I wanted to ask thee for something to-day; but I feared: I feared greatly. Thou must be invested with the wiláyeh [_i. e._ be made a welee]: the welees love thee; and the Prophet loves thee. Thou must go to the sheykh Muṣṭafà El-Munádee, and the sheykh El-Baháee.[266] Thou must be a welee." He then took my right hand, in the manner commonly practised in the ceremony which admits a person a darweesh, and repeated the Fáteḥah (commonly pronounced Fát'ḥah);[267] after which he added, "I have admitted thee my darweesh." Having next told me of several circumstances relating to my family--matters of an unusual nature--with singular minuteness and truth, he added, "To-night, if it be the will of God, thou shalt see the Prophet in thy sleep, and El-Khiḍr and the seyyid El-Bedawee. This is Regeb, and I wanted to ask of thee--but I feared--I wanted to ask of thee four piastres, to buy meat and bread and oil and radishes. Regeb! Regeb! I have great offices to do for thee to-night."--Less than a shilling for all he promised was little enough: I gave it him for the trouble he had taken; and he uttered many abrupt prayers for me.--In the following night, however, I saw in my sleep neither Moḥammad nor El-Khiḍr nor the seyyid El-Bedawee, unless, like Nebuchadnezzar, I was unable, on awaking, to remember my dreams. Some reputed saints of the more respectable class, to avoid public notice, wear the general dress and manners of their fellow-countrymen, and betray no love of ostentation in their acts of piety and self-denial; or live as hermits in desert places, depending solely upon Providence for their support, and are objects of pious and charitable visits from the inhabitants of near and distant places, and from casual travellers. Others distinguish themselves by the habit of a darweesh, or by other peculiarities, such as a long and loose coat (called dilḳ) composed of patches of cloth of various colours, long strings of beads hung upon the neck, a ragged turban, and a staff with shreds of cloth of different colours attached to the top; or obtain a reputation for miraculous powers by eating glass, fire, serpents, &c. Some of those who are insane, and of those who feign to be so, go about, even in crowded cities, in a state of perfect nudity, and are allowed to commit, with impunity, acts of brutal sensuality which the law, when appealed to, should punish with death. Such practices are forbidden by the religion and law even in the cases of saints; but common and deeply-rooted superstition prevents their punishment. During the occupation of Egypt by the French, the Commander-in-chief, Menou, applied to the Sheykhs (or 'Ulamà) of the city for their opinion "respecting those persons who were accustomed to go about in the streets in a state of nudity, crying out and screaming, and arrogating to themselves the dignity of wiláyeh, relied upon as saints by the generality of the people, neither performing the prayers of the Muslims nor fasting," asking whether such