There are strange things in the mosque. In its centre is a marble chapel supposed to stand over the ashes of the head of John the Baptist. Men are sitting before the chapel with their heads toward Mecca, and they rise and fall as they pray to John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, and to Mohammed as the prophet of God. Thus religion, like politics, makes strange bedfellows. [Illustration: The transportation monopoly of the Bedouin and his camel is threatened to-day by the invading automobile and motor truck] [Illustration: At the end of the Booksellers’ Bazaar looms the Dome of the Mosque, built amid the ruins of a Christian church, which was itself preceded on the same site by a Roman temple] Damascus is the heart of the Mohammedan world. At its back is Persia, altogether Mohammedan. At its south are Palestine and Arabia, more Moslem than Christian, while at the north are other realms of Islam. All around it the people are Mohammedans, who hate the Christians and massacre them whenever they can. This was the case in the spring of 1909, when thousands were killed and a terrible slaughter of Christians by heathens took place in this region. Multitudes were massacred, and it was only because the great Christian nations of Europe were afraid of their pocketbooks and of the loss of that balance of power which might result from a war that the Turkish Empire was not wiped out as a punishment therefor. The matter was hushed up, and but little of the true story was told in the papers. I refer to the bloodshed throughout Asia Minor when the sultan, Abdul Hamid, was overthrown by the Young Turks and his brother, Mohammed V, was put in his place. Another strange object in the Great Mosque is the holy tent of the pilgrim caravan. This is used during the pilgrimage to Mecca, which generally starts at Damascus. Every Moslem is bound to make this pious journey at least once in his life, and the followers of the Prophet gather here from all directions for the trip to their holy city. As they approach Mecca they take off their clothes, laying aside everything from the soles of their feet to the crowns of their heads. They then put on aprons, and carrying only a piece of cloth over the left shoulder, walk into the city. They march around the sacred Kaaba and kiss the black stone. They pelt Satan with rocks in the Valley of Mina, and end their pilgrimage with a great sacrificial feast, at the end of their Lent, when the festival of Beiram begins.