Show GAVE SCANT HEED TO SACRED RITES 1 discourtesy of foreigners in saint sophia Sop iia 1 was in st sophia on ba the night of at al tho the ceremony in commemoration of the revelation of the koran to that night the caliph up to a year anil and a half ago the sultan cornea comes to st sophia BB as tho the belr igual head of islam writes nathaniel potter in asia magazine Magn alne he comes attended by his bla retinue but he be worships only as ono one of the people seated like them on the matted floor itow ilow on row they stretch back through tho the vast pillared liall hall almost bare in lt its simplicity and perhaps therefore tho the jioie 0 impressive there are thousands a memorable picture in muss alone and ana na as tho muezzins grouped on dalseg in various parts of the mosque chant the service in the high carrying quaver peculiar to the iniez tho the mass on the floor bends touches heads to the ground rises and bends benda again with what has haa in it something of an elemental sweep as one looks down on it from above the alie effect la Is that or of an enormous field of corn com yielding to gusts of wind but the setting and the atmosphere give it a solemnity alma the natural and material despite the setting in st sophia the sacredness of the erway rind and the presence of the caliph foreigners are admitted on cards from their embassies and given places in the balcony just under the high mosque dome on oil this occasion I 1 was one of those foreigners and while the rites were in progress I 1 saw foreigners clambering up and down over tile the balcony railing chattering in loud voices promenading back and forth and hailing each other across intervals of three or four yards yarda electric Elec lights just under the balcony ifill impeded their vision they leaned over and turned tuo tho lights out how much longer do we havo have to listen to this yow bowling yowling lIngl exclaimed a very english young english officer to a group around him and in full hearing of many ma ny 0 others they got up in groups went out came caine back and went out again they would have conducted themselves in exactly the same aade way at a dull chill football or baseball game gam I 1 remembered the stories on which I 1 grew up tales so vivid of occidentals dentals being quartered it if found in a mosque that even now it seemed something of an for me to walk into a mosque la in though the only notice taken of me was an offer to conduct me about fanaticism bigotry 1 where I 1 knew of course that stamboul was not all of turkey nor st sophia precisely like other mosques I 1 admit the internationalized atmosphere but I 1 Ining imagined Ined st patricks in new york at christmas eve mass st thomas of trinity on IP wister easter morning or ari an uptown new york synagogue on yem kippur I 1 imagined chinese hindus and turks being admitted to the balconies I 1 imagined them so fur far as it la Is pos possible ible to imagine that of orientals orient orien als acting as I 1 saw the foreigners act in st sophia then I 1 tried to imagine what would happen to |