Almost every celebrated saint, deceased, is honoured by an anniversary birth-day festival, which is called “moolid,” or, more properly, “mólid.” On the occasions of such festivals, many persons visit the tomb, both as a duty and as a supposed means of obtaining a special blessing; fikees are hired to recite the Kur-án, for the sake of the saint; fakeers often perform zikrs; and the people living in the neighbourhood of the tomb hang lamps before their doors, and devote half the night to such pleasures as those of smoking, sipping coffee, and listening to story-tellers at the coffee-shops, or to the recitals of the Kur-án and the zikrs. I have now a cluster of lamps hanging before my door, in honour of the moolid of a sheykh who is buried near the house in which I am living. Even the native Christians often hang up lamps on these occasions. The festivities often continue several days. The most famous moolids celebrated in Cairo, next to that of the Prophet, are those of the Hasaneyn and the seyyideh Zeyneb, accounts of which will be found in a subsequent chapter on the periodical public festivals, etc., of the people of Egypt. Most of the Egyptians not only expect a blessing to follow their visiting the tomb of a celebrated saint, but they also dread that some misfortune will befall them if they neglect this act. Thus, while I am writing these lines, an acquaintance of mine is suffering from an illness which he attributes to his having neglected, for the last two years, to attend the festivals of the seyyid Ahmad El-Bedawee, at Tanta, this being the period of one of these festivals. The tomb of this saint attracts almost as many visitors, at the periods of the great annual festivals, from the metropolis, and from various parts of Lower Egypt, as Mekkeh does pilgrims from the whole of the Muslim world. Three moolids are celebrated in honour of him every year—one, about the tenth of the Coptic month of Toobeh (17th or 18th of January); the second, at or about the Vernal Equinox;[363] and the third, or great moolid, about a month after the Summer Solstice (or about the middle of the Coptic month of Ebeeb), when the Nile has risen considerably, but the dams of the canals are not yet cut. Each lasts one week and a day, beginning on a Friday, and ending on the afternoon of the next Friday; and on each night there is a display of fireworks. One week after each of these, is celebrated the moolid of the seyyid Ibráheem Ed-Dasookee, at the town of Dasook, on the east bank of the western branch of the Nile. The seyyid Ibráheem was a very famous saint, next in rank to the seyyid El-Bedawee. These moolids, both of the seyyid El-Bedawee and of the seyyid Ibráheem, are great fairs, as well as religious festivals. At the latter, most of the visitors remain in their boats; and some of the Saadeeyeh darweeshes of Rasheed exhibit their feats with serpents—some carrying serpents with silver rings in their