Page:Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened.djvu/57

Rh the minarets, and at the same time frightening them by shooting fire-arms towards the skies and making all kinds of noises, by which the Turk succeeds every time in saving the poor moon from being swallowed.

Some of these evil spirits walk upon the earth, mostly among the graves and solitary caves. Some nights they take the appearance of a wrapped dead body and walk around to terrify innocent people. The public baths and the Christian churches are their especial gathering places by night, where, by horrible snorings, ugly laughters, hateful gesture, and dreadful dances they amuse themselves until the dawn of the day. Some of them are so ugly that when they laugh the lower lips rest upon the earth and the upper lips reach the stars.

The Size of the Angels. Angels exist in different sizes. Some are so small that 10,000 of them dwell upon a single hair of the Moslem's beard, and some are so large that their wings, when opened, reach from east to west, and some are still larger as to swallow all the water on the earth with a single gulp. Certain angels have certain services under the administration of Allah. Some are messengers, some guides, others clerks (to write the good and evil deeds of mankind and copy them in the heavenly register); others porters to carry dead bodies from one cemetery to the other; some are "soul takers," some are guardians of hell, etc. The space between the earth and God's dwelling place is a journey of fifty thousand years, which the angels perform in one day over the celestial stairs.