e canal having been filled up in
1897 the ceremony has been much modified, but a brief description of
what used to take place may be given. A pillar of earth before the dam
is called the "Bride of the Nile," and Arab historians relate that
this was substituted, at the Moslem conquest, for a virgin whom it was
the custom annually to sacrifice, to ensure a plentiful inundation. A
large boat, gaily decked out, representing that in which the victim
used to be conveyed, was anchored near, and a gun on board fired every
quarter of an hour during the night. Rockets and other fireworks were
also let off, but the best, strangely, after daybreak. The governor of
Cairo attended the ceremony, with the cadi and others, and gave the
signal for the cutting of the dam. As soon as sufficient water had
entered, boats ascended the canal to the city. The crier continues his
daily rounds, with his former chant, excepting on the Coptic New
Year's Day, when the cry of the Wefa is repeated, until the Salib, or
Discovery of the Cross, the 26th or 27th of September, at which
period, the river having attained its greatest height, he concludes
his annual employment with another chant, and presents to each house
some limes and other fruit, and dry lumps of Nile mud.

The period of the hot winds, called the khamsin, that is, "the
fifties," is calculated from the day after the Coptic Easter, and
terminates on the day of Pentecost, and the Moslems observe the
Wednesday preceding this period, called "Job's Wednesday," as well as
its first day, when many go into the country from Cairo, "to smell the
air." This day is hence called Shem en-Nesim, or "the smelling of the
zephyr." The Ulema observe the same custom on the first three days of
the spring quarter.

Tombs of saints abound, one or more being found in every town and
village; and no traveller up the Nile can fail to remark how every
prominent hill has the sepulchre of its patron saint. The great saints
of Egypt are the imam Ash-Shafi'i, founder of the persuasion called
after him, the sayyid Ahmad al-Baidawi, and the sayyid Ibrahim
Ed-Desuki, both of whom were founders of orders of dervishes.
Al-Baidawi, who lived in the 13th century A.D., is buried at the town
of Tanta, in the Delta, and his tomb attracts many thousands of
visitors at each of the three festivals held yearly in his honour;
Ed-Desuki is also much revered, and hi