which produces such a harvest of benefits to the necessitous.

The riches of a native city may be calculated by the immense sums expended
at Mahurrum every year; and if no greater advantage be derived from the
gorgeous display of the wealthy, than the stimulus to honest industry
amongst the several trades, whose labour is brought into use on these
occasions, there is enough in the result to excuse the expenditure of
surplus cash in apparent trifles. This, however, is strictly the result,
not the design, of those expensive displayers at Mahurrum, who are
actuated solely by fervent zeal, in keeping a continued remembrance of the
sufferings of their Emaums, and doing honour to their memory.

It is not my province either to praise or condemn, but merely to mark out
what I observe of singularity in the habits, manners, and customs of the
Mussulmauns, in whose domestic circles I have been so many years a
sojourner. On the subject which my pen has faintly traced to your
view,--the celebration of Mahurrum,--I cannot refrain from offering one
remark; I think them to be actuated by so fervent a zeal, that if they
could believe with me, that whatever we do in this life is for Eternity,
they would still persevere in this their supposed duty of honouring their
Emaums.

[1] _Mendhi_ in its primary sense is the plant _Lawsonia alba_, the
leaves of which are used for dyeing the hands and feet of the bride
and bridegroom; hence, the marriage rites on this occasion.

[2] This edifice was built under the superintendence of Ghauzee ood deen
Hyder, first King of Oude; and it is here his remains are deposited.
May his soul rest in peace! [_Author_.] [This building was named after
Shah Najaf or Najaf Ashraf, the scene of the martyrdom of 'Ali,
120 miles south-west of Baghdad. The capture of the Shah Najaf, in
which the guns of Captain Peel played a leading part, was a notable
incident in the relief of Lucknow by Sir Colin Campbell.--T.R.E.
Holmes, _History of the Indian Mutiny_ (1885), 398 ff.]

[3] The Gumti, Gomati, 'abounding in cattle'.

[4] The fish is a symbol of sovereignty, or authority emanating from the
sovereign, in Hindoostaun, since the period of Timour.--Possessors of
Jaghires, Collectors of Districts, &c., have permission to use the
fish, in the decorations on their flags, in the way similar to our
armorial bearings. In Oude the fish is represented in many useful
a