326. A group of tombstones in the old cemeteries of the town. Silistra. Here, as in almost all bulgarian sites, several dead are buried in one grave, of course, it takes some time for the previously buried body to rot, otherwise the new dead person is buried next to it - these are family or relative tombs. Above them they place as many monuments as there are souls buried. Over the older silistren graves we find two, three or more monuments: dolls, tablets and stone crosses. Dolls are made of oak or beech wood, often plastered with black paint, and more often they are wrapped in black, red, pink, blue and other fabrics, the color of which is chosen according to the age of the deceased: for younger ones - a light tone, for older ones - a darker tone or black. The fabric is stretched well over the doll and nailed with regular or rose [?] nails. In more recent times, cardboard angels, flowers and crosses are nailed and gilded onto the fabric. The dolls here are short, fat, and roughly hewn with or without saw cuts; many times they are not replaced by stone ones, but stay in the grave until they rot, and then they are replaced by stone ones. The stone tombstones in silistra and its surroundings are roughly hewn out of calcareous stones brought from ruse or from the surrounding bayrs. They are decorated like those of varna, prova-dia and ruse with zigzag ornaments and crosses, but carved roughly and with an irregular pattern. Some of the monuments have below the front niches for lamps, with or without a cover; some pek have on its upper wing on its horizontal wall a square hole-stern carved into which women pour water when they pour over the graves, "so that when the birds land, they can drink water and remember the dead", or when it rains, "to fill again for the birds". The average height of the doll is 40 cm, the average width is 15 cm and the average thickness is 6 cm, and the stone ones are 45x35x12 cm. Sketched on 25. Viii. 1917. (vol. 7, obr. 90. ). Date: 25 August 1917.
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