On the following day the bride goes in procession to the house of the bridegroom. The procession before described is called “the zeffeh of the bath,” to distinguish it from this, which is the more important, and which is therefore particularly called “Zeffet el-’Arooseh,” or “the Zeffeh of the Bride.” In some cases, to diminish the expenses of the marriage-ceremonies, the bride is conducted privately to the bath, and only honoured with a zeffeh to the bridegroom’s house. This procession is exactly similar to the former. The bride and her party, after breakfasting together, generally set out a little after mid-day. They proceed in the same order, and at the same slow pace, as in the zeffeh of the bath; and, if the house of the bridegroom be near, they follow a circuitous route, through several principal streets, for the sake of display. The ceremony usually occupies three or more hours. ------------------------------------------- [Illustration: BRIDAL PROCESSION. (Part II.)] _Lane’s Modern Egyptians_] [_Page 152_ ------------------------------------------- Sometimes, before bridal processions of this kind, two swordsmen, clad in nothing but their drawers, engage each other in a mock combat; or two peasants cudgel each other with nebboots, or long staves. In the procession of a bride of a wealthy family, any person who has the art of performing some extraordinary feat to amuse the spectators is almost sure of being a welcome assistant, and of receiving a handsome present.[290] When the seyyid ’Omar, the Nakeeb el-Ashráf (or chief of the descendants of the Prophet), who was the main instrument of advancing Mohammad ’Alee to the dignity of Básha of Egypt, married a daughter, about twenty-seven years since, there walked before the procession a young man who had made an incision in his abdomen, and drawn out a large portion of his intestines, which he carried before him on a silver tray. After the procession he restored them to their proper place, and remained in bed many days before he recovered from the effects of this foolish and disgusting act. Another man, on the same occasion, ran a sword through his arm, before the crowding spectators, and then bound over the wound, without withdrawing the sword, several handkerchiefs, which were soaked with the blood. These facts were described to me by an eye-witness. A spectacle of a more singular and more disgusting nature used to be not uncommon on similar occasions, but is now very seldom witnessed.[291] Sometimes, also, “háwees” (or conjurors and sleight-of-hand performers) exhibit a variety of tricks on these occasions. But the most common of all the performances here mentioned are the mock fights. Similar exhibitions are also sometimes witnessed on the occasion of a circumcision.[292]