Page:Malabari, Behramji M. - Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1882).djvu/302

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"Hai Hassan, Hai Hussein," are the wails of genuine grief that pierce the dense air of Imámbara, on Mo'haram night. "Hai Hassan, Hai Hussein," form the interlude to the touching national elegy, recited to the echo of frantic breast-beating by sturdy hard-favoured Moguls and Seedies (African Mussulmans), who abandon themselves for the nonce to uncontrollable woe. It is the last night of the Passion week throughout Islam, when the Shehá Moslem enacts his Passion Play, and the Sooni Mahomedan keeps up his High Carnival. In the month of Mo'haram, "holiest of the holy," eight days are sacred to the memory of Hassan and Hussein, grandsons of the Prophet by his beloved daughter Fátimá, and his no less beloved disciple Ali. The youthful heroes are said to have fallen victims to partisan fury. The Shehás, by all accounts the true believers, who acknowledge Ali as heir and successor to the Founder of Islam, spend the early part of the week in erecting the taboot, the paper mausoleum which is supposed to hold the murdered hopes of the Prophet's house, in reading the fáthiá, the initial verses of the