HOW THE SULTANS ARE BURIED.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 184, 6 October 1876, Page 7

HOW THE SULTANS ARE BURIED.

A cobeespondent of the ' Pall Mall Gazette ' at Constantinople, reports a conversation with one who has long been resident there, and who has an intimate acquaintance with Turkish life and manners. He says: — "And how are the Sultans buried ?" I asked. " I will tell you was the reply, " what was told me by a Turk among Turks — one who knew and would tell the truth. The dead Sultans have always been buried like dogs. The great thing is to get rid altogether of the idea of a buried Sultan; for never was there a people among whom is so literally carried out the idea that •Le Rom e meurt pas.' "When it is quite certain that a Sultan is about to die, those round him hardly wait for the breath to leave his body. Most of them run away to be ready to do homage to the new occupant of the throne. Then follows an odd arrangement : All living homage is due to the Sovereign ; nothing must interfere with that ; not even the corpse of the late Sovereign. So one or two of his old servants only remain with the body, and when it is quite dead they roll ib up in straw matting, and prop it up behind the door of his room, to be as much out of sight as possible, and when night falls it is carried out of the palace and buried very quietly. No train of mourning coaches here, you see — but, then, they never are used in Turkey ; no elaborate preparation for the last resting-place of one all powerful a few hours before. " With us, in fact, a dead Sultan is nobody — his sacredness has descended to his successor. To him we turn our thoughts. We Osmanlis could not do as you Franks do — have a grand lying-in-state. We should bewail at the sight, and that would be incongruous with the rejoicing demanded of us on the accession of our new sovereign, and would be displeasing to him. Therefore the custom, of burying the Sultans in this manner has never been interfered with ; and it is best so." " But how are grandees buried in Turkey ?" I continued. "Ah !" was the reply, " I myself saw the funerals of Ali Pasha, Fuad Pasha, and Djeniil Pasha, so I can make you understand what the ordinary ceremony is at the bnrial of a person of rank. Neither Turkish ladies or Turks ever wear mourning. That they dispense with. Let me tell you about the late Fuad Pasha's funeral. Minister for Foreign Affairs. Well, he, you know, died in Italy, and his body was brought back to Stamboul for burial. They dug three different graves for him, because in preparing the first they came upon some animal (a scorpion I believe), and it was thought that Turkish ground (sacred in the eyes of Turks) would not receive the body of him who had died among unbelievers. The second grave was not completed when they found water, and again it was believed that the earth in this way refused to let the body lie there. But the third time no such impediments appeared and :he grave was dug on a hill within Stamboul, in a desolate place on a site once occupied by houses, and belonging to a mosque ; but this waste place had been devastated by one of the great fires so common in Constantinople, and there were the ruins standing out like pillars on the burned up ground." But about the cortege to the burial place ?" asked I. "Well, this is the manner of ft. First of all the body is taken to a mosque. Over the simple coffin of cypress-wood which contains the body, magnificent shawls are thro.vn, many sent by friends of the dead Pasha, some provided by his own household. These shawls are very costly. Several Pashas help to carry the body to the grave, and as the procession goes on every one rushes forward to help to bear the coffin for a moment, as this ie thought to be holy work. Imaums wearing 1 blue, green, or violet turbans, according to the school to which they belong, walk before and after the body. At Fuad Pasha's funeral they walked four abreast, in green turbans, to escort the body to the mosque, chanting verses from the Koran. The dead are always taken to a mosque before burial, and there, after prayers recited by the Imaums, the Pashas present spoke of the virtues of the deceased over his bier, as is the custom, and then the funeral party started for the grave. The route to it lay through the beautiful new street of Constantinople called the Yeni Sokak. There were U»ea of carriages filled with Turkish ladies in bright coloured

feridgees, these ladies had waited there since nine o'clock that morning to see the sight. Among that multitude I mingled, dressed as a Turk ; and as I understook the Turkish language, I overheard much of the conversation and remarks of the crowd. A wooden railing only was placed at first round the grave. You see that a Pasha has the retpect paid him of a ceremonious burial ; but, as for the Sultans, you may depend on me when I assure you that a dead Sultan is got out of sight as speedily and quietly as possible.