Mysteries of the Libyan Desert

by W. J. Harding King

Behind him followed a man beating a drum of the kind known in Egypt as the tabl beladi, beside him walked a blind man clashing cymbals (kas). Then followed a crowd of the friends and relations of the bride.

The bride herself, unlike those of the Nile Valley, does not wear her wedding dress. This is borne behind her, held above the heads of the procession so that all can see it, by being supported on a couple of sticks lashed together to form a cross. She herself wears an ordinary robe, and a shawl, usually red or of a bright colour, on her head.

The gala dress worn by the women of these oases differs somewhat from that usually worn by the women of Egypt. It is generally either black or of a very dark blue, and is worked on the front in coloured wools—usually red and yellow—in a sort of “herring-bone” pattern. The richer women usually cover a great part of the front of their dress, down to rather below the waist, with silvered sequins sewn closely together on to the material of which the dress is composed, producing an effect much resembling old scale mail.

Their hair usually hangs down their backs in three or four long plaits, which are frequently decorated at the end with strings of beads.

Another peculiarity of the wedding ceremonies in the oases, is that the bride’s gahaz, that is to say the articles contributed by her to the joint household, are not, as in the case of the Egyptians, sent to her future home in a separate procession, but are borne in the Zeffet el Arusa. In the case of a rich bride these may consist of tea and coffee cups, a huge kind of brass urn, not unlike the Russian samovar, for heating water when making tea, and a brass tray. These will be carried by one of her male friends on the tray in the procession.

But in the majority of cases, amongst these poverty-stricken people, the bride’s gahaz only consists of a few bowls and water bottles, made of the local terra-cotta, and in that case they are carried on a stool, which the bride herself places on the top of her head when she walks in the procession, to her future husband’s house. This stool perhaps corresponds to the canopy under which the bride walks in the Egyptian villages, or possibly it may be the representation of the chair for the bridegroom to place his turban on, that Lane mentions as usually forming one of the articles of the bride’s gahaz.

Two large flags, generally green in colour and covered with suitable texts, are usually carried in the procession, which also includes some male relations of the bride armed with guns, which they blaze off at frequent intervals as it advances. At the rear of the zaffeh is frequently a man beating a tar, or tambourine, and a boy dressed all in white and riding on a horse, who has been introduced into the zaffeh to save the expense of a separate circumcision procession for him alone.

The zaffeh is followed by a feast at the bridegroom’s house, after which the guests all offer presents, usually in the form of money, to the bride. During this entertainment there is the usual native band playing and sometimes a dancing girl performs—but this is only in the case of the richer natives. Among the poorer ones, that is to say a large majority of cases, there is no music or dancing, and sometimes even no feast or presents.

The funeral procession to the grave presents some features not to be seen, so far as I am aware, in the Nile Valley. While I was staying in the Dakhla Oasis, quite a sensation was caused by the death of the guardian of a sheykh’s tomb in the district, and I subsequently saw his funeral procession, which much resembled that of a bride going to her future home. The buffoon at the head of it was of course absent, but instead of the usual group of chanting men to be seen in Egypt, there were the same men as in the case of a wedding, beating drums and cymbals. These were followed by male friends of the deceased, and the same flags that figured in the bride’s procession. Behind them came the bier, covered with a shawl, after which followed the usual crowd of wailing women, the rear being brought up by a woman carrying a tray covered by a cloth, containing bread and dates for distribution to the poor after the ceremony.

After the funeral, the female portion of the procession, accompanied by the drum and cymbals, formed up again and returned to the house of the deceased guardian in a sort of slow dance, occasionally emitting short, shrill shrieks of the usual type.