oulders of friends, who are relieved by the
passers-by, such an act being deemed highly meritorious. Behind come
the women relatives and the hired wailers. On the way to the cemetery
the corpse is generally carried to some revered mosque. Here the
funeral service is performed by the imam, and the procession then
proceeds to the tomb. In the burials of the rich, water and bread are
distributed to the poor at the grave; and sometimes a buffalo or
several buffaloes are slaughtered there, and the flesh given away. The
tomb is a vault, surmounted by an oblong stone monument, with a stele
at the head and feet; and a cupola, supported by four walls, covers
the whole in the case of sheikhs' tombs and those of the wealthy.
During the night following the interment, called the Night of
Desolation, or that of Solitude, the soul being believed to remain
with the body that one night, fikis are engaged at the house of the
deceased to recite various portions of the Koran, and, commonly, to
repeat the first clause of the profession of the faith, "There is no
God but God," three thousand times. The women alone put on mourning
attire, by dyeing their veils, shirts, &c., dark blue, with indigo;
and they stain their hands, and smear the walls, with the same colour.
Everything in the house is also turned upside down. The latter customs
are not, however, observed on the death of an old man. At certain
periods after the burial, a khatmeh, or recitation of the whole of the
Koran, is performed, and the tomb is visited by the women relations
and friends of the deceased. The women of the peasants of Upper Egypt
perform strange dances, &c., at funerals, which are regarded partly as
relics of ancient Egyptian customs.

The harem system of appointing separate apartments to the women, and
secluding them from the gaze of men, is observed in Egypt as in other
Moslem countries, but less strictly. The women of an Egyptian
household in which old customs are maintained never sit in the
presence of the master, but attend him at his meals, and are treated
in every respect as inferiors. The mother, however, forms a remarkable
exception to this rule; in rare instances, also, a wife becomes a
companion to her husband. On the other hand, if a pair of women's
shoes are placed outside the door of the harem apartments, they are
understood to signify that female visitors are within, and a man is