the mosque of Sultan Hassan (which, to some of us,
is dangerously like Aristides the Just). This mosque stands by itself,
so that you can, if you please, walk round it. The chief interest of the
walk (for the exterior, save for the deep porch, which can hardly be
called exterior, is not beautiful) lies in the thought that as the walls
were constructed of stones brought from the pyramids, perhaps among
them, with faces turned inward, there may be blocks of that lost outer
coating of the giant tombs--a coating which was covered with
hieroglyphics. Now that hieroglyphics can be read, we may some day learn
the true history of these monuments by pulling down a dozen of the Cairo
mosques. But unless the commission bestirs itself, that task will not be
needed for the edifice of Sultan Hassan; it is coming down, piece by
piece, unaided. The mosques of Cairo are not beautiful as a Greek temple
or an early English cathedral is beautiful; the charm of Saracenic
architecture lies more in decoration than in the management of massive
forms. The genius of the Arabian builders manifested itself in ornament,
in rich effects of color; they had endless caprices, endless fancies,
and expressed them all--as well they might, for all were beautiful. The
same free spirit carved the grotesques of the old churches of France and
Germany. But the Arabians had no love for grotesques; they displayed
their liberty in lovely fantasies. Their one boldness as architects was
the minaret.

It is probably the most graceful tower that has ever been devised. In
Cairo the rich fretwork of its decorations and the soft yellow hue of
the stone of which it is constructed add to this beauty. Invariably
slender, it decreases in size as it springs towards heaven, carrying
lightly with it two or three external galleries, which are supported by
stalactites, and ending in a miniature cupola and crescent. These
stalactites (variously named, also, pendentives, recessed clusters, and
honey-combed work) may be called the distinctive feature of Saracenic
architecture. They were used originally as ornaments to mask the
transition from a square court to the dome. But they soon took flight
from that one service, and now they fill Arabian corners and angles and
support Arabian curves so universally that for many of us the mere
outline of one scribbled on paper brings up the whole pageant of the
crescent-topped domes and towers of the East.

The Cairo mosques are said to show t