nd conflicting. Some said
these were graves of people who had been recently buried, it being
customary to erect the stone pillars some months after burial, and that
the string with dangling rag or piece of wood was merely to keep wolves
from digging up dead bodies. Others said it was to keep evil spirits
away, but each man gave a different explanation, and I really could not
say which was the true origin of the custom. The pillars over a man's
grave, some say, signify that the man died without leaving issue, but I
think this is incorrect, for it would then appear by most graves that the
Beluch are the most unprolific people on earth, which I believe is not
the case.

Children's graves were usually covered with pieces of white marble or
light coloured stone, and those of women were generally smaller and less
elaborate and with lower pillars than men's graves.

The preparing of corpses for interment is rather interesting. With men,
the lower jaw is set so that the mouth is closed tight, and is kept in
this position by the man's own turban which is wound round the chin and
over the head. The eyes are also gently closed by some relative, and the
hands placed straight by the sides. As soon as life is pronounced
extinct the body is covered over with a sheet and the dead man's
relations go and procure new clothes, after which the body is removed
from the tent or house and is taken towards a well or a stream, according
to circumstances. Here the body is laid down and carefully washed, after
which it is wrapped up quite tight in sheets--so tight that the outline
can plainly be distinguished. In most cases, a pillar is put up, a few
stones laid round, or the outline of a grave drawn on the spot where the
body has lain to undergo this operation. The body is then removed to the
burial ground and laid most reverently in the grave.

[Illustration: Beluch Mesjid and Graveyard at Dalbandin.]

Beluch graves are most peculiarly cut into the ground. Instead of being
vertical, like ours, they are in three sections. The higher is vertical,
and leads to an inclined side channel giving access to a lower last
chamber, in which the body is actually deposited. The origin of this, I
was told, is to prevent hyenas and wolves digging up the bodies.

[Illustration: Section of Beluch Grave.]

When once the body is laid in its place of rest, dried sweet-scented rose
leaves are spread over it in profusion, and then the grave is filled up
with sto