The Khatib Then Ascends His Hole In The Wall, Which Serves For
Pulpit, And Thence Addresses Us With "The Peace
Be upon you, and the mercy
of Allah, and his benediction;" to which we respond through the Muezzin,
"And upon
You be peace, and Allah's mercy!" After sundry other religious
formulas and their replies, concluding with a second call to prayer, our
preacher rises, and in the voice with which Sir Hudibras was wont
"To blaspheme custard through the nose,"
preaches El Waaz [30], or the advice-sermon. He sits down for a few
minutes, and then, rising again, recites El Naat, or the Praise of the
Prophet and his Companions. These are the two heads into which the Moslem
discourse is divided; unfortunately, however, there is no application. Our
preacher, who is also Kazi or Judge, makes several blunders in his Arabic,
and he reads his sermons, a thing never done in El Islam, except by the
_modice docti_. The discourse over, our clerk, who is, if possible, worse
than the curate, repeats the form of call termed El Ikamah; then entering
the Mihrab or niche, he recites the two-bow Friday litany, with, and in
front of, the congregation. I remarked no peculiarity in the style of
praying, except that all followed the practice of the Shafeis in El
Yemen,--raising the hands for a moment, instead of letting them depend
along the thighs, between the Rukaat or bow and the Sujdah or prostration.
This public prayer concluded, many people leave the mosque; a few remain
for more prolonged devotions.
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