orientalcairocit00sladuoft

i-o Oriental Cairo
There are night processions too, but they are much simpler ;
there is often not even a band—chanting taking its phice.
The picturesque feature is the use of the jnes/ial, a staff
with a cyh'ndrical frame of iron at its top filled with flaming
wood ;
there can be any number up to five of these cressets
on one staff. The pilgrim from Mecca and the bridegroom
on his zeffeh are alike lighted by these viesJials. There is a
still grander affair of a frame with four circular tiers of
small lamps—the top one revolving, which is used in a highclass
zeffek to the accompaniment of hautboys and drums
the favourite time being in the middle of the night. We used
to be awakened by them in Cairo itself at the back of the
Hotel Continental. And I shall have more to say about
them in the chapter on Arab domestic processions.
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