DISCOVERY 



209 



wards and fonvards. They hold in their hands 

 coloured handkerchiefs, generally of silk, used only on 

 these occasions or at a funeral. Sometimes a large 

 one, often black with a coloured border, is doubled 

 comerways and placed round the neck of the mourner. 

 With this she can vary her movements, taking hold of 

 the handkerchief at each corner and drawing it back- 

 wards and forwards, like a saw, while she sways 

 rhythmically from side to side. It should be men- 

 tioned here that all these movements, even those of 

 the fiklhs when reciting, are strictly rhythmical. 



With the smaller handkerchiefs with which the 

 women wipe the tears from their cheeks, they also 

 stroke and pat the grave. On one occasion I saw a 

 young woman acting in this manner, just as if she were 

 affectionately stroking a living person. She then 

 knocked on the grave, calling, " Ya abtiya, Ya 

 abt'iya" ("My father, my father"). Some of these 

 apparently grief-stricken mourners are merely pro- 

 fessional wailing women paid for their services. 

 Often, as I passed them, in the midst of what sounded 

 like the most heart-broken sobs, they would look up 

 at me, smiling in a friendly way, only to resume 

 their sorrowful attitude the moment I left them. 



Those who can afford it will often bring several 

 large baskets of bread for distribution. I have seen 

 si.\ or seven such baskets piled up on a single grave, 

 where a large party was assembled, a number of 

 wailing women being seated at one end, whilst at the 

 other was a large group of men and boys. The men 

 were fikihs who, swaying from side to side, were 

 reciting passages from the Koran, accompanied, as is 

 very often the case, by the boys. When one set of 

 repetitions came to an end, each performer had two or 

 three bread-rings doled out to him by a man and one 

 or two women, who appeared to be the chief mourners. 

 Then the recitations began again, ending with a similar 

 reward. All this time the women at the other end of 

 the grave kept up their piteous cries, receiving in 

 return exactly the same compensation as the fikihs. 



Presently one of the women, who had been assisting 

 in the distribution of the bread-rings, took up a basket- 

 ful, and, placing it on her head, started off, accom- 

 panied by another woman, to present the contents to 

 mourners at other grai-es. They perambulated most 

 of the cemetery, giving bread-rings to women who had 

 none. The acceptance of such a gift implies that the 

 receiver is willing to be on friendly terms with the 

 giv-er. Sometimes the donor meets with an angry 

 refusal from the woman to whom she presents bread. 

 This implies that there have been quarrels between 

 them. In such cases bystanders will intervene, urging 

 the acceptance of the gift, and the duty of living at 

 peace with each other and making up the quarrel. 

 These peace-makers are usually successful, and the 



gifts are finally accepted, though sometimes it requires 

 considerable persuasion before a reconciliation i« 

 effected. 



This weekly ceremony usually lasts frcm two to 

 three hours, after which time the women take up their 

 now empty baskets, the men who have donkeys mount 

 them, and the whole procession returns to the villages, 

 the women wailing as they go. 



Very similar ceremonies take place on the fifteenth 

 and fortieth days after a death. The mourners, 

 accompanied by their relatives and friends, repair to 

 the cemetery, carrying with them baskets full of bread- 

 rings, cakes, sweetmeats, etc., for distribution, and 

 branches of palm leaves to place on the grave. On 

 these occasions, not only a large number of poor people, 

 but also numbers of fikihs, who know that their 

 services will be required, crowd to the cemeteries, in 

 the hope of receiving some of the food given away in 

 the name of the dead person. 



Again on el-' Id es-Siigheiyir, the Little Festival, 

 which takes place at the expiration of the fast of 

 Ramadan, most families, but chiefly the women 



Fig. 2.— waiLINC, wo.mi;n i;i.Ar]\'. iiiiiu ii^ 

 TOGETHER M.Ak A ckAVI-.. 



members, repair in like manner to the cemeteries, 

 carrying with them gifts similar to those mentioned 

 above, together with a number of palm branches. 



