The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1869-06-26
OTTAWA FREE TRADER: SATURDAY JUNE 96 1sse



5. s. Cox, Esq, writing from Algiers. says:
Mahmoud insists on our going up into thu
old city to see some Nohammedan rites. Thu
devil himselfis an Algerine dervish These are
not the dancing, whirling dervishes of Constan.
unople. There are several scots of Moslems pc.
cullar to Morocco and Algiers. ! think there
are seven. believe Mahmoud belongs to this
one. He did not like to confess it, but saw
him, as We entered, quietly salute the chief der
wish with peculiar embrace and kiss.
To this performance the ladies went but thew
had to 60 up stairs into one of the galleries Of
the inner quadrangular court of the Moorish
house among the Moorish women. Several
| nationallties were represented in our crowd. Elk.
pectatlon was on tip-toe to see and hear. It was
hot night, and the room was close and full of
people. Some two dozen Moors were present. It
Is dark in the room only two dim candles and
charcoal fire which smouldered in skillet The
OBJECT OF the latter appeared to be to warm up
the drums which the dervish beat and which,
when the sheep skins got loose, they heat over
the hre to make 1T tight. Perhaps there were
some fumes in the skillet to make the deryishes
devilish. 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 the
dark against the white-washed 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.
clrcuiarly, half-dozen respond with whining
tones. Others, with their drums, sit cross-leg-
ged in row, before little stand with two long.
lighted wax tapers. A momentous drum cho-
rus begins; then long haired dervish bounds
up like jick-in.a-box. as if shot in the rear
and, being up, Il brother unbinds his garments
and spreads out his hair, and then he jumps up
gently at first. keeping time to the music His
mead BOWS as his body sways; then faster and
faster, till his hair nies around wildly and his
hands are swinging insanely. He is Joined bv
another who is more staid The last looks as if
he ought to know better. The first one, exhaus-
ted, falls down in epilepsy and is carried out.
NO. . is Joined by No. 3; then No. appears, and
oy this time No. having worked himself wild
again, stops moment. The others stop. A
brother appears from behind with
RED-HoT BAR OF IRON
No. laps it with his tongue I see it smoke.
My blood runs icily. He slaps the incandescent
with hand and foot. Then the ministering
brother offers him to eat some delicate stems or
pieces OF glass. He erunched them and swallow.
ed them His digestion is excellent. If it had
been candy he could not have relished it more /!
linen No. . the intelligent, stoops and has
LONG WIRE RUN THROUGH HIS TONGUE
and out OF each cheek, protrudingl four inches. |
Ae snarls, meanwhile like Gagged hyena. Then
NO. o, who has been rather quiescent commences |
to snap and bark like hungry dog-eyes pop. |
ping out, and face all savage and, imbruted. |
Barked!-he howled, he growled Finally the |
mnistering brother comes out with one of the |
thick leaves of the prickly pear, a foot long, in
form OF an elhpse, an inch thick, and full of |
thorns; all the dervishes drop down on all tours
and are biting at it and into it and crunching
it.
THE FROTH OF THEIR MAD MOUTHS
Hangs TO tho green prickies and slavers the green
rlnd. Uh! What more Pho. 4, in an ecstaoy of
frantic diabolism, swallows scorpion Whether |
they have taken out the poison or whether the |
afiiatus is so enormously exciting that poison is |
innoxious, or what, God knows! We summon
Mahmoud in haste: beckon our ladies from above
in the dark, and seek relief and breath in the
narrow streets. Upon this internal orgy we
hn1ye nothing to comment 1t is near making
n human wild country apvthinp oo,, he |