may break the ordinance in strict privacy, popular opinion would condemn any open infraction of it with uncommon severity.  In this, as in most human things, how many are there who hold that

“Pecher en secret n’est pas pecher,
Ce n’est que l’eclat qui fait le crime”?

The middle and lower ranks observe the duties of the season, however arduous, with exceeding zeal:  of all who suffered severely from such total abstinence, I found but one patient who would eat even to save his life.  And among the vulgar, sinners who habitually drink when they should pray, will fast and perform their devotions through the Ramazan.

Like the Italian, the Anglo-Catholic, and the Greek fasts, the chief effect of the “blessed month” upon True Believers is to darken their tempers into positive gloom.

[p.75]Their voices, never of the softest, acquire, especially after noon, a terribly harsh and creaking tone.  The men curse one another[FN#1] and beat the women.  The women slap and abuse the children, and these in their turn cruelly entreat, and use bad language to, the dogs and cats.  You can scarcely spend ten minutes in any populous part of the city without hearing some violent dispute.  The “Karakun,” or station-houses, are filled with lords who have administered an undue dose of chastisement to their ladies, and with ladies who have scratched, bitten, and otherwise injured the bodies of their lords.  The Mosques are crowded with a sulky, grumbling population, making themselves offensive to one another on earth whilst working their way to heaven; and in the shade, under the outer walls, the little boys who have been expelled the church attempt to forget their miseries in spiritless play.  In the bazars and streets, pale long-drawn faces, looking for the most part intolerably cross, catch your eye, and at this season a stranger will sometimes meet with positive incivility.  A shopkeeper, for instance, usually says when he rejects an insufficient offer, “Yaftah Allah,"-"Allah opens.[FN#2]” During the Ramazan, he will grumble about the bore of Ghashim, or “Johnny raws,” and gruffly tell you not to stand there wasting his time.  But as a rule the shops are either shut or destitute of shopmen, merchants will not purchase, and students will not study.  In fine,

[p.76]the Ramazan, for many classes, is one-twelfth of the year wantonly thrown away.

The following is the routine of a fast day.  About half an hour after midnight, the gun sounds its warning to faithful men that it is time to prepare for the “Sahur,” (early breakfast) or morning meal.  My servant then wakes me, if I have slept; brings water for ablution, spreads the Sufrah[FN# 3] (or leather cloth); and places before me certain remnants of the evening’s meal.  It is some time before the stomach becomes accustomed to such hours, but in matters of appetite, habit is everything, and for health’s sake one should strive to eat as plentifully as possible.  Then sounds the Salam, or Blessings