The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-04-06 00:00:00

A SKETCH FROM EGYPT.

The following is an extract from the latter of an Occasional
Correspondent of The Times, writing from Alexandria on
March 13:—

"Every stranger in Egypt is apt to ignore the exist-
ence of the five millions of natives who form the Arab
population of the country. He does not take the
trouble to learn their language, he knows nothing of
their customs, he despises their religion. He thinks
Egypt was made for the hundred thousand Euro-
peans who are only sojourners in the land, and the
meek, laborious, underpaid, and overtasked peasant
he only sees in the light of a tax paying animal that is
necessary for the cultivation of th 3 soil and the repay-
ment of the loans which compose the sum of the Public
Debt, The natives assist this theory by their unob-
trusive ways, their endurance of oppreesion, and their
incapacity for the slightest corporate action. But
every now and then the Egyptians come suddenly into
evidence with their strange semi-barbarous usages.
For instance, yesterday morning as I was walking in
the desert, I saw an Arab woman flinging about her
drapery and crying aloud. Then she flung herself on
the ground and poured sand over her head, all the
while lamenting. When she rose she joined other
women who came from neighbouring Bedouin tents,
and they all tore their clothes and cried aloud. Next
they stood in a circle and shrieked in unison and flung
about their tattered gowns. Why did he leave me ? '
was the burden of a song and tha death of a husband
the cause. To give a more striking instance. Just
now, even in this city, Frank as it is, one meets
knots of wild and travel-stained men surrounded by
rejoicing friends. They are pilgrims from Mecca,
and traverse the streets clad in all the sanctity of
men who have walked round the Caaba the proper
number of times, spent the due number of hours on
Mount Arafat, and slain the sacrificial sheep. They
impart to the bazaars an unusual activity, as commerce
and religion combine in a Mecca pilgrim, and he brings
back coffee and carpets, as well,as a certainty of
Paradise. Most of the pilgrims desert the caravan
as it nears Cairo and hurry home as fast as they
can; but there is an official return of the pilgrims
widish is celebrated with much state. It always
falls in with the Moulid-en-Nebi, the Feast of
the Prophet. the greatest festival of the year.
This is the greatest occasion of the year for seeing
the natives. All the vacant spaces behind the Ezbek-
yeh-gardens, the Frank quarter of Cairo. where the
hotels are and the theatre and the cafés chantants,
are covered with gaily-decorated tents. Religious
ceremonies of a festive character go on in these
booths. Various orders of dervishes, whose names
and customs are equally strange, occupy them and
peform zikrs, which generally consist of a number
of devotees standing in a circle, flinging their bodies
about, and howling out " Allah-ila-illallah " in swift
repetition. In other booths coffee and occasionally
hasheesh and narghilehe are served, and Arab musi-
cians pipe to a silent but appreciative crowd. Whirli-
gigs are to be found, and they are greatly patronized
by grave men in long robes, who look excessively
comical seated on their wooden horses. I have even
seen Punch and Judy performed, only differing from
our old friend by the fact that Judy respected the
prejudices of the hareem system and covered her face
with a yashmak or thick veil. At nights there are fire-
works on a great scale, and all the Arab population of
Cairo and the environs take their pleasure in the booths
as they contemplate the. parti-coloured sputterings
of the aerial fires. This feast lasts several dap, and
winds up with the barbarous custom of the Doseh
or Treading.' This ceremony has often been des-
cribed both by pen and pencil. Everybody knows
how the great Sheikh of the Saadieh dervishes and
head of allithe dervish sects—by title the Sheikh el
Bekree, by name the Sheikh Ahmed el Kudari—
mounts his favourite white horse, and how all the
true believers lie on the ground before him, and how
he rides over their prostrate bodies, all the while
mumbling prayers for their future. As many as 400
will submit to this pain and indignity in honour of
Allah and his Prophet. They lie face to the ground,
skilful Pashas arrange the prostrate 1121‘613 compactly,
and the horse, who evidently shrinks from the task as
unworthy of his nobility, is then led over the long
level of human flesh. Vast crowds come to see the
ceremony, tents are erected for the dignitaries, and a
Prince of the blood, with the Alinisters of State, lends
his presence and countenance. The horse is a big,
white creature of 16 hands; he is shod with the broad
native shoe, and the line of prostrate bodies over
which he passed this year was '..00 yards long. Many
are hurt, but most escape. There is an Arab ser-
vant at Shepheard's Hotel who has gone through
three Dosehs with impunity, and the habituf,s of the
hotel well know how fresh and smiling he returns to
his work after the annual performance of his singular
devotions."