6 TURKISH SOLDIER AT PRAYERS. 



knees, with his face turned, as nearly as he could 

 guess, in the direction of Mecca, going through 

 his mid-day prayers and prostrations. A Turk 

 does not like to be looked at whilst he is praying. 

 He does not mind a casual observer, and seems 

 rather gratified than otherwise at shewing that he 

 is praying; but he will avoid, if he possibly can, 

 being closely observed by a Frank, and I have 

 known other Turks stand in the way, so as to 

 prevent his movements from being too narrowly 

 watched. As it happened, we were much too hun- 

 gry to cause the least uneasiness to our friend; 

 and the sight of a Moslem at his prayers not 

 being a novelty to any one of us, he was allowed 

 to pursue his devotions, unmolested by look or 

 act as far as we were concerned. We had hardly 

 satisfied the first and most urgent demands of 

 hunger, when our attention was aroused by a 

 violent altercation, and on looking up, we found 

 the Turk in serious, loud, and earnest conversa- 

 tion with another, apparently influential, person, 

 and much better dressed than himself. We lis- 

 tened, although at the time we had not the good 

 fortune to be aware of the subject of their conver- 

 sation; but at last the soldier, apparently with 



