Constantinople, Chapter 12 summary

What happens

1. The narrator crosses from Tophane to Scutari and passes busy streets, shops, carts, a funeral procession, and cemeteries.
2. Arriving early at the lodge, he waits at a café and observes a courtyard resident whom devotees treat as holy.
3. Inside, the dervishes repeat a litany, sway together, and build toward prolonged howling while leaving the tambourines unused.
4. Two Capuchins laugh, prompting the narrator to compare their religious self-denial with the dervishes’ bodily devotion.
5. The imam pierces a boy’s cheeks, and two other participants wound themselves with pointed instruments.
6. The imam steps on children and adults for healing; outside, the narrator sees the pierced boy with closed marks.

In this chapter

What to notice

The narrator rejects the Capuchins’ mockery despite his own disturbing descriptions. He treats the dervishes’ suffering as a religious effort comparable to Christian self-denial.

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