A pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and ...

WEDDING PROCESSIONS. 87
meiiiaii, and a near relative of the Viceroy's
Prime Minister, Artim Bey), and that as he
had been educated in England, he knows how
everything ought to be done, and from his judg-
ment in matters of taste there is no appcah
On the evening of that day I met Hakkakin
Bey at the house of our Consul-General, Colo-
nel Barnett, and before 1 became aware of his
identity, had been betrayed into criticising some
of the embellishments under his superintendence.
He appears a most gentlemanly, well-bred man,
and speaks English perfectly, having been edu-
cated at Oxford.
While I am on the subject of weddings, I
must tell you that yesterday we met no less
than three marriage-processions in the streets,
—that is to say, the procession in which the
bride, accompanied by all her female friends,
walks through the principal thoroughfares of the
city, before she is taken to the bridegroom's
house, and in which the bridegroom himself
and his male relatives take no part. In Cairo
this pageant is generally taken advantage of
to celebrate another rite, that of the circum-
cision of any male in the family who may have
attained the age prescribed by the Mahometan
religion (eight or nine years) for the ])erforin-