The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1886-08-11
A STRANGE RITE.
The Pious Exercise Performed by Mos
lens Crazed with Hasheesh.


In Suakim heard the Moslems at
this pious exercise, and the horror of it
was unforgetable, SAYS Philip Robinson
in the Contemporary ReUiesC. On sew
eral occasions, when the sound reached
me from afar, | thought it came from
one of the condensing steamers, and so
probably TO the last did the great ma
iority of strangers. But one midnight
/ was making my way back from a
friends quarters 10 my own when
heard the spectral sound coming from
a direction opposite to the ships. |
stood and listened, and then determined
to follow it up. So in and out, up and
down the narrow. dark alleys of the ma
tive town, | wandered in chase of this
ventriloquial uproar. Passing along
between two high mud walls, | stum-
bled over man who was crouching on
the ground, and at the same moment a
door opened and the whole volume of a
prodigious bark issued therefrom. Out
of the door came a negro, reeling as if
drunk, and fell in heap by the side of
the man had tumbled over. And then
/ saw there were several others sitting
huddled up along the bottom of the
wall, groaning from time to time and
gasping in most frightful manner. As
the door remained ajar, peeped in,
and the spectacle presented was so eX-
traordinary that j ventured to push it
wider and step inside into the large
courtyard upon which it opened. No
one noticed me. for every one was en-
crossed, as if bewitched, in the religious
function that was proceeding. In the
center stood a dervish, with a book
from which he was chanting. On either
side, with torches in their hands that
flickered and spluttered as surely torches
never did before, stood two acolyte-like
youths, who yelled a sort of acconpani-
ment to the dervish's chant
Arranged in a great semi-eircle
around these officiating personages was
a ring of forty men, negroes and Arabs,
some bareheaded and nearly naked,
others in the complete costume of the
well-to-do. They were holding each
others hands, and whenever the dervish
came to pause the whole company
suddenly raised their joined hands, and
as suddenly brought them down again.
As they descended, every man bowed
his head as low as he could and gave a
deep, ventral ''hough,n The time they
kept was so exact that the forty barked
like one. On a sudden the deryish stop
ped, the acolytes yelled afresh, and
then the company of devotees, pumping
with their arms and doubling up their
bodies, proceeded to a fearful competi-
ton of lungs Still keeping in perfect
unison, the barking grew faster and
faster and faster still, until one by one
the huge, brawny, great-boned Africans
reeled and staggered out of the ring,
leaned against the walls, or fell exhaust
ed, gasping and groaning, like heaps of
rags, upon the ground.
The contagious delirium of this amaz-
ing orgy was something dreadful to be-
hold. A few still held out, but faint
and muffied in voice, and the torches
flashed and spluttered. showing the
fainting men lying all around the court
tossing their arms about and raving
until it seemed as if the devils had been
let loose on the earth. My own sensa-
tions were extraordinary, for l. who
had only been looking on, felt actually
faint and out of breath, and | was glad
to get out of the court, with its reek of
men and stencil of guttering torches.
As went the voices grew weaker and
weaker, and so died out altogether; the
man who gave the last grunt of all be-
ing the winner for the night of the
prize for piety. Next morning | was
told that my adventure had really been
one of considerable risk, as many of the
men in these barking exercises are mad
drunk with hasheesh, and the whole
company fanatically Mohammedan.
But am glad | was not wise in time,
or | should never have seen one of the
most wonderful sights of my life.