DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6552#0031
20
OPERATIONS CARRIED ON AT GIZEH.
nated with lamps and paper lanterns, and crowded with
spectators, who thronged round a boarded floor, which
had been prepared for the dervishes, or priests, who
directed the ceremonies, and for the performers, who
stood in circles, rocking their bodies backwards and
forwards, and at times moving round performed the
dance described by Mr. Lane. Their movements were
accompanied by Turkish music, and loud recitations in
unison with the priests, who regulated their motions in a
very striking and effective manner. The noise and uproar
may be imagined; as the people became more excited,
their voices were hoarse and discordant, till several of
them, entirely exhausted from fatigue, heat, and enthu-
siasm, fell down, apparently in fits. When a vacancy
occurred it was immediately filled up, and the perform-
ances continued without intermission. All ranks and
conditions of the common people were engaged in them,
and several of them appeared to be as enthusiastic as the
dervishes themselves.6
We returned home late at night, and found the streets
6 This remarkable exhibition reminded me of a scene, which I had
witnessed some years before on the night of Christmas eve in the church
of Ara Cceli at Rome, which, on account of its reputed sanctity, was
crowded with peasantry in the picturesque costume of the neighbouring
mountains. As the night wore away, most of the lamps in the body
of the church burnt out, and the few that remained, combined with the
gleams of the morning, not only gave a singular and mysterious appear-
ance to the grotesque architecture of the building, and to the fantastic
ornaments, with which it had been for the occasion decorated, but lighted
up with an extraordinary effect the sparkling eyes and wild countenances
of the worshippers, who, excited like these poor Arabs by superstitious
enthusiasm, repeated with hoarse and exhausted voices continued re-
sponses to the service of the monks, which, waxing louder and louder,
pealed forth from the blaze of light that filled the choir.
OPERATIONS CARRIED ON AT GIZEH.
nated with lamps and paper lanterns, and crowded with
spectators, who thronged round a boarded floor, which
had been prepared for the dervishes, or priests, who
directed the ceremonies, and for the performers, who
stood in circles, rocking their bodies backwards and
forwards, and at times moving round performed the
dance described by Mr. Lane. Their movements were
accompanied by Turkish music, and loud recitations in
unison with the priests, who regulated their motions in a
very striking and effective manner. The noise and uproar
may be imagined; as the people became more excited,
their voices were hoarse and discordant, till several of
them, entirely exhausted from fatigue, heat, and enthu-
siasm, fell down, apparently in fits. When a vacancy
occurred it was immediately filled up, and the perform-
ances continued without intermission. All ranks and
conditions of the common people were engaged in them,
and several of them appeared to be as enthusiastic as the
dervishes themselves.6
We returned home late at night, and found the streets
6 This remarkable exhibition reminded me of a scene, which I had
witnessed some years before on the night of Christmas eve in the church
of Ara Cceli at Rome, which, on account of its reputed sanctity, was
crowded with peasantry in the picturesque costume of the neighbouring
mountains. As the night wore away, most of the lamps in the body
of the church burnt out, and the few that remained, combined with the
gleams of the morning, not only gave a singular and mysterious appear-
ance to the grotesque architecture of the building, and to the fantastic
ornaments, with which it had been for the occasion decorated, but lighted
up with an extraordinary effect the sparkling eyes and wild countenances
of the worshippers, who, excited like these poor Arabs by superstitious
enthusiasm, repeated with hoarse and exhausted voices continued re-
sponses to the service of the monks, which, waxing louder and louder,
pealed forth from the blaze of light that filled the choir.