APPENDIX. 
383 
ARTICLE XX.— See Page 325. 
I here witnessed an extraordinary ceremony 
performed by one of the young princes, who was 
about undergoing the Mahometan rite of circum- 
cision. He was dressed in the manner shewn in 
figure 1, plate 4 5 and accompanied by a host of 
musicians and young men, visited several towns 
for the purpose of levying contributions on the 
provisions and purses of the inhabitants, either 
by stealth (and for which he could not be pun- 
ished, not being amenable to the laws for that 
period) or during his exhibitions in public, by 
seizing on some of the spectators, whom he 
held fast and pretended to goad with the horn 
attached to the wooden figure on his head, 
until he received some offering which was 
never withheld, and which, together with the 
intercession of his attendants, who fanned him 
with boughs of trees, appeased his wrath, and 
induced him to sit down. In this position he 
remained for some minutes, and in an apparent 
paroxysm of rage recommenced his antics, which 
generally continued for two or three hours 
during the heat of the day, leaving the person 
so exhausted from his exertions and the weight 
of his dress, that he did not again make his 
appearance until the following day. In this man- 
ner I was told he continued acting for a moon. 
