THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN Now as regards the pebbles on modern graves, a native of Barkal told me that many Sudani folk nowadays consider them to take the place of the thousand beads of the rosary, the telling of which plays such an important part among the religious rites which are performed in the houses of well-to-do folk in Cairo and other large Muhammadan cities. According to Lane, after a funeral a number of religious men go to the house of the deceased, one of them carrying a string of i,ooo beads, each as large as a pigeon's egg. When they are seated three Suras of the KurTm are recited, and a blessing on the Prophet and his companions is said three times. The words, "There is no god but God," are then said three thousand times, and after every three repetitions the man who holds the rosary passes one bead from one hand to the other. This done, all drink coffee, and two texts are repeated one hundred times, and a third text fifty times; the last three verses of Sura xxxvii. are said, and another short extract from the Kur'an is recited. Then one of the men asks his companions, " Have ye transferred [the merit of] what ye " have recited to the soul of So-and-so ? " and they reply, " We " have transferred it," adding, "And peace be on the Apostle." The performance of a ceremony of this kind in the Sudan was out of the question, for the expense incurred by it would have been prohibitive. The shekh, having seen the grave covered over, gave gifts to the poor, who were there waiting to receive them, and then men and women went to their homes. The burial of a woman in the Sudan is usually quickly performed, but those who believe in the words of the Prophet have no doubt that good women will have their portion in that part of heaven which he declared would be specially set apart for them. There, he said, old and elderly women would become maidens again, who would be free from all blemishes, and would be able to compete successfully for the affections of beatified men with the maidens of Paradise, who are created of pure musk, and live in large pearls, and have very large eyes, the black pupils of which stand out in striking contrast to the whites round them.

' " Modem Egyptians," vol. ii., p. 270.

2 The Arabic name for such a being is huriah from which is derived "/touri, the "white-eyed." In the Kur'Sn (Sura Ivi., verse 22) we have hur 'in.

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