A Mohammedan was once caught by two unscrupulous scoundrels who said they would kill him unless he agreed to do one of three things: drink a bottle of wine, rob his father, or murder the _marabout_. The poor man chose what he thought was the least of these evils and drank the bottle of wine, with the result that he also robbed his father and killed the _marabout_! Prayers are said either collectively in the mosque before sunrise, at noon, at three, at sunset, and at eight at night, when the _muezzin_ comes out and calls the Faithful in that high-pitched voice which is almost a chant, or else they are said individually. If they are said in the mosque they are led by the _imam_, who afterwards reads the Koran, and sometimes a kind of sermon based on the Holy Book is given by the _mufti_. The individual prayer can be said anywhere—in the house, on the roof, in the street. It is done without any sort of self-consciousness or ostentation. The man just turns away from his daily task, faces Mecca, and goes through all the forms of prayer. It is extraordinary to take an Arab on a starless night in the desert and see him always turn instinctively to the East. At first it is a little disconcerting for a European suddenly to see a member of the party get up and start this performance; he feels that there ought to be some awkward silence; but not at all—the chatter goes on and the prayer returns and continues talking as if he had never left his place. Some people maintain that many Arabs say their prayers publicly just in the same way as did the Pharisees of the Old Testament, and that if they had to commune with God in private they would not do so. I consider this quite a fallacy, and from the age of fifteen, when a boy is supposed to know the Koran and therefore be able to learn his prayers, they pray before the world without the smallest thought of who is looking and who is not. The actual prayer is a fixed formula, and when it is over the supplicant turns his head first to the right and then to the left saying “The blessing of God and His mercy be on thee.” These words are addressed to the two guardian angels who accompany all Mohammedans on earth, the angel on the right noting all good actions, the angel on the left recording all the bad. After the prayer, which refers only to the greatness and goodness of God, private blessings may be asked for, but it is not usual to bring temporal matters into this private communion with the Almighty. If the supplicant is to be recompensed on this earth it is not necessary to remind God of what He has already ordained.