’Abd Er-Raheem Ed-Demirdáshee El-Khalwet′ee Er-Rifá’ee En-Nebawee; not to change, nor to separate; and God is our witness: by God, the Great!” (this oath was repeated three times): “there is no deity but God” (this also was repeated three times). The sheykh and the mureed then recited the Fát’hah together, and the latter concluded the ceremony by kissing the sheykh’s hand. The religious exercises of the darweeshes chiefly consist in the performance of “zikrs.” Sometimes standing in the form of a circular or oblong ring, or in two rows, facing each other, and sometimes sitting, they exclaim, or chant, “Lá iláha illa-lláh” (There is no deity but God), or “Alláh! Alláh! Alláh!” (God! God! God!), or repeat other invocations, etc., over and over again, until their strength is almost exhausted; accompanying their ejaculations or chants with a motion of the head, or of the whole body, or of the arms. From long habit they are able to continue these exercises for a surprising length of time without intermission. They are often accompanied, at intervals, by one or more players upon a kind of flute called a “náy,” or a double reed-pipe, called “arghool,” and by persons singing religious odes; and some darweeshes use a little drum, called “báz,” or a tambourine, during their zikrs: some, also, perform a peculiar dance; the description of which, as well as of several different zikrs, I reserve for future chapters. Some of the rites of darweeshes (as forms of prayer, modes of zikr, etc.), are observed only by particular orders: others, by members of various orders. Among the latter may be mentioned the rites of the “Khalwet′ees” and “Sházilees”; two great classes, each of which has its sheykh. The chief difference between these is that each has its particular form of prayer to repeat every morning; and that the former distinguish themselves by occasional seclusion; whence their appellation of “Khalwet′ees[370]:” the prayer of this class is repeated before daybreak; and is called “wird es-sahar:” that of the Sházilees, which is called “hezb esh-Sházilee,” after day-break. Sometimes, a Khalwet′ee enters a solitary cell, and remains in it forty days and nights, fasting from day-break till sunset the whole of this period. Sometimes also a number of the same class confine themselves, each in a separate cell, in the sepulchral mosque of the sheykh Ed-Demirdáshee, on the north of Cairo, and remain there three days and nights, on the occasion of the moolid of that saint, and only eat a little rice, and drink a cup of sherbet, in the evening: they employ themselves in repeating certain forms of prayer, etc. not imparted to the uninitiated; only coming out of their cells to unite in the five daily prayers in the mosque; and never answering any one who speaks to them but by saying, “There is no deity but God.” Those who observe the forty days’ fast, and seclude themselves during that long period, practise nearly the same rules; and