he worshiper must be clean, the place free
from all impurity, and the face turned toward Mecca." And also:

"O believers! when ye address yourselves to prayer wash your hands up to
the elbows, and wipe your heads, and your feet to the ankles."

The worshipers, scattered around the vast interior, all facing the
black stone in the wall which indicates the direction of Mecca, repeated
their prayers in low tones. At first they stood with hands close at
their sides, then as they muttered the prescribed formulas the hands
were raised to the sides of the heads, then with hands clasped in front
the worshipers remained for a short time in devout attention. After
bowing several times the Moslems knelt on the Oriental rugs continuing
the muttered supplications and concluded their personal devotions by
bowing forward on their feet. The Iman, or priest, then ascended the
pulpit, the worshipers formed in lines, and as the priests read the
prayers, they went through the same movements that they had previously
made while at their personal devotions.

"Women do not take any part in the public worship on the floor of the
mosque," said the guide. "The latticed galleries are provided for them.
There they may sit in privacy during the service. The galleries,
however, are rarely occupied."

The Mosque of Ahmed has six minarets; St. Sophia, only four. The
minarets, slender, round towers, are not attached to the main edifices,
but stand separate and distinct in the courts surrounding the mosques,
with some space intervening between mosque and minaret.

Resuming our drive through the very narrow streets of Stamboul, which
are paved with large rough cobble stones once laid in place but now very
much out of place, we passed many old unpainted frame buildings with
stove pipes projecting from the windows of the second and third floors.

"I do not wish any one ill," said a tourist who at home was chief of a
city Fire Department, "but I would give a ten dollar gold piece if I
could see how the fire department of this old city manages to control or
extinguish a conflagration after it has gained headway among these
tinder boxes. The watchmen on the watch towers surely cannot locate a
fire and give the alarm until they see a smoke or flame arising."

[Illustration: CAMEL AND DONKEY WERE BEDECKED WITH TRAPPINGS.]

The fountains of the city were one of the peculiar Turkish institutions
that attracted the tourists' attention. The Koran enjoins all t