it appears, is celebrated in the town for his talents for mimicry and disguise. He kept the assembly in roars of laughter by his absurd attempts to obey words of command and learn his drill, and by the insubordinate witticisms to which he gave vent. Suddenly some crackers were let off, supposed to represent file-firing, and a sham fight ensued, which resulted in the mock death of one of the soldiers, who lay stiff in the middle of the room, while his companions retired to prepare for the next act in the comedy.

This consisted in their return, a few minutes later, in the character of Coptic priests, whose function it was to perform the last rites over the dead man. The buffoon was now disguised as a Church dignitary, with long white drapery, cap, and turban, and with a flowing beard; and with book and candle, followed by his attendants, he solemnly approached the dead man, and then suddenly burst forth with an imitation of the Coptic funeral service, which was an irresistibly ludicrous travesty of a grave function. It was a blasphemous and disagreeable proceeding; but the imitation of the Coptic method of nasal chanting

by a man who was not uttering a word of the language, was so clever that the audience rolled in their seats with laughter. Our host, however, apparently had not been prepared for the scene, and it was brought to a somewhat sudden close, to my great relief, for the reason, as I was informed on inquiry, that the archbishop, who was to perform the marriage ceremony next evening, might be offended if he heard that the most sacred rites of his Church had been parodied in the house of the bride's father the night before.

The dancing-girl was repeating her performance in a somewhat less constrained manner when I left the entertainment, which I understood was protracted until an early hour in the morning. I declined to make a night of it by going to the house of the bridegroom, where similar festivities were being carried on.

On the following night I witnessed the marriage of a peasant couple, which took place about ten o'clock, and which was, in some respects, more interesting than the aristocratic wedding that succeeded it at midnight.

In the centre of the church, benches were

arranged so as to form three sides of a square. In the middle of the centre bench sat the bride and bridegroom, side by side, their bare feet dangling about six inches from the ground. The male friends extended from him to the right, and the female from her to the left. As they were of the fellah class, the women's faces were uncovered, and they wore the blue gown and head-gear common to the country people. The bride, however, was an exception; her face was entirely concealed by a red cotton handkerchief strained so tightly across it that it was a mystery how she could draw a breath.

The bridegroom, who was quite a youth, looked excessively shy and uncomfortable, and held a white handkerchief persistently to his mouth, as if he was suffering from toothache. At first I thought he was; but as, when his hands were otherwise engaged, he held his handkerchief in his teeth, I concluded that it was only modesty. All, priest included, had bare feet, and were most poorly clad.

The ecclesiastic who performed the ceremony occupied evidently a very subordinate position in the Church, and his principal object

seemed to be to finish the operation as speedily as possible and get paid for it. He seated himself on a low chair in front of the happy couple, pulled a Coptic prayer-book out of his breast, and gave the signal to his attendants to commence operations; on which a man, squatting on his heels behind his chair, clashed a huge pair of cymbals, and half-a-dozen others in a like attitude set up a lugubrious chant in a loud nasal voice. Whenever they paused, the women ranged on the benches burst forth in a shrill scream, with a quaver or ululation resembling the note of the screech-owl. This is accomplished by moving the tongue rapidly between the lips while screaming, and is the cry of female rejoicing common to Moslems and Christians alike throughout the East. It is called the zalghoot. It had a wild, barbaric effect, as from time to time it broke in upon the uncouth chanting and clanging cymbals of the choir. Then the priest took up his part, and read the service at racing speed, with exactly the intonation so well given by the burlesque actor the night before.

All this time men were talking and laughing loudly; babies were crying; and every now

and then the priest would stop, apparently to hold a little general conversation with those nearest to him on the topics of the day.

He

Anything more irreverent, or less like a religious ceremony, it would be difficult to imagine. In the midst of it all, and apropos to nothing particular, the priest seized the bridegroom's left hand, and put a ring upon his little finger. After some more chanting, reading, screeching, and general conversation, he took a phial, which I presumed contained holy water, and crossed the foreheads of the bride and bridegroom with its contents. then opened the robe of the latter in front, and made another cross on his breast; and then, baring his arms, made crosses on them. After another interlude, he took off the bridegroom's red cap and put a white one under it, and replaced the red one. Again, after an interval, he produced a black cord, which he bound round the body of the bridegroom, under his outer garment; then taking off the red cap again, he tied a piece of scarlet thread round his head, and did the same to the bride, who must long since have been nearly stifled. All this time the audience were chattering, and