Part 19

[136] In the N. E. parts of Persia there was an old man named Aloadin, a Mahumetan, which had inclosed a goodly vally, situate between two hilles, and furnished it with all variety which Nature and Art could yield, as fruits, pictures, rilles of milk, wine, honey, water, pallaces, and beautifull damosells, richly attired, and called it Paradise. To this was no passage but by an impregnable castle, and daily preaching the pleasures of this Paradise to the youth which he kept in his court, sometimes would minister a sleepy drinke to some of them, and then conveigh them thither, where being entertained with these pleasures 4 or 5 days they supposed themselves rapt into Paradise, and then being again cast into a trance by the said drink, he caused them to be carried forth, and then would examine them of what they had seene, and by this delusion would make them resolute for any enterprize which he should appoint them, as to murther any Prince his enemy, for they feared not death in hope of their Mahumetical Paradise. But Haslor or Ulan after 3 years siege destroyed him and this his fools Paradise.

_Purchas._

In another place Purchas tells the same tale, but calls the Impostor Aladeules, and says that Selim the Ottoman Emperor, destroyed his Paradise.

The story is told by so many writers and with such difference of time and place, as wholly to invalidate its truth, even were the circumstances more probable.

Travelling on further towards the south, I arrived at a certaine countrey called Melistorte, which is a very pleasant and fertile place. And in this countrey there was a certeine aged man called Senex de monte, who round about two mountaines had built a wall to inclose the sayd mountaines. Within this wall there were the fairest and most chrystall fountaines in the whole world: and about the sayd fountaines there were most beautiful virgins in great number, and goodly horses also, and in a word every thing that could be devised for bodily solace and delight, and therefore the inhabitants of the countrey call the same place by the name of Paradise.

The sayd olde Senex, when he saw any proper and valiant young man, he would admit him into his paradise. Moreover by certaine conducts he makes wine and milke to flow abundantly. This Senex, when he hath a minde to revenge himselfe, or to slay any king or baron, commandeth him that is governor of the sayd paradise, to bring thereunto some of the acquaintance of the sayd king or baron, permitting him awhile to take his pleasure therein, and then to give him a certeine potion being of force to cast him into such a slumber as should make him quite voide of all sense, and so being in a profound sleepe to convey him out of his paradise: who being awaked, and seeing himselfe thrust out of the paradise, would become so sorrowfull, that he could not in the world devise what to do, or whither to turne him. Then would he go unto the foresaide old man, beseeching him that he might be admitted againe into his paradise: who saith unto him, you cannot be admitted thither, unlesse you will slay such or such a man for my sake, and if you will give the attempt onely whether you kill him or no, I wil place you againe in paradise, that there you may remaine alwayes: then would the party without faile put the same in execution, indevouring to murther all those against whom the sayd olde man had conceived any hatred. And therefore all the kings of the east stood in awe of the sayd olde man, and gave unto him great tribute.

And when the Tartars had subdued a great part of the world, they came unto the sayd olde man, and tooke from him the custody of his paradise: who being incensed thereat, sent abroad divers desperate and resolute persons out of his forenamed paradise, and caused many of the Tartarian nobles to be slaine. The Tartars seeing this, went and besieged the city wherein the sayd olde man was, tooke him, and put him to a most cruell and ignominious death.

_Odoricus._

The most particular account is given by that undaunted liar Sir John Maundevile.

