 Chapter 14 of personal narrative of pilgrimage to El Medina and Mecca, this is a LibriVox recording, all LibriVox recordings are in public domain, for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Chapter 14 of personal narrative of pilgrimage to El Medina and Mecca by Richard Francis Burton, from Bir Abbas to El Medina. The 22nd of July was a grand trial of temper to our little party. The position of Bir Abbas exactly resembles that of El Haram, except that the bulge of the hill Gert Fumara is at this place about two miles wide. There are the usual stone forts and palm-leaved hovels for the troopers stationed here to hold the place and to escort travelers, without coffee shed and a hut or two, called a bazaar, but no village. Our encamping ground was a bed of loose sand, with which the violent Samoom filled the air. Not a tree or a bush was in sight. A species of hardy locusts and swarms of flies were the only remnants of animal life. The scene was a caricature of Sindh. Although we were now some hundred feet, too judged by the watershed above the level of the sea, the midday sun scorched even through the tent. Our frail tenement was more than once blown down, and the heat of the sand made the work of repitching it painful. Again my companions, after breakfasting, hurried to the coffee-house and returned one after the other with dispiriting reports. Then they either quarreled desperately about nothing, or they threw themselves on their rugs, pretending to sleep in very sulkeness. The Lady Mariam soundly rated her surly son for refusing to fill her chibok for the twelfth time that morning, with the usual religious phrases, Allah directly into the right way, O my son, meaning that he was going to the bad, and O my calamity, thy mother is a lone woman, O Allah, equivalent to the European parental plaint about the grey hair as being brought down in sorrow to the grave. Before noon a small caravan, which followed us, came in with two dead bodies, a trooper shot by the Bedouin and an Albanian killed by sunstroke, or the fiery wind. Footnote. The natives of Al-Hijaz assured me that in their Allah-favourite land, the Samoom never kills a man. I doubt the fact. This are not body was swollen and decomposing rapidly, the true diagnostic of death by the poison wind. See Ibn Battuta's voyage, Kabul. However, as troopers drink hard, the Arabs may still be right. The Samoom doing half the work, adhuk the rest. I travelled during the months of July, August and September, yet never found myself inconvenienced by the poison wind sufficiently to make me tie my kafia-bedouin fashion across my mouth. At the same time, I can believe that to an invalid it would be trying, and that a man almost worn out by hunger and fatigue would receive from it a coup de grace. Nibur attributes the extraordinary mortality of his companions, amongst other causes, to a want of stimulants. Though these might doubtless be useful in cold weather or in the mountains of Eliemen, for men habituated to them from early youth, yet nothing, I believe, would be more fatal than a strong drink when travelling through the desert in the summer heat. The common beverage should be water or lemonade, the strongest stimulants, coffee or tea. It is what the natives of this country do, and doubtless it is wise to take their example. The Duke of Wellington's dictum about the healthiness of India to an abstimious man does not require to be quoted. Were it more generally followed, we should have less of sunstroke and sudden death in our Indian armies, when soldiers fed with beef and brandy are called out to face the violent heat. At the same time it must be remembered that the foul stagnant water, abounding in organic matter, is the cause of half the diarrhea and dysentery which proves so fatal to travellers in these regions. To water drinkers, therefore, a pocket filter is indispensable, and a footnote. Shortly after midday, a caravan travelling in an opposite direction passed by us, it was composed chiefly of Indian pilgrims, habituated in correct costume and hurrying towards Mecca in hot haste. They had been allowed to pass unmolested, because probably a pound sterling could not have been collected from a hundred pockets, and said the robber sometimes does a cheap good deed. But our party, having valuables with them, did not seem to gather heart from this event. In the evening we all went out to see some Arab sheikhs who were travelling to Bir Abbas in order to receive their salaries. Without such docers, it is popularly said and believed no stone walls could enable a Turk to hold al-Hijaz against the hillmen. Such was our system in Afghanistan, most unwise teaching in Lameen the subject to despise rulers subject to blackmail. Besides which, these highly paid sheikhs do no good. When a fight takes place or a road is shut, they profess inability to restrain their clansmen, and the richer they are, of course, the more formidable they become. The party looked well. They were herbed, dignified old men in the picturesque Arab costume, with erect forms, fears, thin features, and white beards, well armed and mounted upon high bread and handsomely