THE CEYLON MUHAMMADANS. 
it destroys diversities of character because these are 
the result of life and growth, and within the sphere of 
Islam, life and growth are impossible. There is a dis- 
mal identity in the decrepitude and corruption in all 
Mahomrnedan lands, which points to a common parent- 
age.’’ Major Osborn shews that shutting out 
human reason, the huge and laborious collections of 
traditions, have crushed to death thought, freedom, 
and progress, in the Muhammadan world. Yet there 
are decent, even intelligent Englishmen who believe in 
Midliat Pasha, and his constitution reforming the Turkish 1 
In Cairo, when the pilgrims return from Mecca, a 
high holiday is held in honour of the birth-day of the 
Prophet. They hold great camp meetings every night in 
large tents, erected in a field not far from the 
Frank (Quarter of the town. The tents are of various 
sorts and sizes, some very richly adorned, and large 
enough to hold about 200 people. The devotees are 
as ditferent, as the tents : Turks, Arabs, Negroes stand 
side by side, engaged in the strange devotions, and 
calling with equal fervour on their common Allah. On 
the last day of the ceremonies, the crowning feature is the 
ceremony of the Doseh,” which consists in the 
pilgrim fanatics forming with their bodies a pave- 
ment of flesh and bone for the holy sheikh, and his 
sacred horse. the whole of the city is early astir, 
and carriages, hired for the day at fancy prices, throng 
along to the encampment. What a sea of faces, all in 
anxious expectation. At length is the cry, ‘‘They cornel” 
and down comes a long stream of turbaned devotees ; 
they prostrate themselves in a row, all along the 
road, while many of the crowd actually assist in 
packing them close together, a long row of bodies, 
closely wedged in, lie there. A troop of pilgrims now 
come on, and walk over the prostrate bodies, and now 
comes the sheikh on horse-back. He rode calmly over 
the bodies of the fanatics, swaying to and fro, with 
each motion of his horse, just as if he was drunk. 
This is the “ Doseh,” a disgusting exhibition of 
Moslem fanaticism. Whenever the sheikh was past, the 
devotees sprang to their feet, and those who were 
unable to rise were carried out of sight, as soon 
as possible. It is maintained that no one is ever 
hurt by this sacred ordeal, but in many cases it is im- 
possible to hide it. Some yell out vigorously with 
pain, while others, whose spines are stretched out, 
quite rigid, to all appearance dead altogether. Th« 
exhibition is a most disgusting and a degrading one, 
and leads, to some extent, in' forming opinion, as to 
what an outburst of Moslem fanaticism means, and 
w© have never yet been able to form any correct 
idea, as to why the Muhammadan religion, should 