"Beside the Yle of Pentexoire, that is the Lond of Prestre John, is a gret Yle long and brode, that men clepen Milsterak; and it is in the Lordschipe of Prestre John. In that Yle is gret plentee of godes. There was dwellinge somtyme a ryche man; and it is not long sithen, and men clept him Gatholonabes; and he was full of cauteles and of sotylle disceytes: and had a fulle fair Castelle and a strong, in a mountayne, so strong and so noble that no man cowde devise a fairere ne a strengere. And he had let muren all the mountayne aboute with a strong walle and a fair. And with inne the walles he had the fairest gardyn that ony man might behold; and therein were trees beryinge all maner of frutes that ony man cowde devyse, and therein were also alle maner vertuous herbes of gode smelle, and alle other herbes also that beren faire floures, and he had also in that gardyn many faire welles, and beside the welles he had lete make faire halles and faire chambres, depeynted alle with gold and azure. And there weren in that place many dyverse thinges, and many dyverse stories: and of bestes and of bryddes that songen fulle delectabely, and moveden be craft that it semede that thei weren quyke. And he had also in his gardyn all maner of fowles and of bestes, that ony man myghte thinke on, for to have pley or desport to beholde hem. And he had also in that place, the faireste Damyseles that myghte ben founde under the age of 15 Zere, and the fairest zonge striplynges that men myghte gete of that same age: and all thei weren clothed in clothes of Gold fully rychely, and he seyde that tho weren Angeles. And he had also let make 3 welles faire and noble and all envyround with ston of Jaspre, of cristalle, dyapred with gold and sett with precious stones and grete orient Perles. And he had made a conduyt under erthe, so that the 3 Welles, at his list, on scholde renne milk, another wyn, and another hony and that place he clept Paradys. And whan that ony gode Knyght, that was hardy and noble, cam to see this Rialtee, he would lede him into his Paradys, and schewen him theise wondirfulle thinges to his desport, and the marveyllous and delicious song of dyverse Bryddes, and the faire Damyseles and the faire welles of mylk, wyn, and honey plentevous rennynge. And he woulde let make dyverse instrumentes of musick to sownen in an high Tour, so merily that it was joye for to here, and no man scholde see the craft thereof: and tho, he sayde, weren Aungeles of God, and that place was Paradys that God had behyghte to his friendes, saying _Dabo vobis terram fluentem lacte & melle_. And thanne wolde he maken hem to drynken of certeyn drynk, whereof anon thei sholden be dronken, and thanne wolde hem thinken gretter delyt than thei hadden before. And then wolde he seye to hem that zif thei wolde dyen for him and for his love, that after hire dethe thei scholde come to his Paradys, and their scholde ben of the age of the Damyseles, and thei scholde pleyen with hem and zit ben Maydenes. And after that zit scholde he putten hem in a fayrere Paradys, where that thei scholde see God of nature visibely in his Magestee and in his blisse. And than wolde he schewe hem his entent and seye hem, that zif thei wolde go sle such a Lord, or such a man, that was his Enemye or contrarious to his list, that thei scholde not drede to don it, and for to be sleyn therefore hemself: for aftir hire dethe he wolde putten hem into another Paradys, that was an 100 fold fairere than ony of the tothere: and there scholde thei dwellen with the most fairest Damyseles that myghte be, and pley with hem ever more. And thus wenten many dyverse lusty Bacheleres for to sle grete Lords, in dyverse Countrees, that weren his enemyes, and maden hemself to ben slayn in hope to have that Paradys. And thus often tyme he was revenged of his enemyes by his sotylle disceytes and false cauteles. And whan the worthe men of the Contree hadden perceyved this sotylle falshod of this Gatholonabes, thei assembled hem with force, and assayleden his Castelle, and slowen him, and destroyden all the faire places, and alle the nobletees of that Paradys. The place of the welles and of the walles and of many other thinges bene zit apertly sene, but the richesse is voyded clene, and it is not long gon sithen that place was destroyed."

_Sir John Maundeville._

[137] Let the royal apparel be brought which the King useth to wear, and the horse that the King rideth upon, and the crown royal which is set upon his head:

And let this apparel and horse be delivered to the hand of one of the King's most noble princes, that they may array the man withal whom the King delighteth to honour, and bring him on horseback thro' the street of the city, and proclaim before him, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the King delighteth to honour.

_Esther._. VI. 8. 9.

