CAIRO TO KISUMU Mehemet Ali, that Napoleon of Egypt, built on the Cita¬ del above Cairo. Its minarets, overlooking the Nile valley, the great deserts and the vast city of Cairo, blazed with light, and from them the cry of the muezzins sounded shrill on the dusky air: “Allah is great! There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is the Prophet of Allah! Come to worship! Allah is great! There is no God but Allah \” As this call reverberated through the city, Moham¬ medans of all classes started for the Citadel. Some came in magnificent turnouts, bare-legged, gaudily dressed syces with wands in their hands running in front of them to clear the way. Some came upon donkeys. Some moved along in groups of three or four on foot. The Khedive came with the rest, soldiers with drawn swords going in front of his carriage and a retinue of cavalry following behind.

The Alabaster Mosque covers many acres. It has a paved marble court, as big as a good-sized field, around which are cloisters. This is roofed with the sky, and in the midst of it is a great marble fountain where the worshippers bathe their feet and hands before they go in to pray. The mosque is at the back of this court, facing Mecca. Its many domes rise to a great height and its minarets seem to pierce the sky. It is built of alabaster, but its exterior has become worn and pitted by the sands of the desert, which have been blown against its walls until it has nothing of the grandeur which it must have shown when its founder worshipped within it.

The interior, however, was wonderfully beautiful that night, when its gorgeous decorations were shown off by the thousands of lights of this great service. Under the gas-44