Page:H. D. Traill - From Cairo to the Soudan Frontier.djvu/262

 undistinguished appearance and of a stoutness beyond his years, steps forth from the entrance porch, divests himself of his slippers in the midst of salaaming satellites, and, entering his brougham, drives rapidly away. Then the crowding sightseers push and jostle towards the doorway, and, gradually squeezing through it, flow wide, like water suddenly liberated from a conduit, over the spacious floor within.

Large as is the concourse of people who have poured into the building, they are scarcely more than enough to dot the vast area of the great mosque with a mere score or so of scattered groups. There is space and to spare between them for the eye to gratify itself with the rich warm hues of the immense carpets, gifts of successive Khedives to the sacred foundation, and among the finest and most splendid fabrics that Eastern looms have ever produced. The hundreds of chandeliers dependent from the lofty roof, and never lighted save now and during the