[138] As the celestial Apostle, at his retreat from _Medina_, did not perform always the five canonical prayers at the precise time, his disciples, who often neglected to join with him in the _Namaz_, assembled one day to fix upon some method of announcing to the public those moments of the day and night when their master discharged this first of religious duties. Flags, bells, trumpets, and fire were successively proposed as signals. None of these, however, were admitted. The flags were rejected as unsuited to the sanctity of the object; the bells, on account of their being used by Christians; the trumpets, as appropriated to the Hebrew worship; the fire, as having too near an analogy to the religion of the pyrolators. From this contrariety of opinions the disciples separated without any determination. But one of them, _Abdullah ibn Zeid Abderiyé_, saw the night following, in a dream, a celestial being clothed in green: he immediately requested his advice, with the most zealous earnestness, respecting the object in dispute. I am come to inform you, replied the heavenly visitor, how to discharge this important duty of your religion. He then ascended to the roof of the house, and declared the _Ezann_ with a loud voice, and in the same words which have been ever since used to declare the canonical periods. When he awoke, _Abdullah_ ran to declare his vision to the prophet, who loaded him with blessings, and authorized that moment _Bilal Habeschy_, another of his disciples, to discharge, on the top of his house, that august office, by the title of _Muzzinn_.

These are the words of the Ezann: _Most high God! most high God! most high God! I acknowledge that there is no other except God; I acknowledge that there is no other except God! I acknowledge that_ Mohammed _is the Prophet of God! come to prayer! come to prayer! come to the temple of salvation! Great God! great God! there is no God except God._

This declaration must be the same for each of the five canonical periods, except that of the morning, when the _Muezzinn_ ought to add, after the words, _come to the temple of salvation_, the following: _prayer is to be preferred to sleep, prayer is to be preferred to sleep_.

This addition was produced by the zeal and piety of _Bilal Habeschy_: as he announced one day the _Ezann_ of the dawn in the prophet's antichamber, Aische in a whisper informed him, that the celestial envoy was still asleep; this first of the _Muezzinns_ then added these words, _prayer is to be preferred to sleep_: when he awoke the prophet applauded him, and commanded _Bilal_ to insert them in all the morning _Ezanns_.

The words must be chanted, but with deliberation and gravity, those particularly which constitute the profession of the faith. The _Muezzinn_ must pronounce them distinctly; he must pay more attention to the articulation of the words than to the melody of his voice; he must make proper intervals and pauses, and not precipitate his words, but let them be clearly understood by the people. He must be interrupted by no other object whatever. During the whole _Ezann_ he must stand, with a finger in each ear, and his face turned, as in prayer, towards the _Keabe_ of _Mecca_. As he utters these words, come to prayer, come to the temple of salvation, he must turn his face to the right and left, because he is supposed to address all the nations of the world, the whole expanded universe. At this time the auditors must recite with a low voice the _Tehhlil_. There is no strength, there is no power, but what is in God, in that supreme Being, in that powerful Being.

_D'Ohsson._

[139] In the Meidan, or Great Place of the city of Tauris, there are people appointed every evening when the sun sets, and every morning when he rises, to make during half an hour a terrible concert of trumpets and drums. They are placed on one side of the Square, in a gallery somewhat elevated; and the same practice is established in every city in Persia.

_Tavernier._

[140] If we except a few persons, who are buried within the precincts of some sanctuary, the rest are carried out at a distance from their cities and villages, where a great extent of ground is allotted for that purpose. Each family hath a particular portion of it, walled in like a garden, where the bones of their ancestors have remained undisturbed for many generations. For in these enclosures[l] the graves are all distinct and separate; having each of them a stone, placed upright, both at the head and feet, inscribed with the name of the person who lieth there interred; whilst the intermediate space is either planted with flowers, bordered round with stone or paved all over with tiles. The graves of the principal citizens are further distinguished by some square chambers or Cupolas[m] that are built over them.

[l] These seem to be the same with the [Greek: Periboloi] of the Antients. Thus Euripides. Troad. l. 1141.

[Greek: All' anti kedrou peribolôn telainôn En têde thapsai paida.]

[m] Such places probably as these are to be understood, when the Demoniack is said to have _his dwelling among the tombs_.

