DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49270#0265
Egyptian Saints
183
retain enough of their character to lend to the rites with which they are venerated a
significant color.
As an example of the purely local moled may be cited that of Abadir, held at Belkas
in the north central Delta. To this festival every visitor carries a goose. An annual
celebration, which until very recently was held at Kuft (the ancient Koptos) in Upper
Egypt, might serve as another example. The festival in question was in honor of a
personage called simply el-Hamal er-Rayah, “the Bearer of the Standard”. Imper-
sonal names of this sort at once put the ethnologist on the qui vive, as they often designate
saints of a very primitive character whose personalities have remained undeveloped.
In the present instance we are confronted with an appellation which may have been a
titular of Min, the ancient ithyphallic fertility god of Koptos. Some support is lent to
such a supposition by the nature of the rites with which the moleds of the Standard Bearer
were celebrated. On the occasion of this festival the whole adult male population of the
town, in defiance of all orthodox Moslem sentiment, intoxicated themselves with what-
ever alcoholic beverages they could procure. Half a dozen prostitutes, hired for the
occasion, set up their booths or tents in the town and received all comers. There was
among the revelers a great deal of horseplay of the most licentious character; particu-
larly in the vicinity of the booths of the sharamit. Drunken men were dragged into the
lanes by their friends, and there left lying, exposed to the village wags and wits. In
1914 this festival was modified by Government, which suppressed the more offensive
features of the celebration.
Kuft boasts other saints than the Bearer of the Standard, and celebrates their
moleds with great devotion. Among them is one called en-Nosari, and another known
as Sheykh Mohammad el-'Awami. The latter has been called the “patron saint” of
Kuft, but cannot justly be so styled since more veneration is paid to the Bearer of the
Standard, and to a pair of saints of whom I will speak presently. Sidi el-'Awam, whose
name means “the swimmer”, is so called because he had the power of spreading his
kerchief on the Nile, and then standing on it and causing it to transport him wherever
he would.
The saintly pair to which I just alluded are perhaps in their origin historical persons.
They are known as Sheykh Mesa'ud and Sheykh Haggi Hasan Kalas. It is related of
them that the former was the slave of the latter, at a time when Sheykh Hasan started
from Kuft to make the pilgrimage to Mekkah. When the master had traversed half
the desert way from the Nile to the Red Sea, as he was about to make his evening meal
off the dry bread which was his only provision, a sudden longing came over him and he
cried: “Would to God I had here my own wooden bowl, and in it a mess of home food
cooked by my wife!” The good man had scarce bent to say the Bismillah over his dry
183
retain enough of their character to lend to the rites with which they are venerated a
significant color.
As an example of the purely local moled may be cited that of Abadir, held at Belkas
in the north central Delta. To this festival every visitor carries a goose. An annual
celebration, which until very recently was held at Kuft (the ancient Koptos) in Upper
Egypt, might serve as another example. The festival in question was in honor of a
personage called simply el-Hamal er-Rayah, “the Bearer of the Standard”. Imper-
sonal names of this sort at once put the ethnologist on the qui vive, as they often designate
saints of a very primitive character whose personalities have remained undeveloped.
In the present instance we are confronted with an appellation which may have been a
titular of Min, the ancient ithyphallic fertility god of Koptos. Some support is lent to
such a supposition by the nature of the rites with which the moleds of the Standard Bearer
were celebrated. On the occasion of this festival the whole adult male population of the
town, in defiance of all orthodox Moslem sentiment, intoxicated themselves with what-
ever alcoholic beverages they could procure. Half a dozen prostitutes, hired for the
occasion, set up their booths or tents in the town and received all comers. There was
among the revelers a great deal of horseplay of the most licentious character; particu-
larly in the vicinity of the booths of the sharamit. Drunken men were dragged into the
lanes by their friends, and there left lying, exposed to the village wags and wits. In
1914 this festival was modified by Government, which suppressed the more offensive
features of the celebration.
Kuft boasts other saints than the Bearer of the Standard, and celebrates their
moleds with great devotion. Among them is one called en-Nosari, and another known
as Sheykh Mohammad el-'Awami. The latter has been called the “patron saint” of
Kuft, but cannot justly be so styled since more veneration is paid to the Bearer of the
Standard, and to a pair of saints of whom I will speak presently. Sidi el-'Awam, whose
name means “the swimmer”, is so called because he had the power of spreading his
kerchief on the Nile, and then standing on it and causing it to transport him wherever
he would.
The saintly pair to which I just alluded are perhaps in their origin historical persons.
They are known as Sheykh Mesa'ud and Sheykh Haggi Hasan Kalas. It is related of
them that the former was the slave of the latter, at a time when Sheykh Hasan started
from Kuft to make the pilgrimage to Mekkah. When the master had traversed half
the desert way from the Nile to the Red Sea, as he was about to make his evening meal
off the dry bread which was his only provision, a sudden longing came over him and he
cried: “Would to God I had here my own wooden bowl, and in it a mess of home food
cooked by my wife!” The good man had scarce bent to say the Bismillah over his dry