A WEIRD SPECTACLE. 11 



followed was absolutely weird. Swaying their bodies 

 frantically backwards and forwards to a common centre, 

 they gasped out the words of some sacred formula. 

 The hands of the clock moved slowly round, but the 

 movement and refrain of that weird circle never ceased. 

 From time to time fresh figures appeared mysteriously 

 out of the night to enlarge the circle. Their arrival 

 was hardly noticeable ; one only saw from time to time 

 that the circle had increased. Seated in one corner of 

 the mosque, I became hypnotised as I gazed fascinated 

 at the ceaseless movement and listened to the mono- 

 tonous refrain gasped out in jerks by its frenzied 

 utterers. So great was the effect it had upon one's 

 senses that when at length, with no word of warning, 

 both sound and movement suddenly ceased, it seemed as 

 though the world itself must have suddenly halted in 

 its course. An interval followed, during which ex- 

 hortations were read, rich in the flowery hyperbole of 

 the East, until stalwart bearded men sobbed and 

 groaned aloud under stress of their emotion. For 

 an hour or more full play was given them, and then 

 as the last speaker ceased the mysterious circle was 

 formed once more. 



Looking back as I left towards midnight, it was to 

 see the devotees working themselves up with the same 

 monotonous repetition to a state of ecstatic exaltation 

 once again. I have seen the howling dervishes at 

 Cairo, and realised as I watched that their performance 

 was for show. This was something different — it was 

 real. As far as we knew, no European had been 

 present there before. Our presence was tolerated, but 

 considered of no account. We were given a glimpse of 

 the strange soul of a people, and as I drove home in the 

 starlight and pondered on what I had seen, I thought I 

 understood why it was that there were even now those 



