A NIGHT ADVENTURE. 101 an Effendi who has just arrived, and must visit the mollahs to-night ; admit him and fear nothing." The men thereupon conducted us to another gate and threw a few pebbles against the window above it. A woman's voice replied, and presently the bolts were undrawn and we entered. By this time the dervishes had ceased their bowlings, and every thing was as still as death. We walked for half an hour through the deserted streets, visited the niosques and public buildings, and heard no sound but our own steps. It was a strangely interesting promenade, The Arabs, armed with clubs, carried a paper lantern, which flickered redly on the arches and courts we passed through. My trusty Theban walked by my side, and took all possible trouble to find the retreat of the dervishes— but in vain. We passed out through the gate, which was instantly locked behind us, and had barely reached our vessel, when the unearthly song of the Moslem priests, louder and wilder than ever, came to our ears.

The prejudice of the Mohammedans against the Christians is wearing away with their familiarity with the Frank dress and their adoption of Frankisk vices. The Prophet's injunction against wine is heeded by few of his followers, or avoided by drinking araJcee, a liquor distilled from dates and often flavored with hemp. Their conscience is generally satisfied with a pilgrimage to Mecca and the daily performance of the prescribed prayers, though the latter is often neglected. All of my sailors were very punctual in this respect, spreading their carpets on the forward deck, and occupying an hour or two every day with genuflexions, prostrations, and salutations toward Mecca, the direction of which they never lost, notwithstanding the windings of the Nile. In the cathedrals of Chris*