A FAXTASIE. 281 attire, the arms and necks of tlie women being covered with rings and chains and bead ornaments.

Fresh pats of butter had been put on their heads, and, beginning to melt, the grease was running down their raven locks in milky streams, and falling on their shoulders in glistening drops. This practice of anointino: themselves with butter is said to be a protection from the fierce heat of the sun, and is useful as well as ornamental. The men were drinking large jars of merissa, and the air was filled with songs and shouts, whilst some of the feasters uttered again and again the piercing zaglidreti noticeable among all Arabs, and also among at least two negro tribes. In 'Modern Egyptians,' Lane says, vol. i.

p. 207, note 2, " the sound is produced by a sharp utterance of the voice, accompanied by a quick tremulous motion of the tongue."

The dancing here was difi'erent to that farther south. The men and women formed two double lines facing each other, and kept up a jumping step in time to the music of the tom-toms and rababahs (native harps). Every now and then a man or woman sprang forward, and engaged a friend from the opposite line ; they placed themselves a few feet apart, and then jumped up alternately until the woman was tired; when she would suddenly stop short, and throwing her body forward and her head down, she would let her mass of greasy hair fall smartly on the breast of her partner. On such