The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-12-28
MOSQUES OF SrAMROUL

Mosques are everywhere in SIAM
| boul. By casting one glance across the
| Golden Horn, as you stand at u win
I dow OF the residence of the British am-
bsssador in Pera, you can see seven i'll
line. A closer inspec ion would re.
veal many more. Rising from the
| crests of tho hills, Nesting down b.
the blue waters, hiding away in tn
cypress groves, springing from among
the green.latticed houses Of the gu
turbs, there is no place where the
mosque is not.
at one time it is simple edi1ce con-
sisting of a single dome with soil.
tary fountain in a narrow court. At
another it almost rivals in size and
majesty Saint Sophia itself, and in
some of the most universally favored
mosques, the Muzzein or calling to
prayer might be sent forth from six
long, slender minarets at time. In
the larger mosques dome would rise
above dome, fountain send it's spark
ling stream toward fountain, court
would open into court, while marble
columns file on in long succession.
latticed windows troop forward rang
after range, with a prodigality whicu
astonishes those who have not under
stood that to build and endow lordly
mosque was the first object of most of
the sultans who have ruled at Constan-
tinople, from Mahomet the Conqueror
to Abdul Hamid in the present day.
And wherever the mosque is, there
dwslis the dove, BIRD OF Mecca" as
the Osmanli cali it, recounting numer-
Gus legends to prove that it WAS besf
beloved among winged creatures of
Nj ihomet. their D. ophet.
A story runs that the first pigeons
which made their home in mosque
were placed there by Sultan Bajazst
He stood on the steps, looking up at
the sacred building which he had
erected and named after himself, and
which now only needed one touch to
make it complete. As he fingered al
aged crone approached him and beZged
him to buy q bird from the basket hid
den beneath her forighse. The kindly
monarch turne !, and, taking up pair
OF snowy white doves, gave her gold
piece in exchange. Then he threw
them into the air and they at once
winged thsir way to the central dome,
nesting among the marble sculptures
at it's base.
"Bismlllah!" said the pious Bajazat;
"the hand of Allah is in this Ny
mosque is croaned by an act of
charity. and the prophet has received
the birds into his own home" The
birds increased and multiplied, few
from minaret to minsret and from
cupola to cnpola on both shores of the
G ,lden Horn, til now they are abso-
lutely lnnumerable.
The beauty of thu interior of the
mosques ia greatly married by certain
tawdry acces series. Enormous disks
OF deal, painted grass green, with texts
from the Koran inscribed upon them,
hang across thu marble pillars, crystal
balls tufts OF silk and ostrich eggs,
en- blematic OF the resurrec ion, some
times to the number of many score,
are suspended from the domed roof.
Chests and trunks containing vHlu-
ables. and not unfrequently such
things as jsweled scimitars, costly tap
estrles. goblets and salvers Of gold, lie
in the angles and sideways of the sacred
buiiding. They have reen deposited
there by the owners in full sense of Sc
curity, for who would dare touch trea-
sure committed to the care Of Allah?-
ST. PauPs.
Mrs. Ewing. the Chautauqua lecturer on