The corpse is carried to
the grave on a bier by the friends of the deceased: this is considered as
a religious duty, it being declared in the Koran, that he who carries a
dead body the space of forty paces, procures for himself the expiation of
a great sin.[3] The graves are shallow, and thin boards only, laid over
the corpse, protect it from the immediate pressure of the earth, which is
set with flowers, according to the custom of the Pythagoreans, and a
cypress tree is planted near every new grave. As a grave is never opened a
second time, a vast tract of country is occupied with these burial-fields,
which add by no means to the salubrity of the vicinity. Much is gained,
unquestionably, as regards the health of the inhabitants, by burying
without the cities; but the shallowness of the graves contributes to
render these vast accumulations of animal dust, at certain seasons more
especially, a source of pestilential miasmata. The cemeteries near Scutari
are immense, owing to the predilection which the Turks of Europe preserve
for being buried in Asia--that quarter of the world in which are situated
the holy cities, Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, and Damascus.
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