of boys, and sometimes girls, blowing raucous blasts on hollow
bamboos, which are adorned with a tin 'panja,' the sacred open hand
emblematical of the Prophet, his daughter Fatima, her husband Ali and their
two martyred sons. The sacred five, in the form of the outstretched hand,
adorn nearly all Mohurrum symbols, from the toy trumpet and the top of the
banner-pole to the horseshoe rod of the devotee and the 'tazia' or domed
bier. Youths, preceded by drummers and clarionet-players, wander through
the streets laying all the shop-keepers under contribution for
subscriptions; the well-to-do householder sets to building a 'sabil' or
charity-fountain in one corner of his verandah or on a site somewhat
removed from the fairway of traffic; while a continuous stream of people
afflicted by the evil-eye flows into the courtyard of the Bara Imam Chilla
near the Nal Bazaar to receive absolution from the peacock-feather brush
and sword there preserved. Meanwhile in almost every street where a 'tabut'
is being prepared elegiac discourses ('waaz') are nightly delivered up to
the tenth of the month by a _maulvi_, who draws from Rs. 30 to Rs. 100
for his five nights' description of the martyrdom of Husain; while but a
little distance away boys painted to resemble tigers leap to the rhythm of
a drum, and the Arab mummer with the split bamboo shatters the nerves of
the passerby by suddenly cracking it behind his back. The fact that this
Arab usually takes up a strong position near a 'tazia' suggests the idea
that he must originally have represented a guardian or scapegoat, designed
to break by means of his abuse, buffoonery and laughter the spell of the
spirits who long for quarters within the rich mimic tomb; and the fact that
the crowds who come to gaze in admiration on the 'tazia' never retort or
round upon him for the sudden fright or anger that he evokes gives one the
impression that the crack of the bamboo is in their belief a potent scarer
of unhoused and malignant spirits.

Turn off the main thoroughfare and you may perhaps find a lean Musalman,
with a green silk skullcap, sitting in a raised and well-lighted recess in
front of an urn in which frankincense is burning. He has taken a vow to be
a "Dula" or bridegroom during the Mohurrum. There he sits craning his neck
over the smoke from the urn and swaying from side to side, while at
intervals three companions who squat beside him give vent to a cry of "Bara
Imam ki dosti yaro din"