According to another ritual, barren women tie strips of cloth daubed in their menstrual blood to the nails adorning a monumental gate at the entrance to Cairo.
Associated with blood and virility, this gate was the site of a battle between Napoleon's forces and the Mamelukes who were defending the city. Legend has it that the most courageous ones impaled themselves upon the nails on the gate in order to fight on to their very last breath.
