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This was the ordinary method in the East of calling the attendants in waiting. See Arabian Nights, vol. I. p. 5. 106. 193, &c.

The rites here practised had obtained from the earliest ages. Most of them may be found in Homer and the other poets of Greece. Lucian describes the dead in his time as washed, perfumed, vested, and crowned, with the flowers most in season; or, according to other writers, those in particular which the deceased were wont to prefer.

Thus, in the Arabian Nights: "Haroun al Raschid wept over Schemselnihar, and, before he left the room, ordered all the musical instruments to be broken." Vol. II. p. 196.

An iman is the principal priest of a mosque. It was the office of the imans to precede the