"Alabaster, all alabaster," said Nabul, laying his hand on the stone work near the great entrance.
"Much of the mosque is built of pure white alabaster," explained Mustapha, and indeed it is a fact that it is built of this fine white stone. It shows plainly what good taste these old Mohammedan builders had and what fine workmen they were.
"Can't we go inside?" asked George, starting at once for the door.
"Wait, the babouches," cried Nabul and Abdal together, catching George by the arm and pointing to a big pile of yellow slippers just inside the door. These slippers, or babouches, were in charge of an old man with a long white beard and a dirty gown, and he had as assistants two or three boys who squatted beside the pile of footwear. On seeing the approach of the visitors one of the boys picked out the smallest pair of babouches he could find and motioned to George to put them on over his shoes.
"What is that for?" asked George, bewildered.
"No one can enter a Mohammedan mosque with the shoes in which he walks the street," answered Mustapha. "We Mohammedans leave ours at the door, but for the strangers there are these slippers, or babouches, to be worn over their shoes so that the sacred carpets of the mosque may not be defiled."
George thought it very funny as he stuck his feet into the big, wobbly yellow slippers. Nabul simply shuffled out of his own little red slippers and left them in charge of the boys at the door, whose business it was to guard such footgear while their owners were inside. Meanwhile Abdal stayed behind to guard the donkeys.
They entered a great hall where were many graceful columns, but the place seemed bare, for there were no furnishings of any kind, except that the floor was covered with rich rugs, and from the ceiling hung hundreds of glittering lamps. On one side was a sort of pulpit at the top of a short flight of stairs. There were a number of people saying their prayers in the mosque. They would kneel and bow their heads to the floor and stand up and raise up their arms, all making the motions together. It made George think of the gymnastic exercises in his school at home.
"Nabul, I believe I have lost one of those precious old slippers," said George, suddenly looking down at his feet.
Nabul looked horrified when he saw George with only one slipper on.