The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-04-27

at once sublime and bestial.
Then, bent nearly double, feeling with
out-stretcned arms, blinded by his ecs.
tasy, he groied his way down the Cper
line between dancers and musicians tt
the older steward. This man held in one
hand a large cloth filed with pieces OF
broken glass; one of these he to ok out
and held in his right hand at arms
length. The ecstatic as he approached
glared savagely at the glass, gnashed his
teeth and stretched out his head; but
he drew back; the religious intoxca-
ton was not quite complete, and some
gllmmerings of common sense stand
ards still struggled in his disordered
brain. He rushed back to the first
steward, was again embraced by him
and again crept back along the line.
Still the jagged shining glass was too
terrible. Backward and forward he
went, sometimes cropping along slowly,
sometimes with the stealthy rush of a
tiger stalking it's prey. AT last, when
the eager gesture of his outstretched
neck made it clear that no vestige of re-
luctance remained, the steward clap
ped the glass into his mouth and held
his hand over it for q second. The de-
votee rushed back as it We're for con-
ISOLATION to the first steward, and held
him in a tight embrace. For some time
he remained so, making strange inco-
herent gestures with his arms, while
the steward, gradually lifting up his
| head, proceeded to massage his face and
throat; when his head was raised the
man was still chewing and swallowing
the horrible mouthful. After he had
recovered himself somewhat his turban
was wound round his head and he was
lifted and showed back into the line of
dancers, where he went on jigging up
and down, his head falling now on one
shoulder, now on the other, with a
blank, listless look in his face
| After this first example of frenzied
devotion the spell of fear seemed to be
broken, and one after another the dane
ers left the line (the dance never ceas-
ing for an instant, and the music keep
ing up its 1i1addening din) and rushed
at the steward who held the glass and
dealt out piece after piece. Soon even
the boys took part in it, and one hand
some fellow of sixteen came up and
stretched out toward the Jagged morsel
as though it was for him the bread of
| life. For the most part, too, they SEEM
ed to chew and swallow it with increas-
ing ease, and the first steward had little
to do but wind on their turbans and put
them back into the line of dancers.
Then the man who had first eaten, and
who had meanwhile recovered his tone,
came back for a second, and a little
while after for a third, mouthful; but
the frenzy was increasing upon him,
and he had to be held by three or four
Arabs, who rushed up from the sides
to help the steward. 1t became a foot
ball scrmmage. and the four men had
to put out all their strength to collar
and throw him. Finally he was held
down on the floor in a sort of epileptic
fit throwing his limbs about wildly,
and literally barking like huge dog.
The divine ecstacy was too much for him
and he had become a savage beast.
Nor was he the only one who became
unmanageable under the intoxicating
influences of dance and music. Some
times, it Is true, when devotee was ex-
ceeding the usual bounds, his growing
excitement could be instantly assuaged
by a few words from the writings of
the saint whispered into his ear by
the steward; but in spite of this several
broke loose, and one in especial alarmed
us by making his way round the
mosque toward our party. Fortunately,
he was thrown and sat upon by assist
ants before he reached us, as it is sup
posed that an Isawiyah will tear wo-
men in pieces when too powerfully |
worked upon by the divine influence. |
When the service was over, and the |
gradually emptied we saw three
or four. Of these victims of the divine
frenzy lying about on the floor, by that |
time quite calm and exhausted, and |
only grooming and barking fitfully.
Finally the glass-eating came to an
abrupt end, and in a curious way. A
fierce-looking and athletic
Arab, who had for some time been de-
clipping more and more religious frenzy
and had eaten glass once or twice with
out diminishing his desire for it in the
least, sprang at the steward-who re-
sisted in vain-seized the cloth in both
hands, buried his face in it, and MUNICH
ed up the remainder.
And now the other wonders began:
First, number of carpenters nails, at
least three inches long, We're handed to
the steward, and demure little man
stepped forward. He did not belong to
he athletic and savage type of the ma
|ority; he was quiet and domestic,
man whom in Europe one would have
ascrihed to the class Of small shop
keepers; but he had a look of calm
a conviction of divine
peace in his soul which contrasted
With the purblind excitement of the
others. Nor was his ordeal less try
ng one than that of glass eating. He
stood quite STILL held his head back and {
swallowed three of the large iron nails,
reads and all, as they were put into his {
mouth one after another by the stew I
lrd. ,
Then he retired, and two men came {
n with burnous full of prickly-pear
caves. The prickly pear as one sees it &
n the south of Europe is sufficiently s
plant, but in North Africa it t
rows to far larger proportions-th {
caves, or rather the flat leahet stems,
row to nearly twice the size that they I
o even in Sicily, and the prickles are '
long and stubborn. S
foreover the priekle is slightly poison |
us and leaves a fostering wound. Con- +
aquently it seemed not the least mirac-
lous event of the service when dan a
ar stripped to the waist, and. taking a, i