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 an enormous congregation assembles here at 1.30 p.m. on Fridays; it is a most impressive sight to see the long lines of worshippers rising, falling, waving like corn in a hurricane. But it is still more impressive at sunset, when the Muezzins call to prayer from the minarets, after two bombs have been fired to announce the termination of the obligatory fast, and, in the gathering darkness, the murmur of prayer echoes through the gloomy domes.

In the centre of the courtyard is an ablutionary tank ; the covered mosque proper, with its three bulbous domes, lies along the western side ; and in one corner of the surrounding colonnades is a room, where are kept certain relics of Mahomed and of other saints. On a pillar in the court is engraved an old map of the world.

Daribā. — From the Jama Masjid runs a street called the Dariba, through which one column tried to gain the Jama Masjid on the day of the assault, but, being opposed by overwhelming odds, had to retire again. On either side, where this street debouches into the Chandni Chouk, are the remains of gateposts of the "Khuni Darwaza," or "bloody gate." When Nadir Shah, the Persian, entered Delhi in 1739, there was a scuffle between some of his men and the inhabitants,