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RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES

The poorest household has scraped together enough to have something extra to eat, and among the rich the meal is interminable. In the afternoon every one is out again wandering hand in hand through gardens and alleys, or sitting under the palm trees chatting and smoking chiefly smoking. Toward dusk the city takes on another aspect. In the reserved quarter the streets are thronged with soldiers and nomads; the strident skirl of the raita with the beat of the tam-tam, and the dances, which have practically ceased during the fast, rebegin. It is a gay spectacle, and it makes one realize the joys of forbidden fruits. In the European quarter too the younger renegades are flocking, consuming excessive quantities of forbidden wine and beer. As the night draws on, voices are raised, some in laughter, some in song, others in anger, and it is rare for the feast to pass without several nasty knife wounds, while broken heads are numerous. After all, the fast has lasted long enough, the Ramadan must be celebrated, and he who can not contain his emotions must suffer the quick flash of the dagger or the clenched fist of the followers of the Prophet liberated from the fast. The Aïd el Kebir, which is the great feast of the year, falls two months later. On this day every one who can afford it is supposed to kill a sheep and divide it among the family. Those who are very rich kill several sheep and give them to those who can not afford it. The belief is that when the soul goes to enter paradise it will have to follow a narrow path which consists of a razor-like blade. The soul whose mortal self has killed many sheep will be met by the slaughtered ones, who apparently have no thought of reprisals, and will be carried across the knives. The gratitude of the sheep seems a little unexpected. The other feasts, such as the Birth of the Prophet,

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