Many visitors to Egypt see the dancing and howling derwishes, but few know of the common and less obtrusive orgies of the same kind in the villages. They are connected strictly with a devotional sentiment: a man who has just joined in such excitement will tell you that it is ‘good to see Allah’ in that way--much like the fervid and maddening religious intoxication which yet finds a place in English civilization. These derwish parties are formed from a few men and boys--perhaps a dozen or twenty--who happen to live as neighbours: they are almost always held in moonlight, generally near full moon, a point which may connect them with some pre-Islamite moon-worship; and though often without any cause but idleness, yet I have noticed them being held after a death in a village where they do not occur otherwise. A professed derwish often leads the party, but that is not essential. The people all stand in a circle, and begin repeating _Al-láh_ with a very strong accent on the latter syllable; bowing down the head and body at the former, and raising it at the latter. This is done all in unison, and slowly at first; gradually the rate quickens, the accent is stronger, and becomes more of an explosive howl, sounding afar off like an engine; the excitement is wilder, and hideously wild, until a horrid creeping comes over you as you listen, and you feel that in such a state there is no answering for what may be done. Incipient madness of the intoxication of excitement seems poured out upon them all, when at last they break down from exhaustion; or perhaps one or other, completely mad for the time, rushes off into the desert, and is followed, for fear he may injure himself. After a pause, some other phrase is started, and the same round is gone through. After about half an hour of this they separate with a great sense of devotional virtue, and wearied with excitement. [Illustration: 115. HOUSES IN UPPER EGYPT.] Some curious observances are connected with accidental deaths. Fires of straw are lighted one month after the death, around the ground where the body has lain; and where blood has been shed iron nails are driven into the ground, and a mixture of lentils, salt, &c., is poured out. These look like offerings to appease spirits, and the fires seem as if to drive away evil influences. Funeral offerings are still placed in the tombs for the sustenance of the dead, just as they were thousands of years ago.