AN EGYPTIAN FUNERAL

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 23, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 12.

AN EGYPTIAN FUNERAL.

A FUNERAL in Egypt is indeed a strange sight, and the first one the visitor sees astonishes him very much. At the head of the procession marches a corporate body of the blind and a certain number of men, who proceed at a quick step, singing a most jubilant air, while swinging themselves from right to left. Behind them comes the funeral car, or rather a sort of bier, bearing a great red shawl in which the body is deposited. At the extremity of the bier, on a perch, is placed the turban or the tarbouch of the defunct. Two men carry the bier. They follow with such spirit the movement of the head of the procession that the corpse, rocked in every direction, seems to jump under the shawl that shrouds it. The women bring up the rear, some on ass, some on foot.

The first row is formed of weepers, or rather screamers, who send forth toward heaven at each step the shrillest tones. The weepers hold in their hands a handkerchief, with which they are not solicitous of wiping their eyes perfectly dry, but which they pull by two ends behind their head with a gesture that would be desperate if it were not droll.

On the arrival at the cemetery they take the dead body from the bier to cast it into the grave. The grand funerals, however, take place with much more solemnity. An important personage is hardly dead in Egypt, before his acquaintances and friends hurry to the house; during one or two days they eat and drink at the expense of the dead, or rather his heirs, indulging in the noisiest demonstrations.

When the hour of the interment arrives, a scene of the wildest character is produced. The slaves and women of the household throw themselves on the corpse, and feign a determination to hinder it from passing the threshold. The lugubrious tragedy is played conscientiously; they snatch away the coffin; they belay each other with blows, and the most violent and frightful clamor is heard.

At last the procession leaves the house and repairs to the cemetery, preceded by camels loaded with victuals, which are distributed to the poor, hurrying in crowds along the road. All along the road the mourners and friends of the family fight for the honor of carrying the bier for a moment, and thus it passes or bounds from hand to hand, amid the most frightful disorder. The interment ended, everyone returns to the house of the dead to recommence festivities.—Christian at Work.