equipped dromedaries from Ash-shirk. Ash-shirk, or the east, is the popular name in al-Hijaz for the eastern region as far as Baghdad and Basra, especially Nijd. The latter province supplies the holy land with its choices horses and camels. The great heats of the parts near the Red Sea appear prejudicial to animal generation, whereas the lofty table-ands and the broad pastures of Nijd, combined with the attention paid by the people to purity and blood, have rendered it the greatest breeding country in Arabia, end of a note. Preceded by their half-naked clansmen, carrying spears, twelve or thirteen feet long, garnished with single or double tufts of black ostrich feathers, and ponderous matchlocks which were discharged on approaching the fort, they were not without a kind of barbaric palm. Immediately after the reception of these sheikhs, there was a parade of are-not-irregular horse, about five hundred of them rode out to the sound of the naqus or the little kettle-drum, whose puny notes strikingly contrasted with this really martial sight. The men, it is true, were mounted only in Arab and Egyptian nags, ragged looking as their clothes, and each trooper was armed in his own way, though all had swords, pistols, and matchlocks, or firelocks of some kind. But they rode hard as gallway-buckings, and there was a gallant, reckless look about the fellows which prepossessed me strongly in their favour. Their animals, too, though notably screws, were well-trained, and their accoutrements were intended for use, not for show. I watched their maneuvers with curiosity, they left their accoutrements one by one, and at the sound of a tom-tom, the degrees formed a plump, or hearse, column, it could not be called, all held together in confusion. Footnote, hearse is the old military name for a column, opposed to hay, a line. So we read that, at far-famed Cressy, the French fought in Batallia Hay, the English drawn up and hearse. This appears to have been the national predilection of that day. In later times we and our neighbours changed tile, the French preferring heavy columns, the English extending themselves into lines, and a footnote. Presently the little kettle-dumb changed its note, and the parade its aspect, all the seared body dispersed as wood-light infantry, now continuing their advance, then hanging back, then making a rush, and all the time keeping up a hot fire upon the enemy. At another signal they suddenly put their horses to full speed, and closing upon the centre again advance in dense mass. After three-quarters of an hour, parading, sometimes charging, singly, often in bodies to the right, to the left, and straight in front, hearting and requisite, and occasionally retreating, partly unlike, there are not stern and mass-tours, the lines. As they neared them, all broke off, and galloped in ventre a terre, discharging their shoted guns with much recklessness against objects assumed to denote the enemy. But ball-cartridge seemed to be plentiful hereabouts, during the whole of this and the next day I remarked that bullets notched for noise were fired away in mere fun. Footnote. The Albanians, delighting in the noise of musketry, notched the balls in order to make it sing louder. When fighting they often adopt the excellent plan, excellent when rifles are not procurable, of driving a long iron nail through the bullet, and fixing its head into the cartridge. Thus the cartridge is strengthened, the bullet is rifled, and the wound, which it inflicts, is death. Round balls are apt to pass into and out of savages without killing them, and many an Afghans, after being shot or run through the body, has mortally wounded his English adversary before falling. It is false philanthropy also to suppose that in battle, especially when a campaign is commencing, it is sufficient to maim not to kill the enemy. Nothing encourages men to fight so much as a good chance of escaping with a wound, especially a flesh wound. A venture to hope that the reader will not charge these sentiments with cruelty, he who renders warfare fatal to all engage in it will be the greatest benefactor the world has yet known. And a footnote. Barbarous these movements may appear to the cavalry-martinet of the good old school, yet to something of the kind will the tactics of that arm of the service, a humble opine, return when the perfect use of the rifle, the revolver, and the field artillery shall have made the present necessarily slow system fatal. Also, if we adopt the common sense opinion of a modern writer, footnote, the late Captain Nolan, and the footnote, and determine that individual prowess skill in a single compass, good horsemanship, and sharp swords, rental cavalry formidable, the semi-barbarians are wiser in their generation than the civilized who never practiced arms, properly so called, whose riding-drill never made a good rider, whose horses are overweighted, and whose swords are worthless. They have yet another point of superiority over us. They cultivate the individuality of the soldier whilst we strive to make him a mere automaton. In the days of the European chivalry battles were a system of well-fought duels. This was