84 



THE MOSQUE. 



matted floors; the flat roofs are supported by 

 dwarf rows of square piers and polygonal 

 columns ; whilst Saracenic arches, broad, pointed, 

 and lanceated, and windows low-placed for con- 

 venience of expectoration, with inner emargina- 

 tions in the normal shape of scallops or cres- 

 cents, divide the interior. Two Shafei mosques, 

 one called after Mohammed Abd el Kadir, the 

 other from Mohammed el Aughan (Afghan), 

 have minarets, dwindled turrets like the steeples 

 of Brazilian villages ; another boasts of a diminu- 

 tive cone, most like an Egyptian pigeon-tower ; 

 and a fourth has a dwarf excrescence, suggesting 

 the lantern of a light-house. The Shiahs, who 

 are numerous, meet for prayer in the Kipondah 

 quarter, and the Kojahs have a ruined mosque 

 outside the city. 



The best houses are on the Arab plan familiar 

 to travellers in Ebro-land and her colonies. The 

 type has extended to France and even to Galway, 

 where we still find it in the oldest buildings. A 

 dark narrow entrance leads from the street, and 

 the centre of the tenements is a hyp'aethral quad- 

 rangle, the Iberian Patio or Quintal. "We miss, 

 however, the shady trees, the sweet flowers, and 

 bright verdure with which the southern Euro- 

 pean and the Hispano- American beautify their 



