So numerous are the charms which the Egyptians employ to insure good fortune, or to prevent or remove evils of every kind, and so various are the superstitious practices to which they have recourse with these views, that a large volume would scarcely suffice to describe them in detail. These modes of endeavouring to obtain good and to avoid or dispel evil, when they are not founded upon religion or magic or astrology, are termed matters of “’ilm er-rukkeh,” or the science of the distaff (that is, of the women); which designation is given to imply their absurdity, and because women are the persons who most confide in them. This term is considered, by some, as a vulgar corruption of “’ilm er-rukyeh,” or “the science of enchantment:” by others, it is supposed to be substituted for the latter term by way of a pun. Some practices of the nature just described have already been incidentally mentioned: I shall only give a few other specimens.
It is a very common custom in Cairo to hang an aloe-plant over the door of a house; particularly over that of a new house, or over a door newly built: and this is regarded as a charm to insure long and flourishing lives to the inmates, and long continuance to the house itself.[[388]] The women also believe that the Prophet visits the house where this plant is suspended. The aloe, thus hung, without earth or water, will live for several years, and even blossom. Hence it is called “sabr,” which signifies “patience.”
When any evil is apprehended from a person, it is customary to break a piece of pottery behind his back. This is also done with the view of preventing further intercourse with such a person.
As ophthalmia is very prevalent in Egypt, the ignorant people of this country resort to many ridiculous practices of a superstitious nature for its cure. Some, for this purpose, take a piece of dried mud from the Bank of the Nile at or near Boolák, the principal port of Cairo, and, crossing the river, deposit it on the opposite bank, at Imbábeh. This is considered sufficient to insure a cure.—Others, with the same view, hang to the head-dress, over the forehead, or over the diseased eye, a Venetian sequin; but it must be one of a particular description, in which the figures on each side correspond, head to head, and feet to feet.[[389]] Yet, if a person having a Venetian sequin, or a dollar, in his pocket, enter the room of one who is suffering from ophthalmia or fever, his presence is thought to aggravate the complaint. It is also a general belief, here, that, if an individual in a state of religious uncleanness enter a room in which is a person afflicted with ophthalmia, the patient’s disease will consequently be aggravated, and that a speck will appear in one or each of his eyes. A man with whom I am acquainted has, at the time I write this, just come out of a room in which he had confined himself, while suffering from ophthalmia, for about three months, from this fear; never allowing any person to enter; his servant always placing his food outside his door. He has, however, come out with a speck in one of his eyes.
Another practice, which is often adopted in similar cases, but mostly by women, and frequently with the view of preventing barrenness, is very singular and disgusting. The large open place called the Rumeyleh, on the west of the Citadel of Cairo, is a common scene of the execution of criminals; and the decapitation of persons convicted of capital offences in the metropolis was formerly almost always performed there, rather than in any other part of the town. On the south of this place is a building called “Maghsil es-Sultán,” or the Sultán’s washing-place for the dead; where is a table of stone, upon which the body of every person who is decapitated is washed, previously to its burial, and there is a trough to receive the water, which is never poured out, but remains tainted with the blood, and fetid. Many a woman goes thither, and, for the cure of ophthalmia, or to obtain offspring, or to expedite delivery in the case of a protracted pregnancy, without speaking (for silence is deemed absolutely necessary), passes under the stone table above mentioned, with the left foot foremost, and then over it; and does this seven times; after which, she washes her face with the polluted water that is in the trough, and gives five or ten faddahs to an old man and his wife, who keep the place; then goes away, still without speaking. Men, in the case of ophthalmia, often do the same. The Maghsil is said to have been built by the famous Beybars, before he became Sultán; in consequence of his observing that the remains of persons decapitated in Cairo were often kicked about, and buried without being previously washed.
Some women step over the body of a decapitated man seven times, without speaking, to become pregnant; and some, with the same desire, dip in the blood a piece of cotton wool, of which they afterwards make use in a manner I must decline mentioning.
A ridiculous ceremony is practised for the cure of a pimple on the edge of the eye-lid, or what we commonly call a “stye,” and which is termed in Egypt “shahháteh;” a word which literally signifies “a female beggar.” The person affected with it goes to any seven women of the name of Fát’meh, in seven different houses, and begs from each of them a morsel of bread: these seven morsels constitute the remedy.—Sometimes, in a similar case, and for the same purpose, a person goes out before sunrise, and, without speaking, walks round several tombs, from right to left, which is the reverse of the regular course made in visiting tombs.—Another supposed mode of cure in a case of the same kind is, to bind a bit of cotton on the end of a stick; then to dip it in one of the troughs out of which the dogs drink in the streets of Cairo, and to wipe the eye with it. The patient is thus careful to preserve his hand from the polluted water, when he is about to apply this to another part of his person.
As an imaginary cure for ague, some of the women of Egypt (I mean those of the Muslim faith) hang to their necks the finger of a Christian or Jew, cut off a corpse, and dried. This and other practices mentioned before are striking proofs of the degrading effects of superstition, and of its powerful influence over the mind: for, in general, the Muslims are scrupulously careful to conform with that precept of their religion which requires them to abstain from everything polluting or unclean.
When a child is unable to walk, after having attained the age when it is usual to begin to do so, it is a common custom for the mother to bind its feet together with a palm-leaf tied in three knots, and to place it at the door of a mosque during the period when the congregation are engaged in performing the Friday-prayers: when the prayers are ended, she asks the first, second, and third persons who come out of the mosque to untie each a knot of the palm-leaf; and then carries the child home, confident that this ceremony will soon have the effect of enabling the little one to walk.
There are several pretended antidotes for poison, and remedies for certain diseases, to which the Egyptians often have recourse, and which may perhaps have some efficacy: but superstition attributes to them incredible virtues. The bezoar-stone is used as an antidote for poison, by rubbing it in a cup with a little water: the cup is then filled with water, which the patient drinks. In the same manner, and for the same purpose, a cup made of the horn of the rhinoceros is used: a piece of the same material (the horn) is rubbed in it.—As a cure for the jaundice, many persons in Cairo drink the water of a well in this city, called “beer el-yarakán,” or “the well of the jaundice.” It is the property of an old woman, who reaps considerable advantage from it: for it has two mouths, under one of which is a dry receptacle for anything that may be thrown down: and the old woman desires the persons who come to use the medicinal water to drop through this mouth whatever she happens to be in need of, as sugar, coffee, etc.