t important monument of Arabian
architecture in Cairo. Seen as it was in the dull gray of early morning,
before the sun had fairly lighted the well-preserved minarets, it
presented a solemn picture of faded glory. It is quite as much in their
suggestiveness as in what they exhibit to the eye, that these decaying
monuments interest and instruct us. The mosque was erected by the
general whose name it bears, and was one of the few that escaped, five
centuries later, the fire by which the Saracens burned Cairo to prevent
its falling into the hands of the invading Christians.

Let us not forget to mention a brief visit to those strange fanatics,
the whirling dervishes, in witnessing whose singular movements one is at
a loss whether to sigh or to laugh. To the young the performance
suggests that of the circus, and until wearied of the monotony of it, is
perhaps as amusing; but to this more thoughtful observer it is
melancholy to see men so debase themselves. The ring in which these
people whirl about was full of deluded men, on the day of our visit,
self-proclaimed disciples. About twenty of them commenced at a signal to
turn rapidly about on their heels and toes, without a moment's pause,
for a period of some thirty or forty minutes, to the monotonous notes of
a fife and a sort of Chinese tom-tom, until finally their brains became
addled, and they fell to the ground in a species of trance, their active
devotion being supposed to have thus successfully terminated. The
howling dervishes, seen in another temple, form a different branch of a
similar style of worship or fanaticism; if possible, still more
senseless than that already described. The bodily motion of the howlers
is different, and is accompanied by a hoarse, disagreeable howling, like
that of a pack of half-starved wolves, except that it is done to a
certain musical accompaniment, enabling the participants to keep time,
both as to the motion of the body and the hideous noise which they make.
The motion is that of throwing the head and upper portion of the body
forward, and bringing it back with a sudden jerk, which would, under
ordinary circumstances, break a man's neck, but these creatures are used
to it. The dervishes wear their hair long, which adds to their crazy
appearance, by covering their faces with it during the jerking process,
the hair flying back and forth with each movement. What the ecstatic
point is in this ridiculous performance was not apparent, and t