Now as all these different sorts of tombs and sepulchres, with the very walls likewise of the enclosures, are constantly kept clean, white-washed and beautified, they continue, to this day, to be an excellent comment upon that expression of our Saviour's, where he mentions the _garnishing of the sepulchres_, and again where he compares the scribes, pharisees and hypocrites, to _whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness_. For the space of two or three months after any person is interred, the female relations go once a week to weep over the grave and perform their parentalia upon it.

_Shaw._

About a quarter of a mile from the town of Mylasa, is a sepulchre of the species called by the antients, _Distoeya_ or _Double-roofed_. It consisted of two square rooms. In the lower, which has a door way, were deposited the urns with the ashes of the deceased. In the upper, the relations and friends solemnized the anniversary of the funeral, and performed stated rites. A hole made through the floor was designed for pouring libations of honey, milk, or wine, with which it was usual to gratify the manes or spirits.

_Chandler's Travels in Asia Minor._

[141] In the _Lettres Juives_ is the following extract from the _Mercure Historique et Politique_. Octob. 1736.

We have had in this country a new scene of Vampirism, which is duly attested by two officers of the Tribunal of _Belgrade_, who took cognizance of the affair on the spot, and by an officer in his Imperial Majesty's troops at _Gradisch_ (_in Sclavonia_) who was an eye-witness of the proceedings.

In the beginning of _September_ there died at the village of _Kisilova_, three leagues from _Gradisch_, an old man of above threescore and two: three days after he was buried he appeared in the night to his son, and desired he would give him somewhat to eat, and then disappeared. The next day the son told his neighbours these particulars. That night the Father did not come, but the next evening he made him another visit, and desired something to eat. It is not known whether his son gave him any thing or not, but the next morning the young man was found dead in his bed. The Magistrate or Bailiff of the place had notice of this, as also that the same day five or six persons fell sick in the village, and died one after the other. He sent an exact account of this to the tribunal of _Belgrade_, and thereupon two commissioners were dispatched to the village attended by an executioner, with instructions to examine closely into the affair. An officer in the Imperial service, from whom we have this relation, went also from _Gradiseh_, in order to examine personally an affair of which he had heard so much. They opened in the first place the graves of all who had been buried in six weeks. When they came to that of the old man, they found his eyes open, his colour fresh, his respiration quick and strong, yet he appeared to be stiff and insensible. From these signs they concluded him to be a notorious _Vampire_. The executioner thereupon, by the command of the commissioners, struck a stake thro' his heart; and when he had so done, they made a bonfire, and therein consumed the carcase to ashes. There was no marks of Vampirism found on his son, or on the bodies of the other persons who died so suddenly.

Thanks be to God, we are as far as any people can be from giving into credulity, we acknowledge that all the lights of physick do not enable us to give any account of this fact, nor do we pretend to enter into its causes. However, we cannot avoid giving credit to a matter of fact juridically attested by competent and unsuspected witnesses, especially since it is far from being the only one of the kind. We shall here annex an instance of the same sort in 1732, already inserted in the Gleaner, No. 18.

In a certain town of _Hungary_, which is called in Latin _Oppida Heidonum_, on the other side _Tibiscus_, vulgarly called the _Teysse_; that is to say, the river which washes the celebrated territory of _Tokay_ as also a part of _Transilvania_. The people known by the name of _Heydukes_ believe that certain dead persons, whom they call Vampires, suck the blood of the living, insomuch that these people appear like skeletons, while the dead bodies of the suckers are so full of blood, that it runs out at all the passages of their bodies, and even at their very pores. This odd opinion of theirs they support by a multitude of facts attested in such a manner, that they leave no room for doubt. We shall here mention some of the most considerable.

