Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1869-06-23
TRAVELS IN AFRICA,

hon. ,. ,. Cox, who rs now travel.
ing in Africa, confines TO write very
interesting letters TO the World. His
last is dated at Milianah, Algiers, Af
rica, April 18th, from which we take
the following passages ;
MOHAMMEDAN RITES.
Now for something more horrible,
which l almost sicken TO paint Nah
moud insists on our going up into the
old city 10 see some Mohammedan
rites. The devil himself is an Alger-
inc dervish These are not the dan.
cling, wbirling dervishes of CONSTANT.
nople. There are several sects of
Moslems peculiar TO Morocco and
Algicrs. / think there are seven.
believe Mahmoud belongs to this one.
He did not like TO confess il but
saw him, as we entered, quietly salute
the chief dervish with a peculiar EN-.
brace and kiss. To this performance
the ladies went; but they had 10 90
up stairs into one of the galleries Of
the inner quadrangular court Of the
Moorish house, among the Moorish
women. Several nationalities were
represented in our crowd Expecta
tion was on the tipioe 10 see and hear
1t was a hot night, and the room was
close and full Of people. Some two
dozen Moors were present. 1t is dark
in the room; only two dim candies
and charcoal fire, which smouldered
in a skillet. The object Of the latter
appeared to be 10 warm up the drums
which the dervishes beat, and which.
when the sheepskin got loose, they
heated over the fire TO make il tight
Perhaps there were some fumes in the
skillet to make the dervishcs dsvilish.
While our ladies above were taking
coffee, very black and sweet, in nice
little china cups, in the galleries, with
their Arab hostesses, we sweat down
stairs, leaning expectant in tie dark
against the whitewashed walls or
against the pillars of the court.
THE DANCE.
Now the chief begins. He chants
passages of the Koran, while, standing
around him semi circularly, a half
dozen respond with whining tones.
Others, with their drums, sit cross
legged in a row, before little stand
with two long, lighted wax tapers.
A monotonous drum chorus begins
then a long haired dervish bounds up
like jack-in-the-box, as if shot in the
rear, and, being up, brother uDbinds
bis garments and spreads out his hair,
and then he jumps up, gently at first,
keeping time to the music. His head
Dvssv 80 nis Dvuy SWAY, .t@- faa,a-
and faster, till his hAir flies around
wildly aud bis hands are swinging in.
sancly. He is joined by another who
is more staid The lust looks as If he
ought 10 know better The first one,
exhausted, falls down 10 epilepsy and
is carried out. No. 2. is Joined by No.
3, then No, 4 appears, and by this
time No. | re.appears, and the quad
rupcd-for they are like brutal four
logged nondescript--are all att. No.
l, having worked himself wild again,
stops a moment. The others stop. A
brother appears from behind with
A RED NOT BAR or IRON.
No. laps it with his tongne. see
il smoke. My blood runs icily. He
slaps the incande cent iron with hand
and foot. Then the ministering broth
er offers him TO eat some delicate stems
or pieces Of glass lie crunched them
aud swallowed them. His digestion
is excellen. lift had been candy and
be had been juvenile, be could not
have rcishod il more Then No. 2,
the intelligent, stops and has
LONG WIRE RUN THROUGH MS TONGUE,
and ont Of each cheek, protruding four
inches. He snarls meanwhile like a
Gagged hyena Then No. 3, who has
been rather quioscent, commences TO
snap and bark like a hungry dog
eyes popping out, and face all savage
and imbruted. marked ?-he howled,
he growled. Finally, the ministering
brother comes out with one of the
thick leaves of the prickly pear, foot
long, in form of an eclipse, an inch
thick and full of thorns; all the der.
wishes drop down on all fours, and ARE
biting at it aud into il, and crunching
i'll
THE FRoTH OF THEIR MOUTHS
hangs 10 the green prickles and slavers
the green rind. Ugh What more 7
No 4, in an extasy Of fanatical dia-
holism swallows a scorpion. Whether
they have taken out the poison, or
whether the affiatus is 30 enormously
exciting, that poison is innoxious; or
what, God knows We summon Nah
moud in haste; beokon our ladies
from above in the dark, aud seek re
lief and breath in the narrow streets.
Upon this Internal ogry we have moth
ing to comment 1t is as near making
the human a wild animal as anything
can be-
Il Is worse than the negro perform
anecs every Wednesday. upon tho
seaside, at the Jardin dEsssi Here
all the blacks OF Algiers come 10 ceie-
brate
THE FETE on NAssIM.
it begins when tho beans begin TO
blacken Up 20 that time the negroes
abstain from eating beans The "sa-
cred" is mixed with the proiane in this
festival. They celebrate Belal "a saintcd
black female slave, who had been IN
Mohammed's family. They pray and
gorge with food An OK, covered
with flowers and gay foulards, is sac
rificed They dance around IL seven
times before they give the death
stroke. As the OK dies, whether soon
or not, In agony or not, so is the prog.
noslicalion Of good or evil Then be-
ginsthe negro dancing Dan Bryant
might learn new fantastic lessons in
tho heart. Then the prophetic ne
cresses, retiring under tent near the
sea, are waited upon by the crowd tC
learn their futures. The crowd bring
chickens TO the prophecies. She
wrings of their heads and throws th'
I body into the waves. If the "head
/ ioee roosfo,o svifns and strupplos--so