for my seeing the soldiers practise, they put us off by
saying that the permission of the Emir must be asked,
and pretended that they would exercise no more during
our stay. Upon this I twitted the courtiers by telling
them that they were ashamed to let us see their soldiers,
and that I had heard how badly they were armed.
They replied that it used to be so, and that formerly
they were, a sorry lot, “ but now,” they adroitly added,
“ we have seen and learned from the Russians, as the
Russians did from the French and English.”
I was curious to be present, if possible, at the
preaching of a Muhammadan sermon at a chief function
on Friday, which is the Moslem Sabbath. Upon
inquiry, I was given to understand that the Jumma,
or Friday service, would be held a t ‘ noon in the great
mosque, which, in theory, ought to be large enough
to hold all the Mussulmans in a city. On the morning,
therefore, of the day in question, I asked to be taken,
and we sallied forth. I also wished to visit, I said,
the synagogue and the Jews’ quarter.
By this time I was fully alive to the fact that I was
not to be allowed to see too much, and I learned that,
from my continual taking of notes, I was suspected of
being a spy.* Accordingly our conductors seemed not
to be too well pleased at the idea of my seeing the
Jumma service, and were leading us off first to the
Jews’ quarter, which would have brought us to the
mosque when the service was over. I detected this,
and insisted on going at once to the other building,
and, in due time, we rode up to the great mosque
Baliand, Buland, or Kelan. T he front of it was ornamented
with glazed bricks, some of which were fallen
* A very old . suspicion attaching to strangers in the East; said
Joseph to his visitors, “ Ye are spies ” (Gen. xlii. 9).
away, so that the colouring looked worn off. Near
at hand was the tall minaret, said to be 200 feet high,
ornamented with coloured bricks inlaid in elegant
designs. It was the same that I had expressed a
wish to ascend. I now looked round the base pretty
thoroughly to see, if possible, where the entrance was
made, but I failed ; and my conductors were unwilling
to further my wishes, and, moreover, began to scheme
for keeping me from the service, by proposing that I
should go to an upper story of the Miri-arab medresse,
which faced the great mosque, and from thence look
down upon the Jumma. I counter-manoeuvred this
proposal by saying that I would ascend to the upper
parts of the medresse and see if that would do ; for I
thought, if they would not let me ascend the minaret,
I might perhaps get an extended view of the town
from the college, and so checkmate them. I went up
accordingly, but found that the view was nothing for
my purpose, since it overlooked merely the roof of the
palace and fortress, and I therefore came down at once,
saying that would not do, and, without further parley,
entered the big mosque just before the service commenced.
My conductors seemed anxious to put me
out of sight, I suppose because I was an “ infidel,”
and they would evidently have liked that, after peeping
in, I should withdraw. But I was not minded so to
do. Yakoob appeared to take sides against us, and
urged that the people would look at us, and thus lose
the benefit o f their prayers. I simply replied, “ Then
tell them not to lo o k !” This mild altercation was
going on near a corner at the back of the worshippers,
when suddenly the mullah’s voice sounded. This put
an end to all discussion, and the Emir’s men, with
Yakoob among them, went off to take their places.