Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/48

32 pins into their cheeks and near the eyes; they stand on swords, eat cactus-leaves, and drink the water which remains from hand-washing of an assembly. When once aroused to holiness they much resemble brutes. Although el Badawy himself never married, he is very liberal towards adulterers; it is said a pious Mohammedan went to visit his grave, and found an immense multitude there, and among them a man and woman in the precincts in a very indecent position, so, without finishing his visit, he turned away and was going home, when his beast staled in the waters of the Nile. A horseman reproved him, saying, "Why defilest thou the stream?" but the pilgrim remarked that the stream was broad, and could not be defiled by such a little thing. Well, then, said the Badawy—for it was he—"Go back and feast, an adulterer can no more defile the abode of the Badawy than this urine can the stream."

The daughter of Bari,, was the most handsome of women that ever lived, and she was a Derwishá. One day when Badawy, Erfa'i, and Dsuki were in the plains of Mesopotamia, Bint Bari took a Paradise jug and wanted to drink it all, leaving none to the others. Erfa'i went, but was afraid to look at her for fear of losing his holiness, for a Derwish may not look at a woman and wonder at her beauty. Dsuki then went, but without success, so the Badawy put on old ragged clothes, full of lice, and came to her palace at Bagdad. Of course, as a Derwishá, she at once knew he was coming. He asked for the water, which she would not give up. She lifted her two veils,, hut he could not be moved by her beauty; so he said, "Earth! swallow her," and the earth swallowed her to her knees. Then he asked her the water, but without success. A second command to the Earth, and she was swallowed to the stomach, a third to the breast; and then she said, "Will you marry me?" He told her to put forth her hand, and he spat through it to the earth, and said, "Your hand cannot stand my spittle, how will you stand me in marriage?" Still she refused, but after a fourth command, when the earth had swallowed her up to the neck, she ordered a servant to bring the water. Nevertheless, she is in great enmity with these Orders, and wars against them from the sky, throwing stones at them—and hence the Derwishes of these Orders always look up in the sky for fear of Bint Bari. Sheikh 'Ali was the Naḳeeb of the Badawy, and a very turbulent Derwish, who always wanted to have his Lord give him power over something, and troubling him. So the Badawy had a stick and threw it away, and said, "Where you find this stick you shall dwell, and not leave your place; you shall have plenty, and your sacrifices shall come to you as this stick went." So he followed and found the stick north of Jaffa. A harem is built there, and a yearly market is held there. Sîdna 'Ali is a guardian of the sea ; any ship in danger has only to invoke him, and undoubtedly will be saved, no matter of what nation. An English captain promised £100 to Sheikh 'Ali if he were saved, and eventually went back to England. Having no means of sending the money, he put it into a hollow piece of wood, which he pushed into the sea. Years