GRAND CAIRO. 169 
small cymbals, which they use as the Italians chap. 
and Spaniards do their casiagnettes. They have , ^^' , 
also tambours of different kinds. The form of 
one of these seems to have been derived from 
that of the common pumpkin, which is frequent 
among the vegetables of Egypt) for, although the 
tambour be made of wood, it has exactly the 
appearance of half a large pumpkin, scooped, 
with a skin bound over it. The Arabs use 
hollow pumpkins, when dried, as bottles to 
contain water: these becoming hard, are very 
durable, and may have preceded the use of a 
hollow hemisphere of wood, in the manufacture 
of a tambour. The dances of the Abnehs are of the 
Aildu'iu 
accompanied by vocal as well as by instru- andcryof 
mental music; if that may be termed vocal, uon.'^ 
which consists of a continual recurrence of the 
same shrill sounds, caused by trilling the 
tongue against the roof of the mouth, without 
the utterance of any distinct words. Yet this 
singular mode of expressing joy is all that 
constitutes the Allelma of the Antients. When 
Lord Hutchinson first entered Cairo, after the 
capture of the city, he was met by a number of 
women who greeted him with Alleluias: they 
accompanied him through the streets, clapping 
their hands, and making this extraordinary 
noise, in a loud and shrill tone. It seems to be 
