The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-07-22

FATHER OF CATS IN THE SACRED PROCESSION.
grims of all the valuables they possessed,
secured possession of the large sums of
money sent as offerings to the tomb of
the prophet by the khedive, by the men,
bers of his family and by the Egyptian
government. Worst Of all, they carried
off the sacred carpet. The latter is not,
as is generally supposed, an ancient relic
dating from the time of the founders of
the Mohammedan religion. but is a huge
rug or piece of tapestry of modern man
ufacture. Indeed, q new one is made
each year for dispatch to Mecca as an
offering from the Egyptian ruler and his
people. From the time of its arrival at
Mecca it is hung against the Caaba, or
most sacred sanctuary of the mosque In
which Mohammed lies buried.
The fact that this holy carpet, or ks
web, as it is called, should have failed to
reach the principal shrine of the Mo-
hammedan faith will be regarded by the
followers of the prophet throughout
Egypt as an Indication that Allah and
the founder of their religion are angered
against them and refuse to receive their
annual tribute and that in consequence
some great national misfortune or cata-
clysm is imminent as an indication of d.
vine wrath. It will readily be under
stood to what purpose this superstitious
belief viii be put by the Turkish and ma
t~ionalist Egyptian agitators in inflaming
the more fanatic element of the Egyp-
tan people against the English n
against the Christians in general in the
hope of provoking another anti European
instruction analogous to that of Arab
Pasha in 1882.
Strictly speaking, the word "mahmaI'
means litter, and the annual official pill
grimage from Cairo to Mecca is thus
styled from the fact that it was %inaugu-
rated by the Sultana Schargaret-ed-Durr
(the pearl tree), who is the only woman
who ever ruled over Egypt.
The pasha in charge of the caravan,
who bears the title Of ''prince of the pill
grimage,'' rides, like the ~sultana, in a lit
ter swung between two camels harnessed
one in front of the other. Behind him
come the imans, or professors of theolo-
gy, at the great Ell HAIR university, at
Cairo, which is the headquarters of Mo-
hammedan orthodoxy, occupying much
the same relation toward the latter that
Oxford university docs to the Church of
England and the Vatican to Roman
Catholicism. Dervishes of various orders
follow, and finally comes the old fashion
ed empty MAMMAL or litter, which every
one tries to touch or to kiss.
Immediately behind the MAMMAL, on a
camel, rides a half naked man of con-
siderable & his matted hair giving him
a sort Of wild appearance. He bears the
title of the camel sheik and performs
the entire pilgrimage in this unpresent-
able costume, while, closing the process
sion, comes the so called sheik or ia
Their of cats. The latter may be said to
constitute a relic Of the ancient worship
of the cat headed goddess Sekhet, or
Bast, of the time of the pharaohs. the
shrine of this form Of worship being
situated in the now ruined city of Blu
bastis. Although there is nothing in the
Koran about cats, yet the latter remain
IN object Of veneration to the people of
Egypt. Until a few decades ago each
carayan Of pilgrims to Mecca was ac-
eompanied by an old woman, who carried
with her on her camel in baskets several
dozen cats and kittens and who was
known as the mother of cats. Nowadays
her place is taken by the father of cats,
n nothing is more strange than to see
the old sheik, who is invariably half
nude, perched on his camel with all his
cats about him on the way TO the holy
city.