral, and performed stated rites. A hole made through the floor was designed for pouring libations of honey, milk, or wine, with which it was usual to gratify the manes or spirits.
Chandler’s Travels in Asia Minor.
[l] These seem to be the same with the Περιϐολοι of the Antients. Thus Euripides. Troad. l. 1141.
Αλλ’ αντι ϰεδρȣ περιϐολων τελαινων
Εν τηδε θαψαι παιδα.