THE DOVE'S MOSQUE.
Ik the city- of Stamboul, the Dove's • Mosque, or the Mosque of Bajazet 11., has a special charm. The court, entered by gates elaborately decorated iv arabesque, is exceedingly beautiful. Iv the centre is a marble fountain under a canopy, and sheltered by a cluster of fine trees. As you enter the court you hear the roar of wings, and for a moment the air is darkened with the sudden flight of myriads of doves. These birds, the offspring of a pair purchased from a poor woman by Sultan Bajazet and presented to the mosque, are as sacred as was the Ibis of old. A grave and reverend fellow with a huge turban sits under the cloister and sells grain to the faithful and the fickle. The formtr feed the doves for charity, the latter for fun. "While* the fountain is knee-deep with swarming birds, and the tree? clogged with them, and all the oaves of the cloister lined, and even the high galleries of the slender minarets not unvisited by these feathered dervishes, you throw a handful of wheat into the court, and, like a thunder-cloud the whole tribe swoops upon you with a rush and a roar of a storm. They crowd one another and heap themselves together, and stand on their heads in their eagerness to get a morsel of grain. In a moment someone enters the court, and the birds take flight, stirring the wind in the cloister, and filling the air with soft, floating down. A turbaned greybeard near by sells rosaries and perfumes, and there is a fellow at the gate who cries " Sherbet," and clashes his brazen oups till they ring like cymbals, and there are loungers from dawn to dark who drop into ret the doves of Bajazet plunge into the court like an avalanohe of dusky, empurpled snow, and wheel out of it again a winged cloud of smoke. At tho mosque on Fridays there is a distribution to dogs, and the hungry fellows come from all parts of the city to get their portion.
Mr Bradlauoh has a scheme for " promoting 1 the better cultivation of land." A Bill introduced by him would make it a misdemeanor for anyone to hold in an agricultural district more than 100 acres of land in a waste or uncultivated state. He ezcepts oases, however, whero the land is not cultivable with profit for any purpose, or where it has been devoted to some purposes of public utility or enjoyment. On a conviction for such a misdemeanor the Commissioners of Woods and Forests are forthwith to ejeofc the owner from the uncultivated lands, which are thenceforth to vest in them. But the owner is to be entitled to receive from the Consolidated Fund, for a term of twentyfive years, an annuity equal to the average of the annual actual produce during the previous fourteen years. Tenders are to be invited by public notice, from those willing to become actual cultivating tenants, in parcels not exceeding forty acres for one person ; and the lands are to be let on such conditions as to the term of tenancy, rent, reclamation, drainage, and cultivation u shall afford seasonable encouragement, opportunities, facilities, and security for their due cultivation and development. Tbe BUI is backed by Mr Laboachere, Mr Arch', and Me Bart.
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Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2161, 15 May 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)
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557THE DOVE'S MOSQUE. Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2161, 15 May 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)
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