Adventure, February 20, 1922 — page 55: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

<— => - throats. The Seventeen Thieves of EL-Kalil The whole Haram court was chock-a- block with men. You could see de Cres- pigny’s horse nodding and champing ner- vously outside in the street,where one of the policemen held him. The rest of the police were up beside de Crespigny on the mosque steps behind the Sheikh, whose’ gaunt, Old Testament face was a picture of mingled dignity and nervousness. On the steps below the Sheikh, but leav- ing a narrow gangway for him, were about twenty notables; and there was a narrow cleared space, two men wide perhaps, lead- ing all the way from them to the South Gate. There was plenty of light on the scene; for, besides the great iron bracket-lanterns, many of the men had kerosene lanterns, swung on sticks to keep them safe above the struggling crowd. We were none too soon. The circuit we had made had used up time. Wecould hear the cymbals already, and the chanting pene- trating through the roar from Moslem In another minute I caught sight of a dancing ball of blue fire; and then, through a wide gap eee two roofs I saw Cohen. He said afterwards that oe was in deadly _fear all the while, but I believe he was en- ~ joying himself. At intervals between toss- the fire and catching it he would bathe his arms in it, and wave them, blazing blue, until the crowd gasped. And he looked as solemn as if he had been born to the trade of making miracles. Ali Baba and his gang of sixteen thieves marched on ahead of him with all the righteous dignity of men who have given back what they might not keep—there is no higher sanctity than that in El-Kalil— and, swinging to the left at the sharp turn by the gate, marched through like old-time priests, forming two abreast, now, because of the narrow passage. They came up the enormous entrance steps and paraded, digni- fied and solemn, straight up to the Sheikh, where Ali Baba bowed’ very low and said something—I couldn’t hear what, though the crowd inside the Haram was absolutely still by that time. But Cohen did not dare go past the seventh entrance step from the Bottom, where a hole in the wall is, that they say— in order to pacify the Jews—connects like a whispering tube with the tomb of Abraham -a hundred yards away beneath. No Jew dare go past that seventh step on pain of death. , - oe - . “ - “yf ° = | os _—a— , -— Ns ee eo <- ew 4 53 He stood on it and tossed the fire, while Ali Baba did the heralding and the music of the Jews outside blended with a roar of excited voices. Then Ali Baba started back to carry the fire to the mosque, since no Jew must come nearer and Grim caught hold of my arm. | “We'll miss the big scene if we stay Gre. Come!”’ Down these rickety steps we went again among the bats and bugs, hurrying all the - faster because of the risk of falling masonry ~ —clambered by a lean-to up on to the same wide-topped wall that had stood us in good - stead the night before—ran along it to the end, unchallenged for two reasons: we were © XS a ad « up in shadow above the dancing lights, and the crowd was intoxicated with the sight of something else. The fire-gift was in Ali Baba’s hands now, being: carried up the narrow path between them all. At the end of the wall we slid down a buttress and passed into the mosque through the Sheikh’s own private door. could have walked on the heads of men who sat, all facing away from us in the direction of the south door, where the Sheikh was wel- coming the fire-gift—a level, multi-colored lake of heads. No one noticed us. We slipped along the But there — we were nonplused for the moment. You. wall as far as the pulpit. The little wooden _ door at the foot of it was hanging on the latch and we slipped through unseen, to > stand in deep shadow on the upper steps with a view of every square foot of all that great mosque. from the southern door, is a little ornamental brass lamp hanging in it. Beneath the lamp is a perfectly round hole that leads through the solid black rock to the cave beneath. The hole is about twelve — inches in diameter and the Moslems kneel and pray through it to Father Abraham, and drop little messages down to him writ- ten on slips of paper. There was a space kept clear around that hole and a. gangway from it to the door. Up that gangway presently, preceded be the Sheikh, came Ali Baba carrying the fire, shaking it to make the flame burn fiercely, and the roar that God is Great went ‘up into the mosque roof from the throats of the seated throng by way of 3 ' AT THE far end, not thirty feet arched recess in the wall with an Pees ae o's PRO Ah iy , : - . LU ® 7 + beg 1A} } h ' NOS nears! pelts on f -% we Pen: \s ae i d : ry ease tie Maat See i" a 7 J St a ; een ‘ : ¥, : é A . : " ‘i SON ORENY | »)? ; -* L\ Ai 4 ; 44 " 4 ’ Lf ini Ae Ase Atm ¥ * - 2 7 ° ; : +2 ; 4 ' , ’ 3 Ms ve . 4 ve (PLA ? es P . - A * AS De qi ¥ ya Pa Fis we ‘a8 ie Peaye i Toe - sa S02 2S. : ‘ A Kk ey ~ ee CO mien aC (0) Bu 5 cOr f “- = “r, = ~ he -, 2 . re - af Jf St, Os ANS BP ee ee < See or =o