Page:"Round the world." - Letters from Japan, China, India, and Egypt (IA roundworldletter00fogg 0).pdf/274

 me in charge and points to my boots, which T understand to mean, “Put off thy shoes from off thy feet for the place whereon thon standest is holy ground.” I give him a franc, and he brings a pair of large, loose slippers avhich he ties on over my boots. Shade of the prophet! how degenerate have we be- come ju these latter days! An unbelieving dog of 4 Frank enters the holy precincts with his boots ou. A circular marble eol- lonatle eneloses the large eourtyard into which we first came. In the center is a fountaiu of inerble, elegently earved, where the faithful, having left their slippers out- ride, wash their feet before entering ihe suered inosque to perform their devotions.

Standing beneath the grand dome, which 1s of heautiful ained glass, the walls and pillars of variegated marble, with hundreds of lawnps and chandeliers of fice erystal over- head, the ef¥eet was most impressive. A “dim veligious light,” in strong contrast with the noonday glare without, pervaded the intevior, ‘Che marble floor was eovered will Persian carpets, on witich a crowd of worshippers were kneeling, all facing toward Mecea, and muttering prayers, while at reg- ular intervals they reyerently bumped theiy foreheads on the ground, Some of them glanced scowlingly at me, but FE knew the old priest, in yiew of the expeeted bak. sheesh, would not let me eome to grief. In one corner, protected by a serecn of gilt lattiee work, was the tomb of the builder of the mosque, Mohamet Al. In the midst of all this magnificenee, where mar- ble and gold, exystal and precions stones had lseen lavished without stint, I was surprised ab hewting the twittering of Jumdreds of sparrows thal seemed quite at home in the’ cool and quiet interior of the mosyue. They were fiying all around under the dome, and their chirping could be heard above the murmuring of the fuithful kneeling on the Noor below. How meh more acceptabie to the Almighty were their yoices of praise than the mummery of the ignorant and silperstitiovs crowd beueath.

This mosque, upon which immense sums of money have been spent, with its stained glass und somewhat gaudy decorations, bears little resemblance to these beautiful tem- ples ere the Moslem conquerors of India, There the lightness and ele- gance of Savacenic architecture have united with most wonderful skill in carving the pure white marble; and the “Pearl Mosques” of Aera and Delhi seem intin- itely superior in henuty nid simplicity to