When I first entered the mosque, these Howling Dervishes were squatted on the floor, moving their bodies up and down in unison, and grunting and gasping as though the whole band had been attacked with the colic. A moment later they arose and began to bob their heads from one side to the other until I thought their necks would be dislocated by the jerks they gave them. They swung their ears nearly down to their shoulders. The leader stood in the centre, setting the time to the music. Now he bent over so that his head was almost level with his knees, then snapped his body back to an erect position. The whole band did likewise, keeping up this back-breaking motion for fifteen minutes. All the time they howled out “Allah, Allah!” Their motions increased in wildness. With every stoop the music grew louder and faster. They threw off their turbans, and their long hair, half matted, now brushed the floor as they bent down in front, now cut the air like whips as they threw themselves back. Their eyes began to protrude, one man frothed at the mouth. At last they reached such a state of fanatical ecstasy that not for several minutes after the leader ordered them to stop, were they able to do so. The Howling Dervishes used to cut themselves in their rites and often they fall down in fits in their frenzy. They believe that such actions are passports to heaven. [Illustration: A great occasion in Cairo is the sending of a new gold-embroidered carpet to the sanctuary in Mecca, there to absorb holiness at the shrine of the Prophet. The old carpet is brought back each year, and its shreds are distributed among the Faithful.] [Illustration: The mosque of the Citadel in Cairo was built of alabaster by Mehemet Ali, the “Napoleon of Egypt.” When Mohammed’s birthday is celebrated, its halls and courts are choked with thousands of Moslem worshippers and are the scene of fanatical religious exercises.] In another part of the room was a band of Whirling Dervishes, who, dressed in high sugar-loaf hats and long white gowns, whirled about in a ring, with their arms outstretched, going faster and faster, until their skirts stood out from their waists like those of a circus performer mounted on a bareback steed, as she dances over the banners and through the hoops.