Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 May 1882 — A FEAST OF BLOOD. [ARTICLE]

A FEAST OF BLOOD.

A Bar barons Festival Recently Carriel Out at Cafcro. A Horrible Procession—The Bloody v wort of the Cimetcr! ***** i s*.‘ r :■* > • Cairo, December 1, 18^1.—I haye just come from what proved to be one of themost grotesquely horriHesights it has ever Ween my fortune to visit. It is thjp lot of a traveler in, _ this, ‘•Morgen see ahd note down much that is not pleasant er attractive. On learning that to-night, Friday, the Ist of December, the /ete of ShirteSaint Saidqa el Hussen would be celebrated in the mosque bearing his name, I procured the services of'a Greek dragoman at the hotel and then bent my steps in the direction of the Egyptian quarter of Cairo. Through this runs a street known as the Mouskee, in which stands the mosque of the Persian saint named above. The Elace in front of the hotel and opera ouse and the neighborhood of the Esbeckrah Gardens were alive with turbaned followers of Mahomet, who were on their way, like us, to witness the religious zeal of their, to them, heretical Shirie co-religionists. Dike Christianity* Islam has its twd great sects. The Sumnites or Mohammedans, who stand on the Koran, and the Shirte or Persian Moslems, who base their belief and teachings on thd* Koran, but in whose system of re ; Hgiousbthlcs the traditions of Mohammed also take a prominent place. The Baint Saidna el Hussen, whose fete we saw, is cnosidered by the Shirte to be as great, if „»'ot greater, than the prophet, and it Was Owing to this that thocoming Qeremonies promised to be the most interesting.

IN THE STREETS. There was, littje light in the street save that given out by a few lamps, some of which were carried by fruit and cake venders i“n the baskets born upon their heads, These passed and repassed, shouting their wares, and always prefacing their cry with 41 Allah, il Allah," combining the religious with the mercantile spirit of daily life in a way that to a Christian' mind was almost dbmical. The strange dresses of blue, black and white made a kaleidoscope of color, that owing to the faint gas and lamplight and the white rays of, the pale moon in the Star-studdied, indigo blue heavens,"produced a scene Which was constantly varying. The hoarse shouts of the crowd and. guttural laughter, which, from time to time greeted a mishap which some one had met with, the shrill cries of eunchs, warning the crowds to make way for the carriage of some fair daughters of the harem, combined with the yells of the police, as they pummeled and hustled some too bellicose Mohammedan, united, made a panorama wondrously serious and almost weirdly picturesque in its Oriental romanticism. The crowd yas for the most part a jolly, laughing, peaceful throng, and disputes were few, though patience must in many instances have been sorely tried and forbearance taxed to its utmost. THE DAUGHTERS OF ISLAM. V., Carriages holding Christians, Mohammedans and Odalisques, these last having euauchß on the box at the side of the driver, the costumes spotlessly white of the fair Zuleikas within ,went to swell the thoroughly Eastern throng which was pushing and pulling us as with some difficulty we made our way through. The windows houses in the street are all faintly illuminated from a lamp or lamps placed within the rooms,bringing out in bold relief the heads and shoulders of Arabs iu European dress with fez upon their heads and shaking more distinct the slender figures of Christian women and children who are hanging from the windows anxiously awaiting the coming of the show. Daughters of Islam, in flowing robes of white or blue, are hanging out very gracefully over the balconies with yashma's almost hiding their faces and lustrously brilliant eyes that flash and sparkle the more, owing to» the contrast compelled by the white or black of their face covering, strickly worn by women who have Mosiems for husbands. They have pretty eyes, these lights of the harem, and they have an unconscious look at times Us they glance at you through their yashmaks, making one long to raise a covering which hides what seems to be necesarily attractive and beautiful. Like most masks, though, they probably cover much that is ordinary and plain, as the now and then reddish eyelids betoken the presence of ophthalmia, that disfiguring marplot of what in many cases here would be a most sweetly pretty face. For the most part, however, their eyes arp soft and lambent. The crowd is getting thicker and thicker and surges up against my legs and thighs, making me plant myself more firmly on the box made of cane, on which lam standing. The cries become more frequent, and the crowd seems more nervous, when suddenly we see far away at the end ot the street a yellowish, ruddy glare, which lights up the houses on either side most luridly, and spreading out Comes in yellowish bands of light to where we stand, faintly illuminating the swarthy and tawny covered faces and white teeth of the Moslems, Copts and Fellaheen, who are all around us. Sounds of barbaric music and hoarse chanting are born to our ears through the balmy air of this most lovely Egyptian night, and the lurid light fitfully flickering illuminates the painted walls of the houses, and brißga out in bold relief the many colored polyglot signs upon them. The crowd is beginning

