Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1877-03-22
HOWling Dervishes.

George Augustus Sala writes from Con-
stantinOple to the London I'elegrGpb as
follows:
g found the entrance into the Howl
ers' Convent, situated in filthy black
lane, infested by dogs that seemed to have
caught something Of the spirit of their
turbulent human neighbors, for they
yelpcd more frequently and more snap
piShly than the ours of Pera-a very
gocd-natured race in the main-are apt to
do. There was the customary pOrter's
lodge in the porch of the monastery-a
Clark little hole, where q ragged bearded
Old concierge took charge of our boots. |
never thought last autumn that | should
come to the pass of having to pull off my
shOeleather in order to hear heather
Turk howl himself hoarse; but we never
know to what we may come. We are duly
indicted into the usual wooden gallery or
estrada running round three sides of a
long, low, Quadrangular apartment, the
floor laid with ragged mating There, as
Giaours, unworthy of admission to the
penetralia, we were privileged to stand
up; but, as | was in the front rank and
wished to obtain a full view of the per-
torrance, | cen squatted down on my
launches a la IarqUe.
g [ had not been five minutes in the
place before l began to understand that
there were Dervishes and Dervishes, and
that 1t was by no means necessa to wear
out the leather of ones own lungs in
howllng in order to get very good living
out OF the profession. There were, per
hals, half a. dozen Sheiks present, plump,
weh-favored, middle-aged gentlemen, in
fur-hned robes, and wearing either green
turbans or the high, conical, lambs wool
cap. | noticed that one reverend person,
age produced from time to time a hand
some, double-cased god watch, attached
to one of the buttons of his caftan by
solid gold chain, and most of his col
leagues wore on their fingers signet rings
of price. These olass-leaders, if I may
call them so, marched up and down the
matted area, chatting among themselves,
or with their hands behind their backs,
telling, in a mechanical way, so it seemed
to me, the beads in their chaplets. Bv
turns, they appeared to 90 on duty in d.
recting the movements and conducting the
suproar Of the UiatLGntes, who, whatever
may have been their actual social status,
did not, to my thinking, look like Der
wishes at all. They had much more the
appearance OF SO many tra,pps and Va
grants, lndlscriminately picked up from
the nearest gutter, or recently discharged
from the casual ward Of work
house-supposing such an appliance
OF advanced civilization TO exist in
the Ottoman Empire. There were some
eighteen in number, brawny, unwashed,
ragged vagabonds of all compilations,
from a pasty white to a deep chocolate
hue; and among them l noticed one negro
Of colossal stature, and of a deep, shiny
black. His unfawed ebony was most ar
tistically set off by his apparel, which con-
sisted solely of smock and short pair
OF drawers of white linen, grit about his
waist by faded red rag, and leaving his
broad chest and muscular arms and legs
bare. fancy that he was a Nubian, not
very long caught Anyway, he was the
life and soul of the Howlers, who stood up
IN row against the wall in the place
where the Mithrab was, or should have
been, and, following the craftsmanship of
the Sheik, recited the 'Lah-illah, which
was pronounced, by the way, 'LoI' and
ollahs The principal movement on
their parts seemed to be a violent stamp
on the ground; and, as they went up and
down, wagglng their preposterous heads.
waving their bOny arms, and bringing
down their huge feet in alternate thuds
on the ground, I could not help musing
upon the benefit they might derive from
say lalt an hours exercise every morning
on the treadmill OF an English county iaii,
with taste Of the cato -aine-tails after.
ward, just 10 equalize the circulation.