midnight
Harsh woman-voices cried out in the night and bizarre figures flitted like bats from the lighted dance halls into the shadows of nameless houses . We came to a long , narrow street entirely devoted to those dungeon-like chambers with barred windows whose occupants represent all the classified races of the East and all the unclassified sins of the Marquis de Sade . Another street crossed it at right angles and at the cross roads was a mosque . The minaret stood up blackly against the midnight sky and as we turned the corner we perceived what appeared to be another of the ` cages ' immediately facing the door of the mosque . Out of the turmoil of the one street we came into this other and leaving discord and evil behind us entered into silence and peace . We looked in at the barred window . Woman voices reached us faintly from the street we had left and the muted pulse of the _ darâbukeh _ pursued us .