la terre aux environs, il en sort des bluettes. On lit dans la Géographie Turque, qu'en cruesant la terre sur un tertre appellé KhorKour Baba, il en sort du feu qui fait faire flamme, et que des vases posés dans des trous qu'on y voie, bouillir l'eau dont en les a remplis; en ajoutant, qu'on éteint la chaleur de ces trous en les comblant de terre*." The naphtha, or rock-oil, of Mendeli, near Kerkouk, is of the black kind, and is used as a substitute for pitch. The Baghdadees rub the keels of their boats with it, and the villagers at Samarah burn it instead of lamp-oil. Near Dawlakey, in the Persian province of Fars, I saw two fountains of white naphtha. The oil floated on the surface of the water, and the peasants collected it for the purpose of rubbing over their camels, as it prevents a cutaneous disorder common to that animal.

To the south-west of the town, we examined some mounds which encased the remains of a

* D'Anville sur l'Euphrate et le Tigre, p. 107.

Sassanian city. I made some excavations into the side of a hill, and found bricks assimi

lating in quality and dimensions with those forming the walls of Ctesiphon. Among the débris I found an old iron seal-ring, and several thin silver Shapoorian coins, similar to those I had before met with at the sculptured ruins of Shapoor, near Kauzeroun, and in many other parts of Persia.

They weighed a drachma each. The king's head upon them was bearded, and

had long flowing hair: the diadem was ornamented with feathers, which resembles the Egyptian symbol of two wings supporting a moon and star. The characters, although not very legible, were in the Pehlevi language. The fire altar was, as usual, supported by two priests, and very rudely executed. Small burnt clay images, and urns filled with osseous remains, were also numerous in every ruined site throughout the country. Mr. Rich, the Honourable Major Keppel, Sir Robert Ker Porter, and other travellers, are of opinion that these urns contain the bones of Greeks and Romans rather than of Asiatics, from the presumption that such a mode of burial did

MODE OF BURIAL.

29

not accord with the religious opinions and institutions of Oriental people. The following passage from Erskine's Translation of the "Desâtir" will, however, prove the contrary:-"A corpse, you may place in a vase of aquafortis, or consign it to the fire, or to the earth." Commentary."The usage of the Fersendajians, regarding the dead, was this:-after the soul had left the body, they washed it in pure water, and dressed it in clean and perfumed vestments*; they then put it in a vase of aquafortis, and, when the body was dissolved, carried the liquid to a place far from the city, and poured it out; or else, they burned it in fire, after attiring it, as has been said; or, they made a dome, and formed a deep pit within it, which they built, and whitened with stone, brick, and mortar; and on its

* These rites may be found alluded to in Homer and in the works of other poets and philosophers of Greece. Lucian describes the dead in his time as washed, perfumed, vested, and crowned, ¿paîois avbeσi, with the flowers most in season. Homer, Euripides, &c., passim. Lucian, tom. ii. p. 927.

edges, niches were constructed and platforms erected, on which the dead were deposited; or they buried a vase in the earth, and enclosed the corpse in it, or buried it in a coffin in the ground; and, in the estimation of the Fersendajians, the most eligible of all these was the vase of aquafortis." Engraved rings and seals are also found in great numbers, and are thus noticed by Herodotus, in his account of the Babylonians:-"Each person has a seal ring, and a cane, or walking-stick, upon the top of which is carved an apple, a rose, a lily, an