Page:H. D. Traill - From Cairo to the Soudan Frontier.djvu/263

 Ramadán, have converted the whole huge cupola into one great constellation, dissolving its upper glooms into a luminous mist and bathing its lower walls and pillars of grained and gleaming alabaster in softest radiance. The effect is magnificent beyond conception, though as little devotional as can well be imagined. To the eye of an unbeliever it might seem to be rather an Aladdin's palace than a house of prayer. It is to the ear alone that the character either of the place or of the people reveals itself; and it is to the groups of seated figures from whom the "noise of worship" proceeds that the curious direct their steps.

The comparatively staid and unemotional worshippers—the little batches of Arabs ten or twelve strong who are reciting verses of the Koran in a low monotone or crooning responses after the professional "reader" who has come to the aid of their illiteracy—collect but scanty audiences. The chief centre of attraction lies elsewhere. It is to