Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-02-02
A FETE OF BLOOD.
The Barbarous Festival Of the Shirte
Saint Saidna ell Hussen-A
Horrible Procession.
The Terrible Cruelties Practiced-Sick'
ening Sights-BloOdy Work OF
the Cimeter.

, bearing his name, procured the services oil
a Greek dragoman at the hotel and then bent
ray steps in the direction of the Egyptian
quarter of Cairo. Through this runs a
street known as the Mouskee, in which stands
the mosque of the Persian saint named above
The place in front Of the hotel and opera
house and the neighborhood of the Esbeck-
rah Gardens were alive with turbaned fol-
lowers of Mohammed, who were on their way,
like "a, to witness the religious zeal of their,
to them, heretical Shirte coreligionists.
Like christianity, Islam has its two great
sects. The Sumnites or Mohammedans, who
| stand on the Koran, and the Shirte or Per
sian Moslems, who base their belief and
teachings on the Koran, but in whose system OF
religious ethics the traditions of Mohammed
also take a prominent place. The Saint
Saidna of Hussen, whose fete we saw, is con-
sidered by the Shirte to be as great, If not
greater, than the prophet, and it was owing
to this that the coming ceremonies promised
to be most interesting.
The crowd is getting thicker and thicker,
and surges up against my legs and thighs,
making me plant myself more firmly on the
box made of cane, on which L am standing.
The cries become more frequent, and the
crowd seems more nervous, when suddenly
we see far away at the end of the street a
yellowish, ruddy glare which lights up the
houses on either side most luridly, and,
spreading out, comes in yellowish bands OF
light to where we stand family illuminating
the swarthy and tawny-covered faces and
white teeth Of the Moslems, Copts and Fells-
heen, who are all around Sounds of
barbaric music and hoarse chanting are
borne to our ears through the balmy air of
this most lovely Egyptian night, and the
lurid light ftfully Pickering Eliminates the
painted walls of the houses, and brings out
in bold relief the many-colored polyglot
| signs upon them. The crowd is beginning to
| M M and wa down tho STR
as we look over lis head, braziers swaying
and moving to and fro, as they come borne
on the end OF long sticks and leaving trains
of flaming charcoal behind the bearers, who
are policemen striking and driving the
throng of Mussulmans before them.
The chanting is more distinct and we see
red banners with Arabic characters worked
in gold upon them. The crowd gets more
and more feverishly excited, and shouts of
| "Allah" are heard resounding from hoarEe
threats as the dervishes, now i'll front OF us,
slowly pass those in the front, naked to the
waist, round which is a loosely bound white
| cloth, call gudurally, though sill unsteady,
on Hussen; they pass along, keeping time to
their shouts with violent beating of their
| breasts. Their hoarss cries, long, disheveled
| and matted hair lying out in a sort of crini-
| form aureola, couples with the metallic ring
of their chests, as they give blow upon blow,
is grotesque and almost devilish in its weird
ness. Behind them come men, who in a
| circle made up of about fifty persons, puzzle
us for a moment as to what these red devils
may be. Something bright flashes through
the air, and then the fervid cry OF Hussen!
| Hussen, Saidna Hussen. rises with renewed
fanatical zeal in the air of the moonlit night
The flash is caused ty long curved cimeter,
| which, descending, divides the flesh of
another dervish, making the blood squirt and
trickle over his already CORY body, which
shines and olanpea i'm a halli bl w. anrIpr
way, as the red light OF the braziers, filed
with charcoal, strikes upon it.
Thirty or fifty of these blood besotted chill
dren of Islam slowly passed by, cutting and
slashipg each other with an ardor which
even the police, strive though they do, can
hardly keep from being mortal in its effects.
They are chanting "Hussen, Hussen, Saidna
Hussen," and opening each others veins
until their shoulders, arms and loins are
streaming, and again newly stream, with
bright red blood of artery and bluer blood of
veins, their long hair drips and trickles with
gore, violently moving their heads they
hoarsely cry to their prophet, and their
white teeth and partly shaved foreheads
CLEAN and almost scintillate as the blood
flows from the long red cuts.
