THE MAHOMMEDAN SUNDAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2416, 28 June 1900, Page 63

THE MAHOMMEDAN SUNDAY.

Friday may practically be described as the Mahommedan Sunday, and on that day the Sultan proceeds in State from his palace called the 'Yildish Kiosk to the Hamidish Mosque, which stands just outside the palace gates. Large numbers of troops are always drawn up along the route, and all round the Mosque, while the ladies of the harem drive down in front of the Sultan and wait in their carriages outside the Mosque until his Majesty comes out again. Consequently, the ceremony combines "the features of " church parade " and a military review. In order to witness it, a permit has to be obtained from the British Ambassador, who sends along with it a functionary called a cavasse io see the visitors through. This individual wears a most gorgeous uniform of red and gold, and as the particular one who came on this occasion was over 6ft 6in, and broad in proportion, it may be imagined that he sented an imposing spectacle. It is necessary i;o be in one's place some time bofore the Sultan actually appears at mid-day, but there is plenty to look at while one is waiting. Gorgeous officers and equerries hailing from almost every country in Europe are to be seen swaggering about in their resplendent uniforms. An enormous German, with a face all slashed about with the characteristic duelling cuts, is to be seen conversing with a dapper little Frenchman, who gesticulates so much that he seriously disturbs the monocle which is screwed in approved fashion into his eye. At last the sand carts arrive, and the road is duly sprinkled so as to avoid any jolting for Ins Majesty. A splendid troop of Lancers rides up the hill, and forms in the square in front of the Mosque. Arab Zouaves, in green turbans ; Albanian soldiers, with gigantic knives in their belts, and marines, who march with a peculiar balletlike step, take up their position on the road, and the carriages with the ladies of the harem drive down from the palace gates. Their white veils are perfectly diaphanous, and their features are clearly visible, while one of them even displays beneath her veil a triumph of Parisian millinery upon her head. If these are fair specimens, they are a decidedly good-look-ing lot, and not at all the fair- fat- and-forty kind of ladies of whom one generally reads. After them comes a group of officers on foot, including the Minister for War, whose figure, as it has been profanely put, wds " not lost, but gone before." With them wore various Englishmen, including Frost Pasha and Atkinson Pasha, both of whom are keen-looking little men of the Lord Roberts type, while the more sturdy and stalwart type of Britisher is represented by the burly figure of Vinnicombe Pasha. At last the moment arrives when the Sultan himself appears in his gorgeous carriage with its milk-white steeds. The clear voice of the muezzin rings out from the top of the minaret, and Abdul Hamid II passes onward to his devotions, while the people raise a shout which sounds feeble beside the cheer sent up by the British visitors. His Majesty turned toward the latter with a pleased smile, and recognised their attention with a polite bow.