3o6 thi (he Origin of the Egyptimi ZarT
One ni[^ht at Kodok I was attracted by the sound of drums and rebdba to the married quarters of a company of the Sudanese Battalion. This company was composed ahnost entirely of old negroes of various tribes, prisoners from the Khalifa's forces, enlisted at the time of the British occupation, who had since then forgotten their tribal divisions and languages. The younger m.embers had never even known a tribal restriction, and the old folk must have passed through many vicissitudes before they settled down to the ordinary monotony of barrack life. Hence it is not sur- prising that the spirits invoked were a miscellaneous band, in this contrasting sharply with another ::dr to be described later.
A group of some twenty persons was collected outside a hut, an old man played a rebdba and a few others accom- panied him with rattles. An aged negress, the Sheykha in charge of the ceremony, wore round her waist a belt about nine inches deep entirely covered with sheep's hoofs which were sewn on to it, and made a rattling sound as she moved. They were the relics of the sacrifices offered at zdr over which she had presided. Near the hut were grouped the properties of the zdr, a couple of flags with Arabic names ^ written on them, and one of red velvet with a Coptic cross in yellow cloth sewn on it ; besides these were sticks and fly whisks decorated with beads and several pots containing incense and various scents. The flag with the Coptic cross had evidently been copied from a church, the velvet being of the kind usually used in church decorations. According to the Sheykha it belonged to a Christian spirit called Silisilia (. St. Cecilia), who had possessed a woman in the battalion, and had been made according to the directions which the spirit gave during a zdr. Under the bright tropical moon the faces of the little group could be clearly seen ; there was no unusual excitement among them, yet,
- At that time I was unable to read Arabic, and the Sheykha said that they
belonged to specially dangerous spirits, whose names could not be mentioned.
