Page:A child of the Orient (IA childoforient00vakarich).pdf/252

 even to bite, came over me, and I began rhythmically to tear my feredjé in time to the music.

From this condition I was roused by a strident yell, and looked through the lattice with renewed attention. The arena was beginning to fill with long-cloaked dervishes carrying lighted torches. A mat was spread near the charcoal fire, and on this the sheik, or abbot, of the brotherhood took his place, cross-legged. The nerve-racking music ceased while he offered a short prayer.

When this was over, other dervishes came into the arena, received torches, and ranged themselves under the archways, like caryatides. The maddening music started again, and the dervishes, joining hands, made the round of the enclosure in a slow, dancing step, somewhat like the step of a dancing bear, gradually increasing the violence of their movements. Then each one took off his taj, or head-dress, kissed it and passed it over to the sheik. The music grew faster, but lower in tone, and more infuriating. The dervishes, with heads bowed and shoulders bent, danced more wildly about the smouldering fire. The long cloaks were thrown aside, and the men appeared, naked, except for the band around their waists, from which hung long knives. They threw out their arms, as if in supplication, and bent back their heads in terrible contortions. Yells of "Ya Hou!" and "Ya Allah!" mingled with the music.