to an old man, who transferred it to the first old man to be _divided_
among them all, ten or twelve people at least, mostly blind or lame. The
poverty wrings my heart. We took leave with salaams and politeness like
the best society, and then turned into an Arab hut stuck against the
lovely arches. I stooped low under the door, and several women crowded
in. This was still poorer, for there were no mats or rags of carpet, a
still worse cooking-place, a sort of dog-kennel piled up of loose stones
to sleep in, which contained a small chest and the print of human forms
on the stone floor. It was, however, quite free from dust, and perfectly
sweet. I gave the young woman who had led me in sixpence, and here the
difference between Turk and Arab appeared. The division of this created
a perfect storm of noise, and we left the five or six Arab women
out-shrieking a whole rookery. I ought to say that no one begged at all.

_Friday_.--I went to-day on a donkey to a mosque in the bazaar, of what
we call Arabesque style, like the Alhambra, very handsome. The Kibleh
was very beautiful, and as I was admiring it Omar pulled a lemon out of
his breast and smeared it on the porphyry pillar on one side of the arch,
and then entreated me to lick it. It cures all diseases. The old man
who showed the mosque pulled eagerly at my arm to make me perform this
absurd ceremony, and I thought I should have been forced to do it. The
base of the pillar was clogged with lemon-juice. I then went to the
tombs of the Khalifah; one of the great ones had such arches and such
wondrous cupolas but all in ruins. There are scores of these noble
buildings, any one of which is a treasure, falling to decay. The next,
strange to say, was in perfect repair. I got off the donkey, and Omar
fidgeted and hesitated a little and consulted with a woman who had the
key. As there were no overshoes I pulled my boots off, and was rewarded
by seeing the footprints of Mohammed on two black stones, and a lovely
little mosque, a sort of _Sainte Chapelle_. Omar prayed with ardent