DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5074#0438
420
THE HOWLING DERVISHES.
twisting of his thick, heavy leather boots one over the
other, looked very odd and awkward; then the singing
ceased, the cloaks were resumed, a few more prayers
recited, and they all disappeared. We had expected to
find the scene absurd or disgusting — but it was neither
the one nor the other: the whole thing was so solemn,
and they appeared to be so completely absorbed in what
they were doing, that a certain air of devotion and
reverence reached even the mind of the spectators, and
made one fancy, that however extraordinary the dis-
tortion of ideas which led to such an exercise as an
expression of religious worship, there was still some-
thing higher and better than fanatic folly or hypocrisy
in the mind of the actor.
From this graceful exhibition we went to a very dif-
ferent scene—the Mosque of the "Howling Dervishes;''
this Mosque was but a plain square lofty room, with a
small gallery at one end in which we sat; in the place
of honour a venerable old Sheikh with a white beard
was seated with two tiny children, a boy and a girl, at
one side of him: opposite to him sat about twenty men
on lambskins, — all repeating the " Fatha " as fast as
possible : presently they stood up, and the lambskin
mats were arranged in the middle of the Mosque for
some men to sit on, who played on flutes. Then the
performers., standing close together in a row, joined
their hands and commenced repeating the " La ilaha
ilia llah" as fast as possible, throwing out the words
with a violent jerk of the body, thrown forward with
the head and heels jerked first to one side and then
the other, the jerks and the words gradually coming
louder and louder, faster and faster, till they had lost all
likeness to human beings and seemed to become only
mad animals or machines. The old Sheikh and the
THE HOWLING DERVISHES.
twisting of his thick, heavy leather boots one over the
other, looked very odd and awkward; then the singing
ceased, the cloaks were resumed, a few more prayers
recited, and they all disappeared. We had expected to
find the scene absurd or disgusting — but it was neither
the one nor the other: the whole thing was so solemn,
and they appeared to be so completely absorbed in what
they were doing, that a certain air of devotion and
reverence reached even the mind of the spectators, and
made one fancy, that however extraordinary the dis-
tortion of ideas which led to such an exercise as an
expression of religious worship, there was still some-
thing higher and better than fanatic folly or hypocrisy
in the mind of the actor.
From this graceful exhibition we went to a very dif-
ferent scene—the Mosque of the "Howling Dervishes;''
this Mosque was but a plain square lofty room, with a
small gallery at one end in which we sat; in the place
of honour a venerable old Sheikh with a white beard
was seated with two tiny children, a boy and a girl, at
one side of him: opposite to him sat about twenty men
on lambskins, — all repeating the " Fatha " as fast as
possible : presently they stood up, and the lambskin
mats were arranged in the middle of the Mosque for
some men to sit on, who played on flutes. Then the
performers., standing close together in a row, joined
their hands and commenced repeating the " La ilaha
ilia llah" as fast as possible, throwing out the words
with a violent jerk of the body, thrown forward with
the head and heels jerked first to one side and then
the other, the jerks and the words gradually coming
louder and louder, faster and faster, till they had lost all
likeness to human beings and seemed to become only
mad animals or machines. The old Sheikh and the