lieu of the boy, whom they could not; and the meat being dressed in the temple, that the deity might be refreshed with the sweet-smelling savour, was then conveyed to the father's dwelling, where a sumptuous feast ensued, at which it may be safely inferred the servants of the temple were not forgotten. At all events, the priests received the head, feet, skin, and entrails, with a portion of the flesh, for their share. The bones were preserved, probably for purposes of divination.
Their exit from life was celebrated with as much pomp as their entrance into it. Astrologers, the universal pests of the east, were immediately consulted; and these, having learned the year, month, day, and hour in which the deceased was born, interrogated the stars, and by their mute but significant replies discovered the precise moment on which the interment was to take place. Sometimes these oracles of the sky became sullen, and for six months vouchsafed no answer to the astrologers, during all which time the corpse remained in a species of purgatory, uncertain of its doom. To prevent the dead from keeping the living in the same state, however, the body, having been previously embalmed, was enclosed in a coffin so artificially constructed that no offensive odour could escape; while, as the soul was supposed to hover all this while over its ancient tenement, and to require, as formerly, some kind of earthly sustenance, food was daily placed before the deceased, that the spirit might satisfy its appetite with the agreeable effluvia. When the day of interment arrived, the astrologers, who would have lost their credit had they always allowed things to proceed in a rational way, sometimes commanded the body to be borne out through an opening made for the purpose in the wall, professing to be guided in this matter by the stars, who, having no other employment, were extremely solicitous that all Tartars should be interred in due form. On the way from
