The equivalent Arabic word is "fakir." They are different from the ulemas, being a religious order, but there are various numbers of these dervishes or fakirs belonging to no society, who are simply mendicants or devotees, existing by professional jugglery throughout Turkey, Egypt, Persia, Hindustan, and Central Asia. There are numerous classes of them among the Buddhists as well as among the Moslems. boast of the saying of the prophet "Poverty is my pride."

They

430. At Prayer.-These various postures in prayer run into fanatical extremes, and have developed certain Oriental holy men, known as dervishes. There are several classes, the dancing, whirling, and howling kind. They wander over the country, and exhibit their exercise on Fridays (the Moslem Sunday) in the open air or in halls, attracting persons of all classes and all lands to see them. Mr. Basmajian, a native Armenian, describes the howling class as consisting of a score of holy men, who begin by a most slow motion, shouting the name of God so wildly that their voices lose all semblance of human sound. When thoroughly excited, streams of sweat roll down their faces, their eyes roll, their tongues hang out, while they gasp for breath; their chins fall loosely on their breasts, their hands hang from their shoulders, and they become motionless. After a few minutes of deep silence, a sobbing is heard, which swells and spreads, till the whole company of dervishes is sobbing, and the sobs deepen into a low cry, and the low cry into a wild burst of grief. Tears roll down their faces and the breasts of the sobbing crowd are wet with weeping.1

431. Beggar Dervishes.-Van Lennep tells of the beggar class of dervishes, who claim charity as a right, and are the most impudent beggars in the world, inviting themselves into the houses, and at the tables of the rich, who dare not be rude to them for fear of the common people, who venerate them. They are usually filthy, covered with rags. They often carry odd and strange articles to draw attention, such as the bone

1 Religious and Social Life in the Orient, Basmajian, p. 122.

of a sawfish. During battles in war time these dervishes follow the army like a pack of hyenas, killing and plundering those of the enemy left wounded upon the field. They are proud of some unusual article of dress, like a curious cap or fez. They carry a steel rod, about two feet long, with a curved cross-piece at one end, on which they rest in sleeping, especially if they have made a vow not to lie down during the month of Ramadan. Or they wear a leopard's skin, like the ancient Egyptian priests. Probably some of the false prophets among the Hebrews were of this class of begging dervishes.1

432. Howling Dervishes.-Van Lennep describes the howling dervishes which he saw, who commonly met on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the evening. They would sit upon the floor in a circle, the chief having a little mattress, slightly raised above the rest. They began their devotions by chanting and recitations, pronouncing ninety times each of the ninety-nine names of the deity, bowing the head every time, while the chief counted the numbers on a long string of beads. As they go on they become more and more excited, bowing lower and lower, until they come to the last and greatest name, "Hoo." Then they spring to their feet, hold each other's hands, and begin to dance in a circle in a most frantic manner, bending their bodies double, then raising them, and bending them backward, crying in unison, "Hoo, hoo." Soon they pull off their upper garments, leaving their chests bare, drop their caps or turbans, and as they never shave their heads nor cut their hair, their locks now fly loosely about their faces and shoulders. Some one outside the circle strikes the timbrel, beating time, which adds to the excitement. The devotees . perspire at every pore, their cries grow frantic, but ere long they faint with exhaustion; the sound gradually dies away in a groan, until they drop one by one, apparently more dead than alive, as if they had fallen in a fit.

433. "Dancing" Dervishes.-The Old Testament has allusions to scenes something like this in religious services, which

1 See 1 Kings 22: 12.

1

are designated as dancing. These modern dervishes also have other fanatical performances, calling upon God, and cutting themselves with knives and swords so that the blood runs, piercing their nearly naked bodies with wooden or iron spikes, from which they hang small mirrors. Exhausted with pain and loss of blood, they faint away. Thus, the priests of Baal called out and cut themselves in the scene at Mt. Carmel when contending with Elijah." The Hebrew seemed to have been carried away with this excitement, though it was expressly forbidden by the Mosaic law.3 Van Lennep would trace some resemblance between the modern dervish association and the early schools of the prophets over which Samuel presided, but this is open to question.*

434. Mystics.-The orders of dervishes are supposed to have sprung from a class of mystics who were followers of the prophet. They sprang up about the twelfth century. At first it is said that great thinkers and poets, particularly among the Persians, joined this movement, but the dervishes have degenerated now. The soul of the early movement is gone, and nothing remains but the external mechanism of worship, the throwing of one's self into ecstasy, and rendering the body insusceptible to external impressions. The Orientals, however, venerate these dervishes just as they do insane persons, and by some they are reputed to be able to work miracles."

