Egyptians Pay Yearly Tribute To Nile God

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 16, Issue 4, 6 October 1950, Page 4

Egyptians Pay Yearly Tribute To Nile God

Egyptians have just paid their annual tribute to the Nile God in a 4000-year-old ceremony off Cairo’s Roda Island. Amid the booming of cannon and cheering crowds, the gaity-beflagged river barge Akaba took the “Bride of the Nile” upriver and dropped her off the island as the waters 1 reached their peak flood level. The “bride” is the annual gift with the Nile God is appeased when floods threaten. The ancient Egyptians offered the '•prettiest maiden they could find, but this year, as for every year in the past 13 centuries since the Arab invasion, a beautifully-dressed doll took the place of the living maiden. The ceremony is the occasion for a public holiday. Crowds line the river banks to watch and most ships in the vicinity are gaily dressed in honour of the “Cutting of the Khalig”—or “Opening of the Gulf” —as the traditional ceremony is known in Arabic. The name apparently dates back to remote times when a small earthenware dam was constructed and formally broken by the leaders of the rite. This ceremonial release of the waters was called the “Opening of the Gulf.”