156 
A CRUSADE IN THE EAST. 
join in the violent exercises of the church, were seated in re¬ 
tired places, where they bowed their heads with a slow and 
clock-like motion, and chanted a kind of hum-drum song like 
the bass notes of an organ. In front of the chief priest stood 
a row of lusty fellows, with shaven heads and nearly naked, 
who bore the heaviest part in the performance. Commenc¬ 
ing at a high key, rendered more piercing by the shrill voices 
of the little children, they screamed a sort of chant, so wild 
and unearthly that it was difficult to recognize them as 
human beings ; and the whole fraternity started into motion 
as if struck with a palsy. Gracious heavens, what a sight ! 
A menagerie of wild animals let loose would be tame to it. I 
can compare it to nothing but a bedlam of hopping and howl¬ 
ing lunatics. First on one foot, then on the other, the shaven 
heads bobbing as a schoolboy bobs his head after a dive when 
he gets a bubble in his ear ; all bobbing together, and nodding 
and jerking and jumping and hopping like gigantic puppets 
worked by secret wires; the high scream gradually lowering 
to a groan, and the groan jogging down by degrees into a 
grunt, and the grunt into a general howl, so deep and savage 
that the snarling of hyenas or the roaring of lions would 
be music to it. The lusty gang in front, work themselves 
into a phrensy; their shaven crowns jerk about at such a 
rate that one expects to see a head roll down on the floor 
every moment; their voices lose all semblance of human 
voices, and now it becomes a hoarse panting grunt from the 
pits of their stomachs, and streams of sweat roll down from 
their faces, and their scanty cotton robes hang dripping on 
their bodies. Through the wriggling, jerking mass you see a 
little howler who has hopped and howled himself out of 
breath ; his head hangs on his shoulder, his eyes rolling, and 
his tongue hanging out while he gasps for breath; an old 
priest gives him a smart crack on the pate with his knuckles, 
and he starts into motion again as if suddenly galvanized, 
and the whole fraternity of little howlers are frightened into 
a fresh fit of hopping and bobbing and yelling. Now you 
detect a sly fellow in the crowd trying to cheat people with 
the idea that he is as zealous a worshiper as any of them ; 
