Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/41

Rh feast; they all eat it as on all other occasions. Elisha had also to slay oxen and boil their flesh and give it to the people before following Elijah, 1 Kings xix, 20–21. The turban of the new sheikh also is put on by the Khalify, and lie becomes, Mu'amam. This is the first degree. The second degree is the Naḳeeb, ; he has charge of the instruments. When they are brought forth, the Naḳeeb calls down the blessing on them before the ceremonies begin; thus: "God's party, we say the Fatiha to these instruments, to the presence of the prophet, and to our Lord Khadder Abu 'l'Abbas, and to his brother Elijah, the holder of these instruments, or the guardian." This is repeated three times before the music begins; the instruments are generally the standard,, Reiey; the small drum, , Bâz; the cymbals, , Kasséy; and the big drum or Nobéy,. They never have any wind instruments, as the Jews of old, though the functions of the Naḳeeb seem very much the same as those of Heman and Jeduthun, as mentioned in 1 Chron. xvi, 42. "Those that should make a sound, and with musical instruments of God."

Incense is now burned, and the whole congregation praise the Lord, the ceremony resembling the description of the singers (Levites) at the consecration of the temple at Jerusalem in 2 Chron. v, 13. The highest in rank is the Khalify, who can confer the Order upon another person, as he is the substitute of the sheikh to whose Order he belongs. He may also be Khalify to several Orders, which is not usually allowed to the Naḳeeb or simple Derwish. As a rule, they are respected by anybody who knows them to be Derwishes, though much depends on the influence of the family he belongs to. Thus a Khateeb, of Beit Dejan, ridiculed a Derwish in a piece of poetry; the Derwish appealed to his Order, and the Derwishes of the region gathered in the house of the Khateeb to judge the case, and punish him accordingly.

Sheikh Saleh,, of Safrie, a village only a mile east of Beit Dejan, who was always ready to ridicule everything, wrote some poetry on a Derwish of the Order of the Seied el Badawi. This Derwish, the Sheikh Abd er Rahman Abu Ja'coub, is almost blind, and on that account had a nickname, Di'hnan,. He went out one day and stumbled over the carcase of a mule and broke his arm, which so much amused our bard, the Khateeb, that he composed the following rhymes :—