succeeded by the age of discipline when, to use the language of rebelai, men seemed rather to consort of organ pipes or mutual conquered of the wheels of a clock than an infantry and cavalry or army of soldiers. Our aim should now be to combine the merits of both systems, to make men individually excellent in the use of weapons and still train them to act naturally and habitually in concert. The French have given a model to Europe in the Chasseur de Viscennes, a body capable of most perfect combination yet never more truly excellent than when each man is fighting alone. We, I suppose, shall imitate them at some future time. Footnote. The first symptom of improvement will be a general training to the bio-net exercise. The British is, and for years has been, the only army in Europe that does not learn to use this weapon. How long does it intend to be the sole authority on the side of ignorance? We laughed at Cableret-Levis, who in the French war threw away their muskets and drew their stilettos, and we cannot understand why the Indian would always prefer a sabre to a rifle. Yet we read without disgust of our men being compelled by a want of proper training to club their muskets in hand-to-hand fights, when they have in the bio-net the most formidable of offensive weapons, and of coffers and other savages resting the piece after drawing off its fire from its unhappy possessor's grasp. And the footnote. A distant dropping of firearms ushered in the evening of our first melancholy day at Birrabas. This, said my companions, was a sign that the troops and the hillmen were fighting. They communicated the intelligence as if it ought to be an effectual check upon my impatience to proceed. It acted, however, in the contrary way. I suppose that the Bedouin after battling out the night would be less warlike the next day. The others, however, by no means agreed in opinion with me. At Yambur the whole party had boasted loudly that the people of Al-Madinah could keep their Bedouin in order, and had twitted the boy Muhammad with their superiority in this respect to his townsmen, the Meccans. But now that trial was impeding. I saw none of that fearlessness so conspicuous when peril was only possible. The change was charitably to be explained by the presence of their valuables, the Shaharas, like conscience making cowards of them all. But the young Meccan, who having sent on his box by sea from Yambur to Jidda, felt merry, like the empty traveller, would not lose the pertinity to pay off old scores. He taunted the Medinahs till they stamped and raved with fury. At last, fearing some violence and feeling answerable for the boy's safety to his family, I seized him by the nape of his neck and the upper posterior portion of his nether garments, and drove him before me into the tent. When the hubbub had subsided, and all sat after supper smoking the pipe of peas in the cool night air, I rejoined my companions and found them talking as usual about old Shahzad. The scene was appropriate for the subject. In the distance rose the blue peak, said to be his diary, and the place pointed out with fearful meaning. As it is inaccessible to strangers, reports have converted it into another garden of Iram. A glance, however, at its position and formation satisfied me that the bubbling springs, the deep forest and the orchards of apple trees, squintes and pomegranates, with which my companions furnished it, were a myth, while some experience of Arab ignorance of the art of defence suggested to me strong doubts about the existence of an impregnable fortress on the hilltop. The mountains, however, looked beautiful in the moonlight, and distance gave them a semblance of mystery, well suited to the themes which they inspired. That night I slept within my shokduf, for it would have been mere madness to sleep in the open plain, in a place so infested by Banditi. The being armed is but a poor precaution near this robber's den. If you wound a man in the very act of plundering, an exorbitant sum must be paid for blood money. If you kill him, even to save your life, then he do to any chance of escaping destruction. Roused three or four times during the night by jackals and dogs prowling about our little camp, I observed that my companions, who had agreed amongst themselves to keep watch by turns, had all fallen into sound sleep. However, when we awoke in the morning, the usual inspection of goods and chattels showed that nothing was gone. The next day, July 23, was a force-hull, a sore stimulant to the traveller's ill-humour, and the sand, the dust, the furious samum, and the want of certain small supplies aggravated our grievance. My sore foot had been inflamed by a dressing of onion which the Lady Mariam had insisted upon applying to it. Footnote. I began to trade it hydropathically with a cooling bandage, but my companions declared that the water was poisoning the wound, and truly it seemed to get worse every day. This idea is prevalent throughout Al-Hijaz, even the Bedouin after once washing a cut or a sore, never allow air or water to touch it. Footnote. Still, being resolved to push forward by any conveyance that could be procured, I