The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1875-05-22

straight up and down, with his neck lin
Der, leaving his head, with its abundance
Of long black hair, to fly about at random,
beating in turn upon his chest, shoulders,
and back. Two old men, who seemed to
oficiatc as masters of ceremonies, ap-
preached him, and without attempting to
hinder his movements, gradually relieved
him Of his turban and other superfuous
clothing When the music became the
fastest, il seemed as if his burly frame
would fall to pieces, so violent were his
motions. After time the music ceased
suddenly and he fell, or tumbled, on his
hands aud knees, his long hair falling over
his purpled face and neck, and commenced
to crow like cock and make all sorts Of
insane noises, in imitation of both bird
and beast, jumping now aud then, with an
angry snarl like dog, at some poor fel-
low, who jumped back atfrighted. One of
the old men endeavored to quiet him by
patting him on the head, but he was
answered BY bites and growls The mon
ster, for such he was grown, evidently
craved something. Presently he was
handed a little iron shovel, heated red hot
at the scoop
This seemed to be what he wanted, for
he seized it fercely, and jumping to his
feet howled and roared, and danced, wilder
than before, meanwhile pounding the poor
shovel with his fists, and head, and feet,
in most savage manner; then, with a
fearful yell Of oxultation, he put it on the
ground and jumped on it; then stood on
it, barefooted Of course, until the air grew
foul with the sckening fumes Of burning
flesh, and he was almost enveloped in the
smoke; then he grasped the scoop, still
almost red with heat, between his teeth,
and ran around the circle thrusting the
handle into the faces of the others, seem.
ingly defying them to take hold of it, One
of the old men finally took it away, giving
him instead lighted torch, with goodly
fame; this he held to his arms, and neck,
aud cheeks long enough to cook the flesh
brown, aud ended by thrusting the flames
in his mouth and holding it there for fully
minute, il being still lighted when he
tookit out.
But still he howlel aud roared. He
was next handed large prickly pear, or
cactus leaf, green with gall, and coated
with needles like poreupine. He ate
half of this with great relish, the other
half being passed around among us. We
secured small piece as a sample of Arab
food.
Before the big Bedouin fell down from
exhaustion, which he aherward did, he
was joined, one by one, by others, all of
whom prefaccd their appearances by loud
shrieks and long jumps into the centre of
the court, always fully habited, the mas
ters of ceremonies in each ease relieving
them Of their extra clothing.
One gray-headcd, fine-looking old Sheik
varied his performance by eating goodly
supply of nails, broken glass, and stones.
| do not know where he put them, but he
ate far more than mouthiul, and did not
spit them out again, but danced afterward
as violently as any Of the others.
About this time occurred one of the
most disgusting scenes Of the exhibition,
which was the eating, by Que of the Arabs,
of live scorpion The scorpion was
taken out of the little checkered box by
one of the performers, who let it crawl over
his face and hands, muttering to it all the
time, and then handed 1t to another Arab,
who went through much the same perfor-
nance; and finally, putting his face within
tWp feet of mine, he took the head of the
scorpion in one hand, holding the tail in
the other, put the terrible reptile in his
mouth, body first, chewed it up, and swal-
lowed it.
Another fellow took number of iron
skewers, and ran one through each cheek,
one through his protruding tongue, one
through bis nose, one through each arm
and hand; and while the blood was stream
ing from each wound, he executed yio-
lent dance, and rushed from the court
yard
Then negro, black as night, and young
and vigorous, who was one of the first to
begin the dance, and last to cease, took
iron spikes, and hammered them with a
stone into his body; one being driven in
just above the collar bone, one in the
abdomen, and one in the right leg, blood
flowing freely from all the wounds. He
finally tainted while dancing, perhaps more
from loss of blood than fatigue.
Another one, who had very much the
appearance Of a blacksmith, took bar of
iron about two feet in length, small at one
end, and having wheel on the other, with
a handle in the centre Of the bar, through
which the bar revolyed. He worked the
wheel up to very rapid revolution, and
then placed the sharp point of the bar into
the side Of his eye next to the nose, and
gouged the eye out Of its socket; he took
the eye in his hand and held it at least six
inches from his face; and after dancing aud
yelling for few seconds, he replaced the
| eye in the socket. He ended his perform
anee by dancing around the court, but
ting his head severely against each of the
stone pillars and then tearing out his hail
by handfuls
There were three ladies' in our party
/ IT.. A. -. l.