prayer or by touching their beards; not to
return blow for blow, but to make formal complaints; not to drink
wine openly; to observe decorum and not rush to be first at the sacred
sites; and generally to be circumspect in presence of the infidels,
lest they mark what was done amiss and say, 'O thou bad Christian', a
phrase which was familiar to them in both Italian and German. He
further charged them that they must on no account chip fragments off
the Holy Sepulchre and other sacred buildings; nor write their names
or coats of arms upon the walls; and finally, he advised them to be
careful in any money-transactions with Muhammadans, and to have no
dealings at all with either Eastern Christians or German Jews.

After mass was over, they opened the gate and found the outer court
filled with traders who brought them excellent food: fowls ready
roasted, puddings of rice and milk, capital bread and eggs, and fruit
of every kind, grapes, pomegranates, apples, oranges (pomerancia),
lemons and water-melons; and in the afternoon they were allowed to go
and have hot baths in the splendid marble hamams. In the evening came
a rumour that they were to proceed. They packed up their bundles and
sat waiting for an hour or two; and then the rumour proved to be
false. Meanwhile the sleeping-mats which they had hired for their stay
had been rolled up by their owners and carried off; and the pilgrims
had to sleep as best they might. Fabri made his way up on to the roof
and passed the night there.

Waking early before sunrise he was much impressed to observe the
devotion of the Muhammadans at their morning prayers: the long rows of
kneeling figures, swaying forward together in reverent prostration,
the grave faces and solemn tones. Surely, as he looked, he must have
felt that God, even his God, was the God of all the earth, and would
be a Father to those that sought Him so earnestly. At any rate he
turned away, with a strong sense of contrast, to his own comrades
waking to the day with laughing chatter and no thought of prayer. An
episode of this halt was a visit from a Saracen fruit-seller upon whom
Fabri looked with curiosity. Then, taking the man's hat, he spat upon
it with every expression of disgust at its Saracen badge. The man,
instead of resenting it, looked cautiously round and then spat on the
badge himself, at the same time making the sign of the Cross. He was a
Christian who had been forced into conversion, probably in expiati