Religious ejaculations often interrupt conversation upon trivial and even licentious subjects, in Egyptian society; sometimes, in such a manner that a person not well acquainted with the character of this people would perhaps imagine that they intended to make religion a jest. In many of their most indecent songs the name of God is frequently introduced; and this is certainly done without any profane motive, but from the habit of often mentioning the name of the Deity in vain, and of praising Him on every trifling occasion of surprise, or in testimony of admiration of anything uncommon. Thus, a libertine, describing his impressions on the first sight of a charming girl (in one of the grossest songs I have ever seen or heard even in the Arabic language), exclaims, “Extolled be He who formed thee, O full moon!”—and this and many similar expressions are common in many other songs and odes; but what is most remarkable in the song particularly alluded to above, is a profane comparison with which it terminates. I shall adduce, as an example of the strange manner in which licentiousness and religion are often blended together in vulgar Egyptian poetry and rhyming prose, a translation of the last three stanzas of an ode on love and wine:— “She granted me a reception, the graceful of form, after her distance and coyness. I kissed her teeth and her cheek; and the cup rang in her hand. The odours of musk and ambergris were diffused by a person whose form surpassed the elegance of a straight and slender branch. She spread a bed of brocade; and I passed the time in uninterrupted happiness. A Turkish fawn enslaved me. “Now I beg forgiveness of God, my Lord, for all my faults and sins; and for all that my heart hath said. My members testify against me. Whenever grief oppresseth me, O Lord, Thou art my hope from whatever afflicteth me. Thou knowest what I say, and what I think. Thou art the Bountiful, the Forgiving! I implore Thy protection: then pardon me. “And I praise that benignant being[406] whom a cloud was wont to shade; the comely: how great was his comeliness! He will intercede for us on the day of judgment, when his haters, the vile, the polytheists, shall be repentant. Would that I might always, as long as I live, accompany the pilgrims, to perform the circuits and worship and courses, and live in uninterrupted happiness!”