offered ten dollars for a fresh dromedary to take me on to Al-Medina. Sheikh Hamid also declared he would have his box in charge of a friend and a company me. Sa'ad the demon flew into a passion at the idea of any member of the party escaping the general evil, and he privately threatened Muhammad to cut off the legs of any camel that ventured into camp. This, the boy, who like a boy of the world as he was, never lost an opportunity of making mischief, instantly communicated to me, and it brought on a furious dispute. Sa'ad was reproved and apologized for by the rest of the party, and presently he himself was pacified principally, I believe, by the intelligence that no camel was to be hired at Bir Abbas. One of the Arnaud garrison, who had obtained leave to go to Al-Medina, came to talk to us if we could mount him, as otherwise he should be obliged to walk the whole way. With him we debated the propriety of attempting a passage through the hills by one of the many by-paths that traversed them. The project was amply discussed and duly rejected. We passed the day in the usual manner, all crowded together for shelter under the tent. Even Mariam joined us, loudly informing Ali, her son, that his mother was no longer a woman but a man. Whilst our party, generally cowering away from the fierce glances of the sun, were either eating or equationally smoking, or were occupied in cooling and drinking water. About sunset time came a report that we were to start that night. None could believe that such good was in store for us. Before sleeping, however, we placed each camel's pack apart, so as to be ready for loading at a moment's notice, and we took care to watch that our Bedouin did not drive their animals away to any distance. At last, about eleven p.m., as the moon was beginning to peep over the eastern wall of rock, we heard the glad sound of the little kettle-drum calling the Albanian troops to mount and march. In the shortest possible time, all made ready, and hurriedly, crossing the sandy flat, we found ourselves in company with three or four caravans, forming one large body for better defence against the dreaded Hawamid. Hawamid is the plural of Hamidah, Sheikh Sa'ad's tribe, and of Fidnout. By dint of much manoeuvring, arms in hand, Sheikh Hamid and the demon took the prominent parts. We, though the last comers, managed to secure places about the middle of the line. On such occasions, all pushed forward recklessly, as an English mob in the strife of sightseeing. The rear, being left unguarded, is a place of danger, and none seeks the honour of occupying it. We travelled that night up the Fumara in an easterly direction, and at early dawn, July 24th, found ourselves in an ill-famed gorge called Sha'ab el-Hajj, or the pilgrim's paths. Fidnout. Sha'ab properly means a path through mountains, or a water-course between hills. It is generally used in Arabia for a valley, and sometimes, instead of Nakab, or the Turkish Borass, they use Pass. And the Fidnout. The loudest talkers became silent as we neared it, and their continas showed a prehension written in legible characters. Presently from the high precipitious cliff on our left, thin blue curls of smoke, somehow or other they caught every eye rose in the air, and instantly afterwards rang the sharp cracks of the hillmen's match-locks echoed by the rocks on the right. Mashukdev had been broken by the camels falling during the night, so I called out to Mansour that we had better spliced the framework with a bit of rope. He looked up, saw me laughing, and with an ejaculation of disgust disappeared. A number of Bedouin were to be seen swarming like hernets over the crest of the hills, boys as well as men carrying huge weapons and climbing with the agility of cats. They took comfortable places on the cutthroat eminence, and began firing upon us with perfect convenience to themselves. The height of the hills and the glare of the rising sun prevented me seeing objects very distinctly, but my companions pointed out to me places where the rocks had been scraped, and where a kind of rough stone breastwork, the Sangha of Afghanistan, had been piled up as a defence, and a rest for the long barrel of the match-lock. It was useless to challenge the Bedouin to come down and fight us like men upon the plain. They will do this on the eastern coast of Arabia, but rarely ever in Al-Hijaz, and it was equally unprofitable for our escort to fire upon a foe and scorned behind stones, besides which had the robber been killed the whole country would have risen to a man. With a force of three thousand or four thousand they might have gained courage to overpower the caravan, and in such a case Narasul would have escaped. As it was, the Bedouin directed their fire principally against the Albanians. Some of these called for assistance to the party of sheikhs that accompanied us from Bir Abbas, but the dignified old men dismounting and squatting in council around their pipes came to the conclusion that, as the robbers would probably turn a deaf ear to their words, they had better spare themselves the trouble of speaking. We had, therefore, nothing to do but to blaze away