The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1869-12-23
Curious Scene in Egypt-The
Shlekh'S Ride over a Roadway
of Living Bodies.

dents at Cairo of the festivities IN honor of
the prophets birthday this year are very
curious. Among the most singular fea>
lures OF the festival is the ride of the
Sheikh over a roadway of living bodies to
wards the mosque progress thus record
ed
| las sort of advance guard. there came
mob OF half naked men shouting, yelling,
bowling, Some whlrled round aud round,
tossing their arms aloft as they whirled :;
some were foaming at their mouth, others
had snakes cooled round their necks. snakes
hanging from their teeth, snakes, twisted
aud squeezed between their hands; some
had bare swords, which they brandished in
the air. There were men with skewers
stuck through their cheeks, men with iron
spikes headed with heavy iron balls, who
kept spinning the point of the spike upon
their palms Till the pieces OF sharp jagged
steel attached by chaiuS to the ball, began
| to fly round and round, and then they made
a felt to bring the vhirline ball so near
their cheeks as to slash and cash the nose,
mouth and eyes with the revolving blades;
a felt which, however, was not carried
into action, as the police seized them, and
pushed them on. '@
''As the harsh strains of the band came
| Tue yClliuS SISW iDUIe
frantic, the shouts more like the inarticulate
cries of animals in pain, less like those of
human beings. And then the shrieks, wells
and cries were drowned for moment as
the colleges of dervishes came marching
past, each with its sacred banner and Its
band of music. There was some attempt
at melody, but it seemed to ME as if the
musicians themselves were carried away by
the frenzy of the moment and played upon
their instruments as their fingers chanteo
the fall, while they joined in the yelling
Shrek of Allah ell Allah !! On they come
troops of green turbaned Gervishes, with
their flags and music, and between every
two troops there pressed and pushed The
rear guard of the mad, screaming moi
which led the way in front. Over The
bodies in the street, dervishes, flag bearers
players and their followers tramped forward
with unshod feet.
Then at the end of the street appeared
the Sheikh himself, mounted on white
Arab steed. Except In a burlesque, neve
saw so huge turban as that he wore. The
enormous folds of green muslin were wounC
round and round his head till the weigh
must have been hard to support, even i
your brain were clear; and the wearer, t
all outward semblance, was in dead faint
He looked like man helplessly drunk, O
, drugged with the fumer of tobacco till he
had lost all consciousness OF where he was
all power of using his limbs. His head
surmounted by its huge turban, hung dowr
helplessy over his left shoulder, his frame
kept lolling to and fro, so that he would hav
fallen off the saddle if there had not beer
; men propping him up on either side; hi
mouth was open, the saliva was runnin!
= down from the corners of his lips.
1.-The yelling ani'the shouting had beer
we'll nigh deafening before; but it swellet
to very Babel of shrieks and screams a
) the white horse and his rider were led slow
y on over the pavement of bodies. Tramp
, tramp, the hoofs came down over the pros
trate figures, and even amid the uproar 0
the crowd, you could hear the dull strutc'
as the horse trod on his way. As th
Sheikh moved EDWARDS the men sprun
from the ground on which they lay: Pal
as death, half fainting, gasping for breath
) writhing as if in mortal pain, they looket
one and all as if they were in the varou
stages Of opilcptio oonvulsions. Thor oyo
balls glared ont of their sockets; their tea
lures were contorted with hideous spasms
they threw themselves about as If the,
: would dash their heads against the ston
walls, and struggled fiercely with the friend
whose arms were passed around their shoul
ders to prevent them from falling to tn
: ground.
Every knows the face and form o
the boy possessed by devils who kneeled a
the foot of the mount, in Raphaels plctur
of the TRANSPORTATION. Well, among tn,
men over whom the horse had ridden, Their
. seemed to be any number of lads possessed
l. L L.,
driven forth. [ saw men biting the ears
wrenching open the clenched teeth, pullin
) at the cramp- knotted arms of these epilep
tic wretches. | heard shrnks, sobs an
groans. The very women in the shop op
posite, who had squeezed forward to Sc
the horse trample on the PROSTATE men
had turned their heads away. The Who'll
, scene was CHASTITY horrible.
The Maddening Mechanism O
Thought.
The following beautiful thoughts fey
from the pen Of that gifted writer, Olive
Wendell Holmes. Our brains were sew
enty year clocks. 1.-The Angel OF Lf
winds them up once for all then closes tn
case and gives the key into the land Of tn
Angel of the Resurrection. Tic tao, tic, tao
7 go the wheels of thought our will canno
sup tuclL, tHcy CdHuot sup liiStHSelNcS
:leep cannot still them madness onlv make
them 60 faster death alone can break int
! the case and seize the ever swinging pen
! 6ulum, which we call the heart silence a
last the clicking of the terrible escapemen
we have carried SO long beneath the wrinkl
, ed foreheads. If we could only get a
: them as we lie on our pillow and count tn
death beats of thought after thought, an,
image after image Earring thr ough the over
5 tired organ Viii no body block thos
wheels, uncouple that pinion, cut tn
' string that holds those Weights blows a.
, the internal machine with gunpowder
What passion comes over US sometime
, for silence and rest; that this dreadful
mechanism, unvinding the endless tapestr
of time, embroidered with spectral figure
of life and death, could have but one brie
holiday. Who can wonder that men swim
themselves off from beams in hempe
lassos? That they jump off from parapet
into the swift and gurgllng waters beneath
That they take counsel of the grim frlen'
J who has tut to utter his one peremptor,
monosyllable and the restless machine
slivered as vase that has been dashet
I | ~ l.