The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1893-05-07
WHEN THERE rs A FIRE
yYsMYRSA THE0OoD CITIZEN GETS
UP AND FIRES a GUN
And Thsn Resumes His interrupted Nap.
Hon. A. NJ. Kelley Tolls OF the Ce'eDra-
ton of Feast of shemm- El-Sessim.

When a good citizen OF smyrna-accent
on the good--hears at night the cry OF
"frc." he gets up, opens his WINDOW ana
having assured himself that II Is not MS
house which Is burning. takes down MS
gun. fires a charge into the darkness
and resumes his interrupted zap with that
sweet tranquility which comes either OF
un,mnaired digestion or Of the conscious
ness OF high duties faithfully performed.
You might suppose that this was done
20 arouse his fellow-citizens, but the
sneed with which the good man betakes
himself 10 bed negatives this explanation
since Il cannot be supposed that so eX-
empary a citizen should expect any one
else 10 do that which his sense OF duty
never suggests 20 him. No, IL Is simply
one more illustration Of the mysterious
connection so universally observed, be-
tween human emotions and noise
Whether we laugh or cry, we make
noise: we ring bells at our weddings ana
fire salvos over our graves. But IL Is
chiefly In the East that gunpowder pays
the great part in voicing sentiment anu
last night we Cairones had surteit OF H.
Yesterday was the Coptic Easter ana TO-
day is Shemm- FL Nessim. Yesterday. too
surpass all people on the earth, Chinese
not excepted. In the energy and profusion
with which. on every imaginable proVoca-
ton they fire off guns. When they nave
an election they put bullets In theil' anu
thus Il happens that, though ponucs Is
purely personal in Greece-not knowing
even party names-no election ever passes
without sundry funerals. But let them
have a fete religious or political, and
every Greek hangs out his striped flag and
fires off a weeks wages in blank cart
ridges.
This year we have double fete, for
while Greek and COpt are celebrating the
resurrection, the Moslems are celebrating
the great feast Of the Shemm- breathing
El-Nessim (of the Iephyrs).
Iris. like great many Moslem festivals.
does not follow their own calendar, but
the calendar Of the Copt, who preceded
the Arabs in Egypt, and II always falls
on the Coptic Easter Monday. THESE
Copts as you know, are an Independent
Christian community, VINO 90 not even
count time from the birth Of Christ but
from the accession Of the Emperor Do
cletian in the year 2S1, so that to-day in
the Coptic calendar is not April 10, 1893.
but Barmouda 3, 1909. Now when the
Arabs conquered the COpts, who were
the true Egyptians and the descendants OF
the Pyramid builders, they acted very
much as Christianity when II conquered
Paganlsm. in that they preserved many
OF the festivals Of the conquered people;
but as the Coptic language is no longer
spoken. and only read by a very few
scholars. its literature being hardly any
thing but the books used in divine service,
the origin Of the festival Shemm-El-
Nessim is unknown. What happens is
that all the Arabs and Copts who can
leave the cities on this day, dressed in
their brightest clothes. and pass the time
in excursions on the Nile. or in the neigh
boring resorts, returning only I'm the even
ing Their purpose is 10 breathe an air
which on this day only Of all the year
blows from the North. laden with health,
so that he or she who encounters II and
fills his lungs with II is fortified against
disease until Shemm- El-Nessim returns.
Though. as have said. Coptic festival.
the Moslems have so far adopted II that
1t is a public holiday. the stores. banks
and Offices OF public administration being
closed.
All the faithful who cannot leave Cairo
seem to feel II their duty to emulate our
Greek friends, and a perpetual fusillade OF
guns among the adults. and Of Chinese
crackers among the young makes the day
a terror 10 us heather.
On this day. according TO Egyptian be-
lief The Khamseen begins a period OF
fifty DAYS Q<hamseen meaning fifty), dur
ing which at intervals the fierce south
wind Of the desert blows. laden with an
impalpable. but penetrating dust against
whose entry all precautions are vain, and
rushing the mercury up into the nineties
or over.
The origin OF to-day's feast will never
be known. but when we remember the
vitality Of the superstitions Of the people
At is by no means unlikely that Cleopatra
went out from Memphis twenty centuries
ago 10 smell the Zephyrs, and not impossi-
bic that the tradition may be well
founded. which tells that when Their
NUTS fifteen centuries earlier still found
amid the rushes that lined the Nile, the
future leader and law-giver OF Israel, she
was observing with her household attend
ants the feast of Shemm- ElNessim.
A. NJ. X.
Cairo. April 10 1893.