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2 86 Oriental Cairo
avarice, or cajoled by his flatteries and humour, has given a
piastre or two to the crier, who then moves on to the next
house.
" The adornment of the damsels, and the excitement of
the old women, and the extravagances of bachelors and
married men, find their crowning point in the festivities
of cutting the earthen dam of the canal, which takes place
on the following day. The dam has been standing ever
since the rising of the Nile, and towers to a height of some
twenty-two feet above the lowest level of the river. Some
way off in front of the dam stands a round pillar of earth,
resembling a truncated cone, which is called the ^arilsa,
or ' Bride,' on the top of which a little maize or millet is
sown. The demolition of the ' Bride of the Nile ' by
the
rising tide is a special feature in the ceremonies of the
season, and is doubtless a survival of some very ancient
superstition. The Mohammedans, however, have their own
explanation of its origin.
" It is believed that the custom of forming this \irilsa
arose from a superstitious usage, which is mentioned by
Arab authors, and among them by El-Makrizy. This
historian relates that in the year of the conquest of Egypt
by the Arabs, 'Amr ibn-El-Asy, the Arab general, was
told that the Egyptians were accustomed at the period
when the Nile began to rise to deck a young virgin in gay
apparel, and throw her into the river as a sacrifice, to ensure
a plentiful inundation. This barbarous custom, it is said,
he abolished, and the Nile, in consequence, did not rise
in the least degree during a space of nearly three months
after the usual period of the commencement of its increase.
The people were greatly alarmed, thinking that a famine
would certainly ensue. 'Amr therefore wrote to the Khalif
to inform him of what he had done, and of the calamity
with which Egypt was in consequence threatened. 'Omar
returned a brief answer, e :pressing his approbation of 'Amr's
conduct, and desiring him, upon the receipt of the letter, to
throw a note which it enclosed into the Nile. The purport
of this note was as follows : ' From
'Abd-Allah 'Omar,