hment.[39]

The poor people vie with their rich neighbours, in making a brilliant
light in their little halls containing the Tazia; the very poorest are
liberal in the expenditure of oil and tallow candles--I might say
extravagantly so, but for the purity of their intentions, supposing it to
be a duty--and they certainly manifest their zeal and respect to the
utmost of their power; although many, to my knowledge, live all the year
round on the very coarsest fare, to enable them to show this reverence to
their Emaum's memory.

The ladies assemble, in the evening, round the Tazia they have set up in
their purdahed privacy--female friends, slaves, and servants, surrounding
the mistress of the house, in solemn gravity.

The few females who have been educated are in great request at this season;
they read the Dhie Mudgelluss, and chant the Musseeah with good effect.
These women, being hired for the purpose, are detained during the ten days;
when the Mahurrum ceases, they are dismissed to their own homes, loaded
with the best gifts the good lady their employer can conveniently spare,
commensurate with the services performed. These educated females are
chiefly daughters of poor Syaads, who have not been married for the lack
of a dowry; they live devoutly in the service of God, according to their
faith. They are sometimes required, in the families of the nobility, to
teach the Khoraun to the young ladies, and, in that capacity, they are
called Oustaardie, or more familiarly Artoojee.[40]

As I have mentioned before, the Musseeah narrative of the sufferings at
Kraabaallah is a really pathetic and interesting composition; the work
being conveyed in the language of the country, every word is understood,
and very deeply felt, by the females in all these assemblies, who, having
their hearts softened by the emphatic chantings of the readers, burst into
violent tears and sobbings of the most heart-rending description. As in
the gentlemen's assembly, they conclude with Mortem, in which they
exercise themselves until they are actually exhausted; indeed, many
delicate females injure their health by the violence and energy of their
exertions, which they nevertheless deem a most essential duty to perform,
at all hazards, during the continuance of Mahurrum.

This method of keeping Mahurrum is not in strict obedience to the
Mahumudan laws; in which code may be found prohibitions against all
violent and excessive grief--tearing the hair,