The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-12-31

byses, Alexander the Great, Anthony and Cleopatra, and it was a silent wit ness to the rise and fall of Persian, Grecian, Roman, Gothic and Arabic do- minions in the land of the Pharaohs
 The Tree of the Virgin iS a very old sycamore and in it's trunk Mary is said to have taken refuge with her child. Legend has it that Herods spies would have discovered their retreat had not a spider woven it's web over the entrance. In a neighboring spring Mary washed the swaddling clothes of Jesus and where every dtop of water moistened the earth there sprang up balsam tree such as grew nowhere else on earth. When the Suez canal was opened in 1869 Khedivc Ismail Pasha jestingy offered the tree of the Virgin to the Empress Eugenie as d holy relic to be taken to France by her, but the empress begged him for u souvenir more portable and suggested the skeleton of the spider that had woven the web.
 The Muski is the principal business thoroughfare of Cairo and Is long spun out experimentation of bazars for the dis play and sale of Oriental wares. The goldsmith copper and perfumery ba- zars are the most interesting but l shall not attempt to describe them Owing to the scarcity of banks and dishonesty of Dl1lCldlS 1nUSl Ol Lle lilcICildiltS htCp tllSil money jewels and valuables in large chests at night located in the bazars and looked after by a watchman
 I was anxious to see the bowling Der wishes at worship, ceremony now diffi- cult of access by foreigners. It seems that several years ago some Englishmen and Americans while witnessing this pe- culiar cult grievously offended the wor- shippers by loud laughter and cigarette x,-1,f f,l, trnV to inhibt the further attendance of for eigners. But my dragoman, who was man of endless resources, promised to gratify my desire in this direction, so one Friday morning l accompanied nm to Gizer by tram, where we mounted camels for the second pyramid beyond which is large. unused tomb half buried In the shifting sands. Here we dismounted and taking. off my shoes I was conducte1 into the tomb.
 The place was divided into two com partments by a stone partition that failed to reach the roof by several feet. One side was for the occupancy or the women and the other for the men, though on the male side was one woman who was s2ld to be possessed of a devil, for the eXer- cising of which it was necessary for her to be with the men.
 shall never forget the wild incanta- tions, the antiphonal grooming, the un- ceasing contortions of body and limb and the tireless swaying of the head from side to side that these men kept up Tor hours at a time. When one sank to the ground from sheer exhaustion his place was immediately taken by fresh recruit and the demoniac lamentations were gone through with again. At times the howl Ing developed into a metrical grunt ana all the while the exercise and the heat of the tomb caused the precipitation to stream from face and forehead in perfect rivulets. Many boys participated in the cult and I noted a young girl so intense in the service that she ceaselessly swayed her body till her head touched the ground and who was only kept from falling prone by the arms of her mother or some rela- tive. Her distortions eliminated in complete swoon
 The smoking of cigarettes and the Turk ish pipe is one of the features of Cairo. The pipe is called the narghelia and is not so bad, but l dislike the Egyptian to- ,bacco. Public narghelias are found at all the cafes and eating houses and for penny one may puff away for full half hour. To avoid microbes the mouth pieces are made of metal and as eau ton even these are passed through the flames of match before use. I indulged in one and while sucking away my drago- man obtained a snap shot from my kodak, but when the picture was developed I ap- peared as if was using huge nursing bottle. however preserved 1t under the label of "Food for Reflection"