Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1869-12-22
Curious Scene III Egypt-Tile shiekh's
Risie nYer q Roadway Of living RAdies.


The accounts given by special CORE
spondeats at Cairo OF the festivities in hon-
or of the prophets bir hday this year are
very curious. Among the most singular
features of the festival is the ride of the
Sheikh over roadway of living bodies TO-
wards the mosque; a progress thus r cord
ed:
''As sort of advance guard, there came
mob of half naked men shouting, yelling,
howling. Some whirled round and round.
tossing their aIms aloft as they whirled !;
some were foaming at their mouth, others
had snakes coiIed round their necks
snakes hanging from their teeth, snakes,
twisted and squeezed between their hands;
some had bare swords, which they brand
ished 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 whirl-
ing ball SO near their cheeks as to a:ash
and cash thesnose, mouth and eyes h tne
revolving blades; feint which, ow ar
was not carried into action, as the ce
seized them, and pushed them on.
CAS- the harsh strains Of the band came
sharper and clearer, the yelling grew more
frantic, the shouts more like the iuarticu-
late cries of animals in pain, less like those
of human beings. And then the sh2ieks,
yells and cries were drowned for a moment
as the colleges of dervishes came marching
past each with its sacred banner and it's
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
chanted the fall, while they joined in the
yelling shrek of sAllah-el-Allah! On they
came, troops of green -turbaned dervishes,
with their flags and music, and between
every two troops there pressed and pushed
the rear-guard of the mad. screaming mob
which led the way in front. Over the
bodies in the street, dervishes, flag bearers,
players, and their followers tramped for
ward with unshod feet.
''Then at the end of the street appeared
the Sheikh himself, mounted on q white
Arab steed. Except in burlesque, never
saw so huge q turban as that he wore. The
enormous folds of green muslin We're wound
round and round his head till the weight
must have been hard to support, even if
your brain were clear; and the wearer, to
He looked like man helplessly drunk, or
drugged with the fumes of tobacco till he
had lost all consciousness of where he was,
all power fusing his limbs. His head,
surmounted by its huge turban, hung down
helplessly over his left shoulder, his frame
kept lolling to and fro, SO that he would
have fallen off the saddle If there had not
been men propping him up on either side;
his mouth was open, the saliva was running
down from the corners of his lips
''The yelling and the shouting had been
well nigh deatening before; but it swelled
to very Babel of shrielIs and screams as
the white horse and his rider We're led
slowly on over the pavement Of bodies.
Tramp, tramp, the hoofs came down oven
the PROSTATE figures, and even amid the
uproar of the crowd, you could hear the
dull strutch as the horse trod on his way.
AS the Sheikh moved onwards the men
sprung from the ground on which they lay.
Pale as death, half fainting, gasping fol-
breath, writhing as if in mortal pain, they
rocked one and all as if they were in the
various stages of epileptic Convulsions
Their eyeballs glared out of their sockets
their features were cOntorted with hideOus
spasms; they threw themselves about as i
! they would dash thei- heads againts tht
stone walls, and struggled fercely with tht
friends whose arms were passed arount
their shoulders to prevent them from fall
! ing to the ground.
everybody knows the face and form Q
| the boy possessed by devils who kneeIet
| at the foot of the mount, In Raphaels pic
ture of the TRANSPORTATION. Well among
/ the men over whom the horse had ridden
! there seemed to be any number of lad
possessed, from whom the devils had no
| yet been driven forth. saw men biting tht
ears, wrenching open the clenched teeth
pulling at the cramp-knotted arms ofthes'
! epileptie wretches. I heard shrieks, sobs
and groans. The very women IN the shoI
t opposite, who had squeezed forward tt
I see the horse trample on the PROSTATE men
| had turned their heads away. The wholt
scene was CHASTITY horrible.
The New York Hotel property has beer
! sold at auotiOn for s., ,095 900,