AND LOWER EGYPT. 71 



I often saw passing in the streets of Shut, those 

 processions which accompany the ceremony of 

 circumcision of children. Those newly initiated 

 young people are carried through the city in great 

 pomp, clothed in the most splendid dresses, and 

 mounted on horses adorned with all the trappings 

 of luxury. Two men support each of the children, 

 a third leads his horse by the bridle, and crowds 

 follow them. The procession is opened wiih 

 hautboys and cymbals, after them come several 

 flairs of different coloured silks. There are some 

 white bordered with red, others are black or green, 

 with a white border. In the midst of all, the 

 name of God, and the Mussulman's profession 

 of faith, are imprinted in Arabic characters. 

 Priests, singing passages from the Alcoran, 

 surround them ; behind them marches a man 

 bearing a kind of tabernacle, adorned with 

 diamonds and streamers, and containing, without 

 doubt, the sacred book ; he precedes the group of 

 the circumcised, behind whom one or several 

 camels are led, carrying a pair of kettle-drums, 

 the basin of one of which is much less than the 

 other, and both the sound and the measure of 

 thera are verv monotonous. Women, who close 

 the procession, mingle incessantly with the roaring 

 music of the instruments a shrill sound, which is 

 accompanied by long rollings of the tongue, and 

 this is the exclamation of joy among the Egyptians. 



F 4 During 



