None visit the Minister of State, neither is there any thing like the English Hospitality seen in the Visits of private Persons; for they never present you any Refreshment, not even that of cold Water, except at a formal Invitation, or a Wedding.  At the latter they are very profuse.  When a young Couple is married, for a Week they are never seen asunder; but after that, it is look’d upon indecent to be seen with a Wife in any publick Company; and one would think they married to be reveng’d on each other for some former Injuries; for the Wife takes Care to shew her Contempt of her Husband, and he his Aversion to his Wife.  They are great Admirers of Puppet-shews and other Spectacles, and will let their Families at Home want Necessaries, rather than not be seen at the Booth.  What they most delight in is bloody Spectacles.  There are poor Cacklogallinians, who fight on Stages for Money; if they cut one another to Pieces, the Spectators go away highly satisfied; but if their Art prevents their shedding much Blood, the Combatants are poorly rewarded, and look’d upon as a Couple of Cheats or Cowards.

A Goat had (as Tradition says) done formerly great Damage to the Corn of Danafalio, a Saint in great Veneration amongst them, who lived about Twelve Hundred Years ago; for which Reason, every Family, on a certain Day, diverts it self by breaking the Legs and Ribs of a Goat, and flaying it alive.

Their Burial of the Dead is so expensive, that it often ruines the Heir.  When the Corpse is carried out of the House, a Herald goes before, who proclaims the Titles of the Deceas’d:  If he has none, he has Three Days Notice to make a Genealogy for him.  I saw the Burial of a quondam Taylor, who was nearly ally’d to a first Minister, and heard the Herald’s Oration, which was as near as I remember, in these Words.

See, Fellow-Citizens, the Vanity of all sublunary Things! and lament your own hard Fate in the Loss of the Illustrious Evanosmador.  If Virtue, if Art, if Nobility of Blood, could any way have influenc’d the Tyrant Death, who could boast a greater Soul!  Who exceed him in the Mysteries of his Art!  Or lastly, Whose Veins were fill’d with a more noble Blood!

Here he repeated his Genealogy, which spoke him descended from a Number of Sovereign Princes, Grandees, Caja’s, &c.

When the Corpse arrives at the great Market-place, where all the Dead are burnt, a Priest makes a Funeral Oration; which done, a great Number of Mourners, hired for that purpose, begin their Lamentations, which last till the Body is entirely consum’d.  The Fire is made with Billets, on which the Arms of the Deceased are either carv’d or painted, which cannot cost less than an English Crown each.  Every one of the Company is presented with two of these Billets; one he lays on the Pile, the other he carries home, and hangs up in his House.  After the Consumption of the Corpse, the Picture of the Deceas’d is hung over the Door for the Space of Twelve Moons.  Their Ceremonies in marshalling the Company are tedious, and therefore I shall not mention them; I shall only take Notice, that the Dead are drawn by Six, or Eight Ostriches, cover’d with Cloath of Gold, upon an open Chariot.