The whole line of march is guarded in each procession by burkhandhars[18] (matchlock men), who fire singly, at intervals on the way.  Several bands of music are dispersed in the cavalcade, performing solemn dirge-like airs, peculiar to the style of composition in Hindoostaun and well-suited to the occasion—­muffled drums and shrill trumpets, imitating the reiteration of ‘Hasan, Hosein’, when Mortem is performed.  I remember a fine female elephant, belonging to King Ghauzee ood deen Hyder, which had been so well instructed, as to keep time with the soundings from her proboscis with the occasional Mortems.  I cannot say that she clearly pronounced the names of the two sons of Ali, yet the regularity of keeping time with the music and the human voices was of itself sufficient to excite admiration—­the Natives declare that she pronounces the names distinctly.  Her name is Hoseinie, the feminine of Hosein.

Amongst the many varieties of Native musical instruments I have seen in India, the kettle-drum is the most simple and singular, which I will take the liberty of describing:—­It is of well-baked earth, moulded in the usual way, and very similar in shape to those of the Royal Horse Guards.  A globe of the common size, divided into exact halves, would be about the dimension and shape of a pair of Indian manufacture; the parchment is strained over the open mouth, with a thin hoop to fix it firm; the slightest pressure with the fingers on this hoop draws it into tune.  The simplicity of this accompaniment to the human voice, when touched by the fingers, very much in the way Europeans use the tambourine, is only to be appreciated by those who have been long acquainted with the sound.  The only time when it is beaten with sticks is, when used as dunkahs, before the King and Queen, on their appearing in public—­a sort of alarum to warn obstructing hackeries, or carriages, to move out of the way.

I have occasionally observed a singular mode of imitating the sound of cavalry going over hard ground, adopted in the processions of great men on the tenth of Mahurrum; the contrivance is called chuckee,[19] and composed of ebony, or some equally hard wood, the shape and size of a pocket globe, divided into halves; each person, having the pair, beats them with a particular tact on the flat surface, so as to produce the desired sound of horses galloping; and where from fifty to a hundred men, or more, are engaged in this performance, the resemblance may be easily conceived.

There are many little observances, not of sufficient importance to make them general to all who keep Mahurrum, that need not here be detailed;—­but one must not be omitted, as it is a feature in the domestic observances of Mussulmauns.  On the Tazias, when about to be conveyed to Kraabaallah, I discovered small portions of corn, rice, bread, fruits, flowers, cups of water, &c.;—­this is in keeping with the Mussulmaun funerals, who invariably convey food to the tomb with their dead.[1] For the same reason, at Mahurrum, camphor and rosewater are always carried with the Tazia to Kraabaallah, although there is not the same occasion for the articles, as will be observed when the burial service is explained.