The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1878-08-29
THE MOOLID OF THE PROPHET.
An Eastern Ceremony, Daring which .
Horse and Rider Pass Over the Bodie,
of Prostrste Dervishes.


An Eastern Ceremony, Daring which q
Horse and Rider Pass Over the Bodies
OF Prestrate Dervishes.
Our tent was close at hand; we sought
it with the nonchalence of travellers who
rather enjoy breaking the tables Of the
law. We we're glad OF the escape and Of
the occasion OF il; likewise grateful for
the slight shelter our tent afforded, for
by this time El Ezlekeeyeh was shroud
ed in a fine, sitting rain that sparkled in
the sunshine as the golden light shot
through it. Music (plenty of it) grow
ing louder and more loud, and the roar
of 10000 voices, swept down upon us,
and then the rush Of heralds crying,
Make way, make way !" and the der
wishes thus announced advanced to offer
up their bodies to the Doseh. They
hastened up the aventie in groups; each
group was clustered about staff decor
ated with holy rags and saints relics.
ALI faces were turned toward the relics
the haggard faces of the dervishes, who
hung together with arms entwined, @ m
pact as swarming bees; sacred banners
iuttered down the whole length of q
procession made up of these grouped
dervishes. Not one of the victims
seemed in his right mind; the majority
OF them were idiotic. Their swollen
tongues lolled from their mouths; their
heads wagged YEARLY on their shoulders;
and their eyes were either clo led, or
liked and staring. Many of then were
naked to the waist, tdrbanless, bare
footed, and barelegged to the knee. In
fact, they were of the lowest orders OF
the East, impoverished, fanatical, for
lorn. They hastened to the top of the
avenue, part of those in each group
running backward. When they had
assembled to the number of 400, the
friends who accompanied them separated
each cluster of derv shes, ard began
paving the way with their bodies. They
lay face down in the dust, the arms
crossed under the forehead; they were
ranged shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip,
though the heads were not always turned
IN the same direction, but were OCCASION
ally reversed. Friends gathered at the
head OF each of the dervishes, and
with the voluminous breadths of their
garments famed the prostrate forms
rapidly and necessarily. In truth theder-
vishes seemed fainting with hunger and
fatigue, and, as the crowd pressed close
upon them, they would doubtless have
become insensible in short time but for
the ftful breath afforded by those flap
ping sails. I observed that the majority
OF the dervishes lay as still as death;
but there were those who raised their
heads and looked wildly about until
their friends had quieted them, or, as in
some cases, had forced them to lie still,
while the confusion increased, and. the
intense excitement at the lower end of
the avenue announced the approach of
the sheik. A few footmen then ran
rapidly over the PROSTATE bodies, beat
ing small copper drums of a hemispher-
ical form, and crying in loud voice.
Allah !" The attendants, as they saw
the sheiks great turban nodding above
tho crowd, grew nervous, and some of
them lost all self control; one man
standing close beside me went stark
! mad, and three muscular fellows had
some difficulty in dragging him away
from the spot. He came, the sheik Of
the saadeeyeh, swathed in purple and
fine linen, and mounted upon a gray
steed. The bride was in the hands of
two attendants; two others leaned upon
VIZ AAAh~ 4uuA tCI5 VI tu0 dulu1dl W sup
port his unsteady steps. The horse was
shod with large, flat shoes, like plates of
steel, that flashed in the sunshine; he
stepped cautiously and with some hesit-
alton upon the bodies. usually placing
his foot upon the hips or thighs of the
dervishes; sometimes the steel -shod hoof
slipped down the ribs of man, or sank
in between the thighs, for in no case
could it touch the earth, 80 closely were
the bodies ranged, side by side. If any
shrek of agony escaped from the lips of
the dervishes heard it not, for the air
was continually rent with the cry of
"Allah-la-la-la-lah, the ripping prayer,
a breath long, continually reiterated.
The sheik was stupefied with opium, for
he performs this act, much against his
will, in Difference to the demands of the
people; he rocked in his saddle until he
had passed the whole length of that
avenue paved with human flesh, and
then withdrew into tent prepared for
his reception, where he received the
devoted homage of such as were able to
force their way into his presence
Charles Warren Soddard, in atlantic
Monthly.