There are Nubians amosg this pack OF mad
fanatics, and the red blood on their bodies,
heads and necks seems darker as it flows
over ebony skins making them look like
demons in some blood sacrifice of ghouls or
devils. The blush white skins of some, per
haps more northern, Moslem, with his fore /
head shaved half way up to the crown of
his head; his big black eyes that burn and
blaze with almost savage zeal, his white teeth
and curved nose, stand out in striking oppo-
sition to the other red, tawny and black ia
natics in this sanguinarily pious dance.
There is fervency in the glance of those
eyes, and he seems for the moment a sort of
Of tb.at ,sr,er ,ir1t ar,I, al
business Of Isam's soldier IN visionary, who,
under the shadow Of the green standard and
kindling eye of the Prophet, offered death
or Mohammedanism' to his opponent. Blood
streams from him as from the rest, and his
loins-encircling white cloth is all encarmined
and besmeared with CLOTHING and half coagu-
lated blood.
Following this comes sight at which we |
can hardly suppress the cry of angry pain
and horror that struggles to our lips. Pic |
ture it and think of it, we Christian mothers |
who, with yaur little yellow-haired darlings |
at your knee, have no thoughts save those of |
love and earn for the youngsters who prattle |
at your sides, climb into your laps and ask |
in their deliciousy lisping baby talk for |
''doodiEs," or say want to shee wheels go |
round" Picture it, say again, for here is. |
well as my feeble words can describe it, |
in all its hideously horrid miniature, horse |
covered with flowing white mantle, whose |
blood-stained folds fall to the ground on |
either side and gain new stains from the be-
dragging mud of the street, in whose saddle |
is little hoy with half-shaved head and |
tender little eyei, which have now been gaz-
ing on the world for but five years. His poor
little face is hacked and cut, and blood |
trickles from wounds in his forehead and |
face down on to the white robe, which he |
wears, staining and spotting it with the |
blood of this poor infantile victim to the |
zeal Tor Islam.
In his hand he carries cimeter, with |
which he rikes his forehead in a mechan-
zeal, impotent sort of way, the blow being |
rarely hard enough to cause more than u red |
mark. This poor little chap has been well
trained in the puppet part which he must
play in this bloody saturnalia. HIS pale and
chubby little cheeks are very, very white,
and his eyes have not that sparkling, rich,
bright and lovely black that you see in the
eyes OF Moslem and Egyptian children in
this town of Cairo. They have lost their
light, and the brave little man, though he
must suffer pain from his wounds and terror
from his surroundings, shows no sign save
in the pallor OF his face and trembling of his
cimeter holding arm. At the end of this Jete
of blood there will be no loving mother to
take her boy into her arms, and soothe and
calm his poor scattered senses and dazed and
terrified little mind-nol She is sitting at
home IN the haren, or perhaps is even
gazing on the sanguinary pageant from the
street, pIuming and congratulating herself
that the child, who is flesh of her flesh and
blood of her blood, has thus poured out some
of herself in testimony to the trnth and glory
of Gods one and only true religion.
Behind this blood-stained child come more
dervishes, naked TO the waist, though, thank
goodness, not bloody. | don't think | could
stand that again. These are armed with bags
filed with bits OF iron, each of which may
weigh from FIVE to ten pounds. They call
hoarsely on Hussen, keeping time 10 their
sing song, melodious shouts by blows with
the bags on their own and others bodies. A
fantastic company are they, and
as they turn half round, as they go slowly
chanting, one wonders what it all amounts
to, and marvels and is puzzled at this dis
play of religious zeal. These close the pa
geant, and the shouting, now thoroughly
crowd falls in behind and surges
along, with cries to Allah and the prophet.
They Mixed the Babies Up.
St Louis Post Dispatch.