1 See 1 Sam. 10: 5, 6; 19: 23, 24. See Jer. 415 compared with Lev. 19: 28 and For a full graphic description of the various "Modern Egyptians."

1 Kings 18: 28 ff. Deut. 14 1.

classes of dervishes, see E. W. Lane, •See Baedeker's Palestine. p. 72.

XXXVII.

OFFERINGS AND SACRIFICES.

435. Votive Offerings.-Offerings, sacrifices, and votive gifts were, and are still, common to all Oriental religions. The origin of this custom is hidden in obscurity. They were doubtless prompted by a divinely planted impulse in the human soul to recover lost friendship with God. Covenants, vows, offerings, sacrifices, and votive gifts are only different expressions of man's desire to put himself right with God. The offering or sacrifice seemed a fitting seal to a covenant of peace and friendship. Such a contract seemed to call for an added assurance, a solemn oath or attestation indicating that it would be religiously kept. The idea was deeply ingrained in the Oriental mind that the gods as well as kings are influenced by offerings and sacrifices. Homer thus represents his heroes

and divinities.

436. Thanksgiving.-In the early dawn of human history votive offerings were made out of gratitude. Thus, the ancestors of the Greek, made such offerings as a form of thanks for protection. In successful war the spoils were often given as votive offerings for the success. Similar expressions, called votive tablets, were put up in the temples for success in war, recovery from sickness, escape from peril by sea, or for any remarkable prosperity or rescue in adversity. The Hebrew had a rule not to appear before Jehovah empty handed.1

437. Of Fruits, etc.-Early sacrifices in the Orient were, for the most part, of fruits, grain, and later, of flocks and herds. The earlier races do not seem to have had a keen sense of sin or any fixed standard of virtue. The distinctions between right and wrong were not marked, or very thin. In India sacrifices of animals among Buddhists were not practiced, no trees were cut down, but libations of milk, oil, and honey

1 See Ex. 23: 15.

were offered.

In China and Eastern Asia the animals sacrificed were those used for food, as cows, sheep, hares, deer, and pigs. They were slain on the east side of the altar. The hair and blood were buried, possibly for the use of the spirits of the earth; the dead ancestors were invited to the feasts.

In the Acadian times there is a legend in which it is said that the father was required to give the life of his child for the sin of his soul-child's head for his head, child's neck for his neck, child's breast for his breast.

438. In India.-Many modern religious customs, the possible survival of ancient forms, are still current in Oriental lands. Thus, Dr. Allen tells of tribes in northern Madras, a province of India, who offer sacrifices of men and animals to the great earth goddess. She was believed to be the goddess of the seasons, sending rain, causing seed to grow, fields to be fruitful or barren, people to be in health or sick, just as it pleased her. There was no image made of her nor any temple built to her. Nor was she conceived of as having a fixed bodily form. She was thought to be able to assume any form at pleasure.

439. Vicarious.-The idea of vicarious sacrifice and suffering is strongly entrenched in the Oriental mind. All forms of offices and crimes are included in this idea. Even a human life can be thus paid for by some sort of vicarious sacrifice, either in money or some other form of substitutionary recompense. This illustrates the substitution of an animal for a human life, as in the case of Abraham offering a ram for his son Isaac.1 These peculiar offerings, that is, the demand of a life sacrifice, to atone for some offense or act that had broken friendship, are widespread among all Oriental religions. The life of the animal was substituted in place of the life of the owner, as shown also by putting hands on the animal.2

440. To Saints.-Burckhardt tells us that sacrifices in honor

1 Gen. 22 1-13.

2 Compare Gen. 4: 4 with 22: 2-14; Lev. 4: 4, 15, 24, 29, 33; 16: 21; Deut. 21: 6.