MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
157 
but you can plainly see that he is an impostor or a backslid¬ 
er ; he only hops once in a while, when he thinks he is noticed, 
and howls so faintly that nobody can hear him, and, as to the 
jerking of his head, it is the mere nodding of a head in the 
act of taking a private nap, and requires no exertion except 
to keep up a show of wakefulness. Old men with long griz¬ 
zled beards sway to and fro, unable to hop, and too short of 
breath to howl; but they keep up a bass growl, and with 
their deep blood-shot eyes and the restless swaying of the 
head, look not unlike polar bears standing upright. Still 
older men, unable to stand at all, sit upon their mats and 
sway and growl in concert. At last the voices have been 
jogged out of the sturdiest worshipers ; nothing is heard but 
the husky grating of the breath in the throat, and the hur¬ 
ried panting for air; and finally their chins fall loosely on 
their breasts, their tongues loll out, and all become motionless 
as statues. The chief priest thereupon makes a prayer, to 
which the most devout attention is paid. Not a whisper is 
heard till the prayer is concluded. For a moment a dead si¬ 
lence prevails. The whole congregation 2md all the worship¬ 
ers are mute and motionless. It is a most impressive pic¬ 
ture of rapt devotion. Barbarous the scene may be, but not 
devoid of solemnity. And now a low sobbing is heard 
around the hall of worship—so low at first that it seems to 
come from spirits in the air; gradually it swells and spreads 
around till the whole crowd of dervishes are sobbing, and the 
sobs deepen into a low crying, and the low crying into a wild 
burst of grief, swelling and winding around the hall like a 
funeral wail. From every eye the big tears roll down, and 
the faces and breasts of the sobbing crowd are wet with 
weeping. So strong, indeed, is the influence of the melting 
mood, that the wife of my Portuguese friend, who stood near 
me, covered her face with her handkerchief, and I verily be¬ 
lieve cried as hard as any of them. It was the most earnest 
crying I ever witnessed—so like natural weeping that I be¬ 
gan at length to feel moist about the eyes myself, and never 
in my life did I come so near bursting out into a regular cry. 
Five minutes more would have done it; for, however ridicu- 
