Page:First Footsteps in East Africa, 1894 - Volume 1.djvu/90

44 over each shoulder to all brother Believers. The Khatib then ascends his hole in the wall, which serves for pulpit, and thence addresses us with "The peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah, and his benediction;" to which we respond through the Mu'ezzin, "And upon you be peace, and Allah's mercy!" After sundry other religious formulas and their replies, concluding with a second call to prayer, our preacher rises, and in a voice with which Sir Hudibras was wont

preaches Al-Wa'az, or the advice sermon. He sits down for a few minutes, and then, rising again, recites Al Na'at, or the Praise of the Prophet and his Companions. These are the two heads into which the Moslem discourse is divided; unfortunately, however, there is no application. Our preacher, who is also Kazi or Judge, makes several blunders in his Arabic, and he reads his sermons, a thing never done in Al-Islam, except by the modicè docti. The discourse over, our clerk, who is, if possible, worse than the curate, repeats the form of call termed Al-Ikamah: then entering the Mihrab, or niche, he recites the two-bow Friday litany, with, and in front of, the congregation. I remarked no peculiarity in the style of praying, except that all followed the practice of the Shafe'is in Al-Yaman—raising the hands for a moment, instead of letting them depend along the thighs, between the Ruka'at or bow and the Sujdah or prostration. This public prayer concluded, many people leave the mosque; a few remain for more prolonged devotions.

There is a queer kind of family likeness between this scene and that of a village church in some quiet nook