The Greenville times., 1897-05-19
AN ARABIAN WEDDING.
Picturesque Ceremony oeseribed BY An
American Girl,

Vi an American girl In Cairo describes
an Arabian wedding, which the writer
was permitted to witness as one Of a
small party of favored guests.
AT o'clock in the morning our Ara
gonian, who, by the way, is a fascnat-
Ing and picturesque fellow, well sup
piled with letters of recommendation
from many famous people, met us at
the door of our hotel with three enorm-
GUS bouquets. Arriving at very mar
row street, we proceeded a short dis
tance on foot under red rags, striped
awnings and lanterns which were
stretched over our heads the length Of
the street. The ground was sprinkled
with sand, and along the sides Of the
houses were seats provided for the
men, as none of the sterner sex were
allowed in the room or house of the
bride. We, the women, mounted three
flights of stairs, and found ourselves
in large room filled with Arabian
women of various classes, also some
Grecian and Turkish women. They
were arrayed in many-colored gar
ments, pink silk scarfs, gold embroid-
cred Jackets, blue plush and wool stuffs
combinations | cannot begin to describe
The women gathered around us and
led us to the divan arranged for the
bride, seating the oldest in the party
in the middle, while the rest of us
were given places on either side. We
demonstrated, but they assured us that
the bride could sit upon chair. We
were great curiosities to them, appar-
emily, and we certainly enjoyed the
novelty of our positions. In their
simple way they showed us great hos
pitality. The approach of the bride
was heralded by a most conglomerate
lot of bowling women and children,
playing tom-toms, tambourines and ma
tive instruments anything but musical.
We arose to resign our seats of honor
in favor of the bride and her attend
ants, but she insisted that we two re-
main on either side of her, while she
occupied the middle seat just vacated
by one of the party, and so we sat
through all the bowling and banging,
the pushing and jostling of these half
civilized creatures. After every one
had seen the bride an enormous woman
laden with jewelry and golden chains,
began to howl and hammer on tam
BOURNE, then the guests threw coin in
to the brides cap while the women
howled and made other hideous noises.
After this the guests began to mingle
with one another, and we found some
who spoke little English, some
French and some Italian. Finally
very intelligent Greek woman took us
in charge; she was quite linguist, and
we were enabled to appreciate what
we had seen after her explanations.
Then came the refreshments, and we
had to eat little cakes and big cakes,
all shapes and fiavors, and last one
awful affair soaked in wine. This was
the end of the brides part of the en-
tertainment. We went down stairs to
join the men of our party, and there
met very jolly old priest, who had
been to London and Paris, spoke good
French, and who interested us very
much He it was who was to perform
the ceremony. The man we had not
yet seen, but we were soon presented
to him, with his attendants, who were
parading up and down this inclosed
street preceded by an Egyptian band.
We presented him with our two re-
naming bouquets, having left one with
his 16-year-old bride. Again we all
went upstairs, and saw the groom lift
the veil of the bride, supposed to be
his first sight of her fair cOuntenance.
This was the ninth and last day of this
wedding performance, and the most
important one, for they were at last
duly tied by the old priest, and went
home by morning light. 1t was a
weird performance. Through it all
they showed us, the only Europeans
present, great respect, and in good
English said they hoped we had had
pleasant time and were glad that we
came.
On the following day (Friday) we
were taken to see the famous Whirling
Dervishes. Friday, one must bear in
mind, is the Mohammedan Sunday, and
an eventful day. The court surround
ing the arena in which this weird and
uncanny performance takes place holds
about 500 persons, and it was filled with
all sorts and conditions of people, Am
orleans and English the predominant
ing element. Soon after we entered
the court the whirlers made their ap-
pearance, dressed in short white skirts
and on their heads the funniest look
ing chimney pot hats. After march
ing around and around for fifteen min
utes to the hideous noise of band
composed of tom-tOms, tambourines
and some wind instrument, they be-
gan to whirl, and whirled until it
seemed to us to whom the sight was
new, that we must cry out to them to
cease. The sight was positively mad
dening. After fifteen minutes of con-
stant whirling they dropped to the
ground from sheer exhaustion, appar-
emily. 1t appears, however, that this
part of the programme is for effect en-
tirely.
From this place we drove to hear the
"Howlers," quite as famous as the
"Whirlers," who we're a horrid lot OF
healthy, lusty men, simply bowling and
making as much noise as possible in a
most unpleasant manner, which gave
one the "creeps." One old fellow kept
il I'D until he had Mysteries and frothed