bodies, and shout "Allah" each time they do so, or they kneel for long periods and proclaim their belief in Allah and his Prophet Muhammad. After a time, when they have worked themselves up to the pitch of frenzy necessary, they keep shouting "Hu," i.e., HE, that is, GOD. It is this exclamation which has caused certain travellers to describe them as "Barking Dervishes." In Egypt, as in all Muslîm countries, the number of orders of dervishes is legion; new ones spring up each generation, and others disappear. The profession of dervish is followed by many beggars, who succeed in obtaining a good livelihood from the well-to-do and benevolent Muḥammadans, who have usually a kindly feeling for the wandering poor. In the first half of the XIXth century there might often be seen in Cairo and Tanțâ dervishes who were considered to be specially holy on account of pilgrimages which they had performed with great labour to the shrines of certain Muḥammadan saints. Some would visit Karbala, where the descendants of 'Alî are specially venerated, not by walking or riding there in the ordinary way, but by lying down at full length on the ground and getting upright on their feet many thousands of times until they had literally measured the whole way, from the place where they started to their destination, with their bodies. Others would shout "Hu," i.e., He, that is, God, so many times a minute from sunrise to sunset, for months or years at a time.

Comparative Table of the Muḥammadan and

Christian Eras.

The era in use among the Arabs is that of the Hijrah, or "Flight," and should be reckoned from Friday, June 20th, A.D. 622, i.e., the day after Muḥammad the Prophet fled from Mecca to Madînah. Modern Arab writers, however, make this era begin on July 16, 622. As in most works dealing with the Muḥammadan section of the history of Egypt the dates given are those of the Hijrah, the following table giving the Christian era equivalents of a number of years of the Arab era will be useful :

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