Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/407

 Cairene Folklore. 387

Negro/' a name given by the natives to the Ptolemaic pylon beyond the temple of Amonhotep III., on the north side of the temple of Karnak. He was instructed to knock three times, when a negro would appear and ask him what he wanted. He was to say : " O Morgani, see this paper," and to hand it to him. The captain put the paper in his pocket and forgot all about it ; but some time afterwards, remembering the injunctions he had received, he went to the pylon and knocked at it three times. The negro appeared, and upon receiving the paper ushered the man into a spacious chamber filled with gold. Then he took a measure and measured out to the visitor exactly the amount of gold that equalled the amount of the lentils given to the beggar. The man begged for an ardeb of it, but the negro told him that he had refused to give the beggar the ardeb of lentils and accordingly could have no more gold. So he was turned out again into the outer world, exclaiming : " Would that I had given him twenty ardebs ! "

The negro was one of the many kinds of spirits and supernatural visitants in whom the modern Egyptian be- lieves. One of these is the kabus or " nightmare," which throws itself heavily on a sleeper, preventing him from moving or opening his eyes, and which disappears as soon as he awakes. Another is the 7nezaiyyara, which is dressed in white and has the appearance of a beautiful lady. It salutes a solitary traveller at night, and after it has fascinated him by its conversation, seizes him in its arms and strangles him.^

Closely allied to the mezaiyyara is the water-spirit. One of these inhabits the water on the south side of the English Bridge (called the Kubri el-'Ama by the natives), on the road from Cairo to Giza, and drowns all those who

A reference is made to it by Professor Vollers in the Z. D. M. G., xlv., 3, pp. 343 sqq.

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