THROUGH WILD EUROPE 251 



as she is concerned you don't exist at all, and it is 

 quite impossible to help her in any way. But if the 

 Mohammedan woman is a more or less helpless and 

 ridiculous object, the man, especially when seen at 

 his prayers, is an impressive figure. One can't help 

 realizing that his religion is very real to him — one 

 to live for and, if necessary, to die for. At the 

 appointed hour for prayer, wherever he may be, he 

 goes through the long series of genuflexions and 

 prostrations enjoined by the Koran, so perfectly 

 absorbed in his devotions as to be oblivious to his 

 surroundings, and it makes no difference to him 

 whether he is in the midst of curious unbelievers, 

 or in the circle of his own family and faith. 



A large proportion of my visitors were beggars, 

 and amongst their number was a certain ragged and 

 dilapidated Turk whom I seemed fated to meet 

 wherever I went. I had seen him first at Durazzo, 

 where he used to turn up periodically and wheedle 



money out of B . I had met him again at 



Scutari, where he had made himself useful to me 

 in one or two small employments ; again he had 

 accosted me at Vir-pazar, and now one day he was 

 ushered into my room in Dulcigno. I knew his 

 errand perfectly well as soon as I saw him. He 

 was always, according to his own account, starving, 

 after just having walked from some distant town, 

 generally from wherever I had seen him last. If 