to Surge past us, and wi see down the streeta/as we;lcfek.o#e?'hß head, braziebs sfwjig abq|nfe'wng to and fro, as Ipey op me ,bona# qa'She end of long stolkst'afid leaving Wains of flaming charcoal behind toe -bearers, who are poflfcenmn striking:aid driving the throng of mussulmans before them. h . A CpoggaPiQjT qg. bloop. The chanting id more distinct, and -we see Ted brffßffM' wiftfAFAtfrc characters worked in gold upon them. The crowd gets more and more feverishly excited, and shouts of “Allah” are heard resounding from /hoarse throats as the-dervishes, how in front of US, slowly pu?&sithioee-in front naked to the waist, round which is a looseiyrbound white cloth, call gutturally, though still musically, on Hussen; they pass along, keeping time to their shouts with violent heating of their breasts. Their hoarsecnea, long disheveled and matted hair flying out in asort of cruciform aureola, coupled with the metalic ring of their chests, as they give blow upon blow, is grotesque and almost devilsh in its wierdness. Behind them come men, who, in a circle, made up of sbouti|fty persons, puzzle us for a lfiomeht as to what these red devils may be/ Something bright flashes through the air, and then ihe j fervid*ciy of •Hussen! Hussen! Saidna Hussen! rises with renewed fanatical zeal in the air of the moonlit night. The flash is caused by a long curved cimeter, which, descending, divides the flesh of another dervish, making the blood spurt and trickle over his already gory body, which shines and glances in a hellishly, murderous way, as she red light of the braiders, Ailed with charcoal, strikes uoon it. . Thirty of forty of these blood-be-clotted children of Islam slowly pass«dby.. putting and slashing each other With an ardor which even the police, strive though they do, can hardly keep from being mortal in its effects. They are chanting 14 Hussen, Hussen Saidna Hussen,” and opening each others.veins, until their shoulders, arms and loins are streaming, and apdiagafu Aewlv stream with bright red blood of artery and bluer blood of veins, their long hair drips and trickles with as -violently moving heads Jbey noarsly cry to their prophet, and their white teeth and partialy shaved foreheads gleam and almost scintillatd as the blood flows from the long red cuts.

VICTIMS TO THE ZEAL IF ISLAM. . There are Nubians among this pack of mad frantios, and the red blood on their bodies, heads and necks seem daiker«as it flows over ebony skirts, making them look like demons in some blood sacrifice of ghouls or devils. The blush white skins of some perhaps more northern, Moslem, with forehead shavecLhalf way ujp to the crown of his hehd; his big black eyes that turn and blasg with almost savage seal, his white teeth and curved nose, stand out in staking opposition to the ot%er red, taWny and black fanatics in this sanguinarily pious dance. There is fervency in the. glance of those eves, and he seems or the moment I aort if Avatar cf the waning spirit and eealousness of the soldier missionary, who under the shadow of the green standard and kindling eye of the Prophet, offered “death or Mohammedanism" to his opponent. Blood streams from him as from the rest, and his loins-enclr-cling white cloth is all encarmined and besmeared with clotting and halfsoagulated blood. , Following this comes a sight at which we can hardly suppress the cry of angry pain and horror that struggles to our lips. Picture it and think of it, ye Christian mothers, who, with your little yellow-haired darlings at your knee, have no thoughts save those of love and care for the youngsters who prattled at your sides, climb into your laps and ask in their, deliciously lisping baby talk for “doodies," or say, “want to shee wheels go round." Picture it, I say again, for here is, as well as piy feeble words can describe it, in all its hide-ously-horrid unnature a horse covered with a flowing white mantle, whose.' blood-stained folds fall to the ground on either side and gain new stains from the bedraggling mud of the street, in whose Baddle is a little boy with a-half-shaved head and tender little eyes, which have been gaziDg on the world for but five years. His poor little face is hacked and cut, and blood trickles from wounds in his forehead and face down on to the white robe he wears, staining and spotting it with the blood of this poor infantile victim to the zeal for Islam. In his hand he carries a cimeter with which he strikes his forehead in a mechanical, impotent sort of way, the blow being, rarely hard enough to cause more than a red mark, This poor little chap has been well trained in the puppet part which he must play in this bloody saturnalia. His pale and chubby little cheeks are very, very white, and his eyes have not that sparkling, rich, bright and lovely black tbatyou see in the eyes of Moslem and Egyptian Children in this town of Cairo. They huve lost their light, and the brave little man, though he must sufier pain from his wounds and terror from his surroundings, shows no sign save in the pallor ol his face and trembling of his cimeter holding arm. At the end of this fete of blood there will no loving mother to take her boy into her arms, and soothe and calm his poor scattered senses, and crazed and terrified little mind —no! She is sitting at home in the harem, or perhaps is even gazing on the sanguinary pageant from the street, pluming and congratulating herself that the child, who is flesh of her flesh and blood of her blood, has thus poured out some of herself in tes-. timouy to the glory and truth ol God’s one and only true religion. ( * A .HJDKOUS COMPANY. Behind this blood-stained child come more dervishes, naked to the

waist, though, thank goodness, not blo<»dy. I don.t think I could stand that again. These are armed with bags Ailed with bits of iron, each of which may weigh from five to ten pounds. Thqv call froarsly on Hussen, keeping time to their sing-song, melodious shouts by blows with the bags on their own and each <Rhei ’* bodies. A hideously fantastic company are they, and as they .turn half round as they go slowly chanting, one wonders what it all amounts to, and marvels and is puzzled at' this display of religious zeal. These close the parent, aDd the shouting, now thoroughly wrought up. ,crowd .falls in behind and surges along, with cries to Allah and the prephet. We wait a little while for the.street to clear and then start homeward with a dazed feeling, as if we had been passing terough the incidents of some horrid nightmare. On the whole, the sight is not to be regretted: we go home more and more impressed with the fury of a fanaticism with whioh the-French are now strugling in Tunis and with which, if the English ever meet la India, we can Say fervently; “God help them!” * • - 1 - I am at the end of my story now,so light a pipe, .cock your legs above your head, and as you draw in the smoke and put it out iu long, blue clouds and rings, thank your stars that you live on the other .side of the Atlantic and Pacific, and have not about you such a mob of fanatics as are here and whom a small spark would rouse into disagreeable dangerous religious zeal. Now for a cigarette and a long gaze at the moon’s silver rays, striking the minarets and mosques, aud in the distance the citadel and red sand hills of the desert, and their good night aad peace on your head.—Philadelphia Times.