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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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mourners , a poor man by his friends . " But a more singular resemblance is that which is to be remarked between a Mahometan and Irish opinion , relative
to the same ceremony . When a dead Mussulman is carried on bis plank towards the cemetery , the devout Turk runs from his house as the procession passes his door , and , for a short distance , relieves
one of the bearers of the body , and then gives up his place to another , who hastens to perform the same chariiable andholy office . It is a belief enjoined by Mahomet himself , that to carry a body forty paces gives expiation of sin .
No one who has been in Ireland but must have seen the peasants leave their cottages , or their work , Xo give a temporary assistance to those employed in bearing the dead to the grave , an exertion by which they approach so many steps nearer to Paradise . *
The cemeteries of the Greeks are not in their churches , nor in the precincts of any city , but at a little distance from the town , in a epasee , not enclosed by a wall , near the high road . The
tombstones are some raised , some flat , and they are generally in a thin grove of cypress or yew tress . On —¦ ¦
«> ¦ * ' iii * A person who reads Mons . GalancTs «• Paroles Retnarquables des Orientaux , would be surprised , perhaps , to find , that the famous bull recorded of an Irishman ) who , looking over a person -writing a letter , and seeing that he put —* ' X would be more paiticular , but a tall blackguard of an Irishman is behind my chair , and reads every word I sav- **
exclaimed , ** You he , you rascal , ** is a $ Oriental story . The * . ame book mentions two or three other good things , which are alsof to be found in our jestbooks , applied to very modem characters , ; . . . .
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certain days they are frequented by the relations of those who are lately dead , when , after a few tears , and the depositing of a garland and a small lock of hair on
the grave , the parties assume their accustomed liveliness , and spend the remainder of the visit in dancing and singing . The clergy are divided into two classes , the Caloyers , or Monks of the order of St . Basil , from whom
all the prelates are chosen , and the Papades , or secular priests , who may marry , if they clioose a virgin , and engage before ordination . Caloyers never say mass ; if they take the priesthood , they become what is called Ct Holy Monks / ' and only officiate on high festivals . Admission to the
brotherhood is gained by apply ing to one of these Holy Monks , and paying sixty or seventy piasters , no probation or examination is requisite , and very young children are allowed to put on the cowl .
There are many inducements to belong to this religious fraternity . The priests are all powerful with their flock , and enjoy sorrie respect even from the Turks . It is better to be a wealthy man at large than a monk , but it is better to be a
well-fed recluse than a hungry vagrant . The first solitaries , $ he voluntary tenants of the burn ing deserts of Nitria , selected the most barren
spots for their retre ^^ - the monks and hermits pf the , Greeit church , in the present age , JUa ^ Y ^ not objected to aWdge the / nselvej of some of their meritorious mortis
ncations , end , besides other adl vantages , have seated themselves in all the most ' be ^ utjfuT spots to b <* found in Greece . Tbe only establishrnent they possess in Italy t
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436 State of Religion amongst the Modern Greeks .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1813, page 436, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2430/page/12/
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