Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/267

 of Contact with hianimate Objects. 255

may clothe the chief temporarily with a special sanctity, and therefore he is only to be permitted to put his feet on objects of value also. It must not be overlooked that a fetish-priest may devise any sort of fanciful performance to meet any new case which may arise and be referred to him to advise on. There is no saying how many curious things may not have their origin in the past in the fertile brain of some old priest.

In any case, walking on a living pavement is not confined to savage Africa nor to Australia. It is part of the ceremony of Doseh, which is or used to be performed in Egypt. 1 It is only the chief of the two dervish orders of Saadites and Rifaites who has the right to pass on horse- back along a human road. The dervishes lie down side by side, and the road is made perfectly straight. The horse is led by two men at its head, and the journey terminates at the house which is the sheikh's objective. As soon as the horse has passed the men who had lain down get up and are mixed up again in the crowd of sightseers.

Fortunately there is a history to this ceremony. Whether it is the true one is, of course, always an objection that can be raised.

The story is that a great saint and miracle-worker, once upon a time, came to Cairo and pitched his camp outside. The sultan went out to meet the saint, named Saad-ed-Din. He invited him to come into the town. After many refusals he at last agreed, but said he must perform a miracle so that all Mussulmans might hsten to his word and repent of their sins forthwith. To do this he called upon all the inhabitants to bring all their valuable glass ware and spread it on his road, and when he made his entry into Cairo did it riding on the glasses, and legend has it without breaking a single one. It is in commemoration of this miracle that the Doseh is performed, only at the present

^ E. W. Lane, An Account oj the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, 5th ed. ii. 176 et seqq.