Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1869-12-16
Publisher and Proprietor.
Curious Gene In Egypt-.The Sheikh's
Ride over a ROadway of Living

niue OSoH . " ~e
The accounts given by special CORE
spondents at Cairo of the festivities in
honor of the Prophets birthday this year
are very curious. Among the most SIN
gular features Of the festival is the ride
Of the Sheikh over roadway of living
bodies towards the mosque; progress
thus recorded:
AS q sort of advance guard, there
came mob Of half naked men shouting,
yelling, bowling. Some whirled round
and round, tossing their arms aloft as
they whirled; some we're foaming at the
mouth, others had snakes coiled round
their necks, snakes hanging from be-
meath their teeth snakes twisted aud
squeezed between their hands; some had
bare swords, which they brapdished 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 chains to the
ball, began to fly round and round, and
then they made feint to bring the
whirlipg ball so near their cheeks as to
slash and cash nose, mouth and eyes
with the revolving blades; feint which,
however, was not carried into action, as
the police seized them, and pushed them
on.
As the harsh strains of the band came
sharper and clearer, the yelling grew
more frantic, the shouts more like the in
articulate cries Of animals in pain, less
like those of human beings. And then
the shrieks, yells and cries were drowned
for a 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 them
selves we're carried away by the frenzy OF
the moment, and played upon their in
struments as their fingers chanted the
fell, while they j,ined in the yelling
shrek of "Allah el-Allshl O1 they
came, troop after troop Of green-tur-
baned dervisbes, with their hsgs and
music; aud between every two troops
there pressed and pushed the rear guard
of the mad, screaming mob which led the
vay in front. Over the bodies in the
street. dervishes, fag-besrers, players
and their followers trampe1 forward with
unshod feet.
Then at the end of the street appeared
the Sheikh himself, mounted on q white
Arab stsed. Except in burletque, l
never saw so huge turban as he wore.
The enormous folds of green muslin were
wound rosnd and round bis head till the
weight must have been bard to support
even if your brain were clesri and the
wssrer, to all outward semblauee, was in
a dead faint. He looked like a man
helplessly drunk, or drugged with the
fumes Of tobacco till he had lost ell con-
sciousness of where be was, all power OF
usipg his limbs. HIS head, surmounted
by its hinge turbap, hung down helplessly
over his lef. shoulder, his frame kept
lolling 10 and frc, so that be would have
fallen off the saddle if there had co; been
men propping him up Cd either side
hia mouth vas open, the saliva run
ming down FROM tbs corners Of bis lips.
The yelling and the shoutins had been
vell-nigh desfening betorei but It swelled
TO very Babel of shrieks aud screams as
he while horse and bic rider we're led
slowly on over the pavement of bodies.
Tran,r. tramp, tramp. the boots came
down over the PROSTATE figures; and even
amid the uproar Of the crowd you could
hear the duil s1rpnch ss the horse trod
on his way. As tbs sheisb moved on.
vard ths men sprang np from the gFornd
an wbich they lsy. Pale IS death, halt
fs;r,ire. essplng Toe breath, vrithing as
If In mortal pain. they looked one snd al
% IL they were ia various stages OF eplsp,
tic conTulsions. Their sysballs glare