About midnight I heard a man reading the Koran,[31] in the same tone as it is read in our mosques. I immediately arose, and taking a torch in my hand passed from one chamber to another, on that side from whence the voice proceeded, until looking through a window I found it to be an oratory. It had, as we have in our mosques, a niche,[32] to direct us whither we are to turn to say our prayers; there were also lamps hung up, and two candlesticks with large tapers of white wax burning. [Footnote 31: Koran (derived from the word Karaa, to read) signifies "the Reading--that which ought to be read." It is the collection of revelations supposed to be given from heaven to Mohammed during a period of twenty-three years. Some were given at Mecca, and some at Medina. Each was regarded by some as a mystery full of divine meaning. It is divided into thirty parts; and as each mosque has thirty readers, it is read through once a day. These readers chant it in long lines with rhythmical ending, and in the absence of definite vowels they alone know the right pronunciation of the Koran.--Sale's _Preliminary Dissertation_, p. 56.] [Footnote 32: This is the _kaaba_ or _kebla_, a sacred stone in the center of the temple at Mecca, over which is a lofty building, from which the name is by some said to be derived--Caaba, high. Mr. Ferguson, in his account of "The Holy Sepulcher," thus describes it: "The precept of the Koran is, that all men, when they pray, shall turn toward the _kaaba_, or holy house, at Mecca; and consequently throughout the Moslem world, indicators have been put up to enable the Faithful to fulfill this condition. In India they face west, in Barbary east, in Syria south. It is true that when rich men, or kings, built mosques, they frequently covered the face of this wall with arcades, to shelter the worshiper from the sun or rain. They inclosed it in a court that his meditations might not be disturbed by the noises of the outside world. They provided it with fountains, that he might perform the required ablutions before prayer. But still the essential part of the mosques is the _mihrab_ or niche, which points toward Mecca, and toward which, when he bows, the worshiper knows that the _kaaba_ also is before him." The holy house erected over the _kaaba_ was decorated annually with rich tapestries and a deep golden band, at the cost of the caliphs.] I saw a little carpet laid down like those we have to kneel upon when we say our prayers, and a comely young man sat on this carpet, with great devotion reading the Koran, which lay before him on a desk. At this sight I was transported with admiration. I wondered how it came to pass that he should be the only living creature in a town where all the people were turned into stone, and I do not doubt but there was something in the circumstance very extraordinary.