Their appearance put to flight the whole company of juvenile actors, who got off, however, with some tumbles over each other through the narrow doorway, except the circumcised one, who being caught by Shurmalkee’s slave, Abdullah, got a few cuffs upon the head, and a kick or two behind, with a polite request that he should convey them to the mock Kadee, as part payment of his expenses on the occasion. I took a note of this as it afforded me an opportunity of completing the account of the ceremonials of the Mahomedan religion by Burckhardt, all of which, excepting the circumcision, and which, by the by, he must have submitted to, he has so admirably described. Without compromising myself, I had an opportunity in this farce of witnessing the principal features of the first necessary step of Mahomedan proselytism, as performed according to law. I frequently observed a religious ceremony that seemed to be a spontaneous outbreak of religious fervour on the part of individuals, rather than a generally recognised portion of their devotions. Towards evening, a large circle of some twenty or thirty men would commence a loud and long-continued repetition of the word Allah, for nearly a quarter of an hour; and then being served, each drank a small cup of coffee, whilst one of their number, with an open Koran on the ground before him, read a portion of one of the chapters, at the termination of which would commence again the calling upon the name of Allah, rocking themselves backwards and forwards in the most violent manner until nearly exhausted, when another supply of coffee being ready, and a portion of the Koran read as before, they prepared themselves for another bout of the vociferation. This they called a zekar, and would sometimes keep it up the whole night, much to the disturbance of their less devout neighbours. The Dankalli women are greater apparent devotees of Islamism than those of any other eastern country I visited. Continually, whilst at work, they chant some sacred passages of the Koran, or assemble in each other’s houses to join in domestic zekars; and here I must observe, that though somewhat attempted on the part of the Sultaun’s family, from an affectation of Arab customs, the women are not precluded, except by their own feelings of propriety, from the freest intercourse with the men. In their judicial proceedings, they affect to be directed entirely by the law of the Koran, and have a very quiet fat old Kadee, who superintends marriages, circumcisions, and other civil and religious ceremonies; but from what I could learn from a conversation held by Mr. Cruttenden with Cassim, very summary proceedings sometimes characterize their administration of justice.