ot 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 Kr