The Mahometans perform their prayers five times in twenty-four hours; the first time is between day-break and sun-rising; the second at noon; the third at the middle hour between noon and sun-set; the fourth at sun-set, and the fifth about an hour and a half after the sun is down The Mahometans lay a very great stress on the duty of prayer, terming it the “Key of paradise,” and the “support of religion,” and though they are not absolutely obliged to repair to the mosques yet nothing but sickness can excuse them from offering up their devotions at the appointed times, whether they be at home or abroad. When they are upon a journey, and judge it to be about the hour of prayer, they stop and make the preparatory oblation if water can be had; and then spreading a little carpet upon the ground, which they always carry along with them for that purpose, they repeat the same prayers and make the same bowings and prostrations, as if they had been present in their temples: and this they also perform in the streets, and places of the greatest concourse; which must be allowed to carry with it an air of hypocrisy, notwithstanding all their seeming fervency and attention.
But upon the whole, it must be acknowledged that the greatest reverence and attention of the Mahometans in their addresses to heaven, is what many Christians might blush to observe. No accident or object disturbs or diverts them from the duty they are engaged in, their eyes remain fixed, and their gestures are most of them just and suitable to the occasion. Their voices are agreeably varied according to the subject they are upon, whether prayers or praises; nor does the frequency
