EARLY ARAB GEOGRAPHERS.
quantities of amber, and is equally well provided with elephants' teeth. They eat pepper green in this country because it is scarce.
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When the king of Sarandíb dies, his corpse is carried on a low carriage very near the ground, with the head so attached to the back of the vehicle that the occiput touches the ground, and the hair drags in the dust. A woman follows with a broom, who sweeps the dust on to the face of the corpse, and cries out, “O men, behold! This man yesterday was your king; he reigned over you and you obeyed his orders. See now to what he is brought; he has bid farewell to the world, and the angel of death has carried off his soul. Do not allow yourselves to be led astray by the pleasures of this life,” and such like words. The ceremony lasts for three days, after which the body is burnt with sandal, camphor and saffron, and the ashes scattered to the winds.[1] All the Indians bum their dead. Sarandíb is the last of the islands dependent on India. Sometimes when the corpse of a king is burnt, his wives cast themselves upon the pile and burn with it; but it is for them to choose whether they will do do so or not.
In India there are persons who, in accordance with their profession, wander in the woods and mountains, and rarely communicate with the rest of mankind. Sometimes they have nothing to eat but herbs and the fruits of the forest. ◌◌◌◌◌ Some of them go about naked. Others stand naked with the face turned to the sun, having nothing on but a panther's skin. In my travels I saw a man in the position I have described; sixteen years afterwards I returned to that country and found him in the same posture. What astonished me was that he was not melted by the heat of the sun.
In all these kingdoms the nobility is considered to form but one family. Power resides in it alone. The princes name their own successors. It is the same with learned men and physicians. They form a distinct caste, and the profession never goes out of the caste.
The princes of India do not recognise the supremacy of any one
- ↑ [Mas’údí and Idrísí gave the same account. The former says he had witnessed the ceremony himself. Idrísí refers the custom to the kings of India. Maçoudi, Tome i., 69. Idrísí, post.]
