Page:Algeria from Within.pdf/125

RELIGION

of sermon based on the Holy Book is given by the mufti. The individual prayer can be said anywhere—in the house, on the roof, in the street. It is done without any sort of self-consciousness or ostentation. The man just turns away from his daily task, faces Mecca, and goes through all the forms of prayer. It is extraordinary to take an Arab on a starless night in the desert and see him always turn instinctively to the East. At first it is a little disconcerting for a European suddenly to see a member of the party get up and start this performance; he feels that there ought to be some awkward silence; but not at all—the chatter goes on and the prayer returns and as if he had never left his place. Some people maintain that many prayers publicly just in the same Pharisees of the Old Testament, and continues talking Arabs say their way as did the that if they had to commune with God in private they would not do so. I consider this quite a fallacy, and from the age of fifteen, when a boy is supposed to know the Koran and therefore be able to learn his prayers, they pray before the world without the smallest thought of who is looking and who is not. The actual prayer is a fixed formula, and when it is over the supplicant turns his head first to the right and then to the left saying ‘‘The blessing of God and His mercy be on thee.’’ These words are addressed to the two guardian angels who accompany all Mohammedans on earth, the angel on the right noting all good actions, the angel on the left recording all the bad. After the prayer, which refers only to the greatness and goodness of God, private blessings may be asked for, but it is not usual to bring temporal matters into this private communion with the Almighty. If the supplicant is to be recompensed on this earth it is

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