ied out
into the streets. Every minaret in the city blazed with a crown of lighted
lamps around its upper gallery, while the long shafts below, and the
tapering cones above, topped with brazen crescents, shone fair in the
moonlight. It was a strange, brilliant spectacle. In the square before the
principal mosque we found a crowd of persons frolicking around the
fountain, in the light of a number of torches on poles planted in the
ground. Mats were spread on the stones, and rows of Turks of all classes
sat thereon, smoking their pipes. Large earthen water-jars stood here and
there, and the people drank so often and so long that they seemed
determined to provide against the morrow. The boys were having their
amusement in wrestling, shouting and firing off squibs, which they threw
into the crowd. We kicked off our slippers, sat down among the Turks,
smoked a narghileh, drank a cup of coffee and an iced sherbet of raisin
juice, and so enjoyed the Ramazan as well as the best of them.

Numbers of True Believers were drinking and washing themselves at the
picturesque fountain, and just as we rose to depart, the voice of a
boy-muezzin, on one of the tallest minarets, sent down a musical call to
prayer. Immediately the boys left off their sports and started on a run
for the great mosque, and the grave, gray-bearded Turks got up from the
mats, shoved on their slippers, and marched after them. We followed,
getting a glimpse of the illuminated interior of the building, as we
passed; but the oda-bashi conducted us still further, to a smaller though
more beautiful mosque, surrounded with a garden-court. It was a truly
magical picture. We entered the gate, and passed on by a marble pavement,
under trees and arbors of vines that almost shut out the moonlight, to a
paved space, in the centre whereof was a beautiful fountain, in the purest
Saracenic style. Its heavy, projecting cornices and tall pyramidal roof
rested on a circle of elegant arches, surrounding a marble structure,
whence the water gushed forth in a dozen sparkling streams. On three sides
it was inclosed by the moonlit trees and arbors; on the fourth by the
outer corridor of the mosque, the door of entrance being exactly opposite.

Large numbers of persons were washing their hands and feet at the
fountain, after which they entered and knelt on the floor. We stood
unobserved in the corridor, and looked in on the splendidly illuminated
interior and the crowd at prayer, all be