Note 75 — Chapter XX

The following description, extracted from the journal of my first voyage up the Nile, may amuse the reader:—

“April 8. 1832.—Our pilot afforded us a curious exhibition, although not, I believe, uncommon; but to us it was new. He pretended or believed that his saint, to whom he had been addressing his evening devotions, had entered his body, and he immediately fell into the most violent paroxysms, throwing his arms about, rolling his head, and twisting his body in a very outrageous manner: sometimes he held up his hands, and shook, as in the most dreadful convulsions, groaning most piteously, and gabbling forth all sorts of gibberish. The sailors made a circle round him, and continued making low obeisances, calling on Mahomet to assist him, for nearly two hours; they believe that, unless they did this, the saint would never leave him, and he would have probably died. The man, in his madness, seemed to have a great jealousy for his honour; one of the mariners was sleeping on board the boat, while the others were on the banks praying for them; on a sudden he darted into the boat, and, had he not been detained, would have roughly used the drowsy mariner. After all the Mahometans near him had joined the circle to pray for his recovery, he returned, by degrees, to his senses: when the fit was over, he lay for some time apparently quite exhausted. The man is remarkable at other times for the mildness of his manner, and is one of the finest looking Nubians I have seen, being above six feet high, with uncommonly handsome features. The people consider those who are thus possessed as peculiarly favoured, not one in a thousand being so fortunate. After death they are generally considered as saints, and have tombs erected to them by the government, which does this, no doubt, to gain popularity, or conciliate the people: but it is generally believed that the saint has appeared to the Pasha, ordering him to erect it.”