DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4995#0022
12 LECTURE ON EGYPT.
wards, are somewhat alarming, but it is a bond-fide
religious ceremony.
The ceremony of the ' Doseh,' in which a great
Sheik rides on horseback over the prostrate bodies of
several hundred devotees, is the most fearful and excit-
ing of all, although it is said that few people are ever
injured by it.
shoubra. In contrast with these scenes is the gay and fash-
ionable drive in Shoubra Eoad, with its avenue of
acacia, and sycamore fig-trees, where Ave see every
afternoon, and especially on Friday (the Mahomme
dan Sabbath) all our European friends in open carriages,
and also well dressed veiled ladies in closed carriages,
whose acquaintance, however, is denied to us. At the
entrance to the avenue there is usually a group of from
fifty to a hundred syces, those young athletes with
brown bare legs and fairy like long wands, who run be-
fore your carriage and cry' reglak!' and clear the way as
you drive through the streets. The syce is more orna-
mental than useful, but fashion compels you to have one
or two according to your social position. For instance,
as I lived for some years in a house provided by Go-
vernment, and had my carriage and horses from the
royal stables, it was decided that I must have two.
Little is really known by Europeans of home life in
a Mahomedan household, but I will venture to tell
you, from information which I have obtained through
the best possible channel—my wife—that the young
married princes of the present Egyptian dynasty have
•only one Avife each, that these wives are Avell educated,
wards, are somewhat alarming, but it is a bond-fide
religious ceremony.
The ceremony of the ' Doseh,' in which a great
Sheik rides on horseback over the prostrate bodies of
several hundred devotees, is the most fearful and excit-
ing of all, although it is said that few people are ever
injured by it.
shoubra. In contrast with these scenes is the gay and fash-
ionable drive in Shoubra Eoad, with its avenue of
acacia, and sycamore fig-trees, where Ave see every
afternoon, and especially on Friday (the Mahomme
dan Sabbath) all our European friends in open carriages,
and also well dressed veiled ladies in closed carriages,
whose acquaintance, however, is denied to us. At the
entrance to the avenue there is usually a group of from
fifty to a hundred syces, those young athletes with
brown bare legs and fairy like long wands, who run be-
fore your carriage and cry' reglak!' and clear the way as
you drive through the streets. The syce is more orna-
mental than useful, but fashion compels you to have one
or two according to your social position. For instance,
as I lived for some years in a house provided by Go-
vernment, and had my carriage and horses from the
royal stables, it was decided that I must have two.
Little is really known by Europeans of home life in
a Mahomedan household, but I will venture to tell
you, from information which I have obtained through
the best possible channel—my wife—that the young
married princes of the present Egyptian dynasty have
•only one Avife each, that these wives are Avell educated,