Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1877 — The Prophet’s Birthday. [ARTICLE]

The Prophet’s Birthday.

How the followers of Mohammed celebrated their Ptophet’s natal day, is thus pictured by the Alexandria correspondent of the London Timet, writing on the last day of March: \ “ Last week was given up to religious festivity by the Mohammedan world. It was the occasion of the Mooiid-en-Neb-bee, or birthday festival of the Prophet, and coincides with the return of the pilgrims from Mecca. The mosques are lull of worshipers, and crowds often perform Zitaro, a kind of prayer in unison, which is offered up by a large company, sealed cross-legged, who cry aloud that there .is no Deity but God, and swing their bodites rapidlv backward and forward, as thriy shout,'until they become so excited by tide motion that the alliterative sentence they utter— ‘ la Mah, Mah la’—becomes merged! in a fierce howl The pilgrims spread’ their merchandise out for sale in the public spaces, and they and their friends take their pleasure on swings and whirligigs, and sip and smoke in the coffee-houses. Tents are put up, when coffee and pipes go on all day long, and story-tellers relate never-ending iove stories, encouraged by a frequent‘Yah’ of lazy enjoyment from tiie audience. Punch has found his way to Egypt, and the Arabs intensely enjoy the apotheosis of marital power, while their prejudices are respected by the veiling of Judy’s face after the strictest fashion of the harem. The whole festivity culminates in the ‘Doeeh,’ the ‘treading*;’ when the Sheikh of the Saadeeyah derP* 1 ® 8 OTur the prostrate bodies of lhefaithful. The Princesand Ministers all attend, the representatives of European Powers, with thsir wives, go to see it; tourists crowd to Cairo for the occasion, as they would for an Easter ceremony at

Jerusalem, or a mystery play in Bavaria. Yet it is almost as degrading a sight as the procession of the Juggernaut-car itself. ** Borne SOO or 800 men of the Saadeeyah sect, the peculiarity of whose religion to that they can eat serpents and hack themselves with knives by way of pleasing Allah and hto Prophet, voluntarily lay themselves bn the ground in order that their Bheikh may pass over them on horseback, thus treading on their sins, and preparing them for Paradise. They prime themselves with AasAeesA, a strong narcotic, made from hemp, with much the eflect of opium, and then are arranged by skilled packers, face downward, so as to present a compact, unbroken surface for the horse to pass over. If the packers find a flaw in their arrangements, they seize a man from the crowd and jam him in to fill the gap, and it would be a declaration of rank heresy to say them nay. Vast crowds of natives assemble to see the sight; the Bheikh, in all hto robes, appears; two men guide the horse, who, by hto hesitating, delicate tread, alone seems to feel the shame and scandal of the proceeding. As he progresses, the men scramble up as best they can, mostly with no apparent hurt, but some hardly able to move, and a few carried away* in fits. It to altogether a degrading spectacle, and unworthy of a country that claims to rank with civilized Nations. Its sole effect to to keep alive fanaticism, and this year an Englishman was set upon and beaten by Arabs, who who would not raise a finger against a sti anger at anv other time of the year. The Khedive to said to disapprove, and never goes, but the attendance of the Princes and dignitaries still give this scene the importance of a State ceremony. As they drive up in their broughams, perfect Europeans in speech and dress, one feels how much this to a country of contradictions.”