d knowledge; I wish I could
kiss the _Sheykhah_ your mother's hand. May God favour her!' Maurice's
portrait (as usual) he admired fervently, and said one saw his good
qualities in his face--a compliment I could have fully returned, as he
sat looking at the picture with affectionate eyes and praying, _sotto
voce_, for _el gedda_, _el gemeel_ (the youth, the beautiful), in the
words of the _Fathah_, 'O give him guidance and let him not stray into
the paths of the rejected!' Altogether, something in Sheykh Yussuf
reminds me of Worsley: there is the same look of _Seelen reinheit_, with
far less thought and intelligence; indeed little thought, of course, and
an additional childlike innocence. I suppose some medieval monks may
have had the same look, but no Catholic I have ever seen looks so
peaceful or so unpretending. I see in him, like in all people who don't
know what doubt means, that easy familiarity with religion. I hear him
joke with Omar about Ramadan, and even about Omar's assiduous prayers,
and he is a frequent and hearty laugher. I wonder whether this gives you
any idea of a character new to you. It is so impossible to describe
_manner_, which gives so much of the impression of novelty. My
conclusion is the heretical one: that to dream of converting here is
absurd, and, I will add, wrong. All that is wanted is general knowledge
and education, and the religion will clear and develop itself. The
elements are identical with those of Christianity, encumbered, as that
has been, with asceticism and intolerance. On the other hand, the creed
is simple and there are no priests, a decided advantage. I think the
faith has remained wonderfully rational considering the extreme ignorance
of those who hold it. I will add Sally's practical remark, that 'The
prayers are a fine thing for lazy people; they must wash first, and the
prayer is a capital drill.'

You would be amused to hear Sally when Omar does not wake in time to
wash, pray, and eat before daybreak now in Ramadan. She knocks at his
door and acts as Muezzin. 'Come, Omar, get up and pray and have your
dinner' (the evening meal is 'breakfast,' the early morning one
'dinner'). Being a light sleeper she hears the Muezzin, which Omar often
does not, and passes on the 'Prayers is better than sleep' in a prose
version. Ramadan is a dreadful business; everybody is cross and lazy--no
wonder! The camel-men quarrelled all day under my window yesterday, and
I ask