results is generally made to ascend upon the supposed sufferer. It is a custom among the higher and middle classes in Cairo, on the occasion of a marriage, to hang chandeliers in the street before the bridegroom’s house; and it often happens that a crowd is collected to see a very large and handsome chandelier suspended: in this case it is a common practice to divert the attention of the spectators by throwing down and breaking a large jar, or by some other artifice, lest an envious eye should cause the chandelier to fall. Accidents which confirm the Egyptians in their superstitions respecting the evil eye often occur: for instance, a friend of mine has just related to me that, a short time ago, he saw a camel carrying two very large jars of oil; a woman stopped before it, and exclaimed, “God preserve us! What large jars!” The conductor of the camel did not tell her to bless the Prophet; and the camel, a few minutes after, fell, and broke both the jars and one of its own legs. While writing these notes on modern Egyptian superstitions, I have been amused by a complaint of one of my Masree[382] friends, which will serve to illustrate what I have just stated. “The Básha,” he said, “having, a few days ago, given up his monopoly of the meat, the butchers now slaughter for their own shops; and it is quite shocking to see fine sheep hung up in the streets, quite whole, tail[383] and all, before the public eye, so that every beggar who passes by envies them; and one might, therefore, as well eat poison as such meat.” My cook has made the same complaint to me; and, rather than purchase from one of the shops near at hand, takes the trouble of going to one in a distant quarter, kept by a man who conceals his meat from the view of the passengers in the street. Many of the tradesmen of the metropolis, and of other towns of Egypt, place over their shops (generally upon the hanging shutter which is turned up in front) a paper inscribed with the name of God, or that of the Prophet, or both, or the profession of the faith (“There is no deity but God: Mohammad is God’s Apostle”), the words, “In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful,” or some maxim of the Prophet, or a verse of the Kur-án (as, “Verily we have granted thee a manifest victory” [ch. xlviii., ver. 1], and “Assistance from God, and a speedy victory: and do thou bear good tidings to the believers” [ch. lxi., ver. 13]), or an invocation to the Deity, such as, “O Thou Opener [of the doors of prosperity, or subsistence]! O Thou Wise! O Thou Supplier of our wants! O Thou Bountiful!” This invocation is often pronounced by the tradesman when he first opens his shop in the morning, and by the pedestrian vendor of small commodities, bread, vegetables, etc., when he sets out on his daily rounds. It is a custom also among the lower orders to put the first piece of money that they receive in the day to the lips and forehead before putting it in the pocket.