It is now about five years ago, that a certain _Heyduke_, an inhabitant of the village of _Medreiga_, whose name was Arnold Paul, was bruised to death by a hay-cart, which ran over him. Thirty days after his death, no less than four persons died suddenly, in that manner, wherein, according to the tradition of the country, those people generally die who are sucked by Vampires. Upon this a story was called to mind, that this _Arnold Paul_ had told in his life-time, viz: that at _Cossova_ on the Frontiers of the _Turkish Servia_, he had been tormented by a Vampire; (now the established opinion is that a person sucked by a Vampire, becomes a Vampire himself, and sucks in his turn.) But that he had found a way to rid himself of this evil, by eating some of the earth out of the Vampire's grave, and rubbing himself with his blood. This precaution however did not hinder his becoming a Vampire; insomuch that his body being taken up forty days after his death, all the marks of a notorious Vampire were found thereon. His complexion was fresh, his hair, nails and beard were grown; he was full of fluid blood, which ran from all parts of his body upon his shroud. The _Hadnagy_ or _Bailiff_ of the place, who was a person well acquainted with Vampirism, caused a sharp stake to be thrust, as the custom is, through the heart of _Arnold Paul_, and also quite through his body; whereupon he cried out dreadfully as if he had been alive. This done, they cut off his head, burnt his body, and threw the ashes thereof into _Saave_. They took the same measures with the bodies of those persons who had died of Vampirism, for fear that they should fall to sucking in their turns.

All these prudent steps did not hinder the same mischief from breaking out again about five years afterwards, when several people in the same village died in a very odd manner. In the space of three months, seventeen persons of all ages and sexes died of Vampirism, some suddenly, and some after two or three days suffering. Amongst others there was one _Stanoska_, the daughter of a _Heyduke_ whose name was _Jovitzo_ who going to bed in perfect health, waked in the middle of the night, and making a terrible outcry, affirmed that the son of a certain _Heyduke_ whose name was _Millo_, and who had been dead about three weeks, had attempted to strangle her in her sleep. She continued from that time in a languishing condition, and in the space of three days died. What this girl had said discovered the son of _Millo_ to be a Vampire. They took up the body and found him so in effect. The principal persons of the place, particularly the Physician and Surgeons, began to examine very narrowly, how, in spite of all their precautions, Vampirism had again broke out in so terrible a manner. After a strict inquisition, they found that the deceased _Arnold Paul_ had not only sucked the four persons before mentioned, but likewise several beasts, of whom the new Vampires had eaten, particularly the son of _Millo_. Induced by these circumstances, they took a resolution, of digging up the bodies of all persons who had died within a certain time. They did so, and amongst forty bodies, there were found seventeen evidently Vampires. Through the hearts of these they drove stakes, cut off their heads, burnt the bodies, and threw the ashes into the river. All the informations we have been speaking of were taken in a legal way, and all the executions were so performed, as appears by certificates drawn up in full form, attested by several officers in the neighbouring garrisons, by the surgeons of several Regiments, and the principal inhabitants of the place. The verbal process was sent towards the latter end of last _January_ to the council of war at _Vienna_, who thereupon established a special commission to examine into these facts. Those just now mentioned were attested by the _Hadnagi Barriarer_, the principal _Heyduke_ of the village, as also by _Battuer_, first Lieutenant of Prince _Alexander_ of _Wirtemberg_, _Flickstenger_, surgeon major of the regiment of _Furstemberg_, three other surgeons of the same regiment, and several other persons.

A similar superstition prevails in Greece. The man whose story we are going to relate, was a Peasant of Mycone, naturally ill natured and quarrelsome, this is a circumstance to be taken notice of in such cases. He was murdered in the fields, nobody knew how, or by whom. Two days after his being buried in a Chapel in the town, it was noised about that he was seen to walk in the night with great haste, that he tumbled about people's goods, put out their lamps, griped them behind, and a thousand other monkey tricks. At first the story was received with laughter; but the thing was looked upon to be serious when the better sort of people began to complain of it; the Papas themselves gave credit to the fact, and no doubt had their reasons for so doing; masses must be said, to be sure: but for all this, the Peasant drove his old trade and heeded nothing they could do. After divers meetings of the chief people of the city, of priests, and monks, it was gravely concluded, that 'twas necessary in consequence of some musty ceremonial to wait till nine days after the interment should be expired.