with as much powder and to veil ourselves in as much smoke as possible. The result of the affair was that we lost twelve men beside camels and other beasts of burden. Though the bandits showed no symptoms of bravery and confined themselves to slaughtering the enemy from their hilltop, my companions seemed to consider this questionable affair a most gallant exploit. After another hour's hurried ride through the Wadi Sayyala appeared Shohadah to which we pushed on, like knighted swain on lonely road, when close behind fierce cobblin's tread. Shohadah is a place which derives its name, the martyrs, because here are supposed to be buried forty braves that fell in one of Muhammad's many skirmishes. Some authorities consider it the cemetery of the people of Wadi Sayyala. Others attribute these graves to the Bani Salim or Salma, an extinct race of Hijazi Bedouin. Nir Shohadah is Jabal Warqan, one of the mountains of paradise, also called Arqiz Dabiyat, or Thread of the Winding Torrent. The prophet named it Hempt, or Siltrinus, when he passed through it on his way to the battle of Badir. He also called the valley such-such, a plural of such-such, a temperate situation, declared it was a valley of heaven, that seventy prophets had prayed there before himself, that Moses with seventy thousand Israelites had traversed it on his way to Mecca, and that before the Resurrection Day, Isa bin Mariam should pass through it, with the intention of performing the greater and lesser pilgrimages. Such are the past and such the future honors of the place. The once populous valley is now barren, and one might easily pass by the consecrated spot without observing a few ruined walls and a cluster of rude Bedouin graves, each a novel of rough stone lying beneath the thorn trees on the left of and a little off the road. Another half hour took us to a favourite halting-place, Bir al-Hindi, so called from some forgotten Indian who dug a well there. Footnote. The Indians sink wells in Arabia for the same reason which impels them to dig tanks at home, Nam Kevaste, for the purpose of the name. Thereby denoting together with a laudable desire for a posthumous fame, a notable lack of ingenuity in securing it, for it generally happens that before the third generation has fallen the well and the tank have either lost their original names or have exchanged them for others, newer and better known, and a footnote. But we left it behind, wishing to put as much space as we could between our tents and the nest of the Hamida, then quitting the fumata we struck northwards into the well trodden road, running over stony rising ground. The heat became sickening. Here and in the east generally, at no time is the sun more dangerous than between eight and nine a.m. Still we hurried on. It was not before eleven a.m. that we reached our destination. A rugged plain covered the stones, coarse gravel, and thorn trees in abundance, and surrounded by inhospitable rocks, pinnacle-shaped or granite below, and in the upper parts of fine limestone. The well was at least two miles distant, and not a hovel was in sight. A few Bedouin children belonging to an outcast tribe fed their starvelling goats upon the hills. This place is called Suwayqa, it is, I was told, that celebrated in the history of the Arabs. Suwayqa derives its name from the circumstance that in the second or the third year of the hijra, Muhammad here attacked Abu Zafian, who was out on a foray with two hundred men. The infidels in their headlong fight lightened their beasts by emptying their bags of savieq. This is the old and modern Arabic name for a dish of green grain, toasted, pounded, mixed with sugar or dates, and eaten on journeys when it is found difficult to cook. Such is the present signification of the word. M. C. de Perceval gives it a different and now unknown meaning, and our popular authors erroneously call the affair the war of the meal-sacks and a footnote. Yet not for this reason did my comrades look lovingly upon its horrors. Their boxes were safe, and with the eye of imagination they could now behold their homes. That night we must have travelled about twenty-two miles. The direction of the road was due east, and the only remarkable feature in the ground was its steady rise. We pitched the tent under a villainous mimosa, the tree whose shade is compared by poetic bedouin to the false friend who deserts you in your utmost need. I enlivened the hot dull day by a final affair beside the demon. His alacrity at Yambar obtained for him the loan of a couple of dollars. He had bought grain at Alhamra, and now we were near Almedina, still there was not a word about repayment. And knowing that an Oriental debtor discharges his debt as he pays his rent, namely with the greatest unwillingness, and that on the other hand an Oriental creditor will devote the labour of a year to recovering a sixpence, a resolve to act as a native of the country placed in my position would, and by dint of sheer dunning and demanding pledges to recover my property. About noon, said the demon, after a furious rush, bear headed through the burning sun, flung the two dollars down upon my carpet. However, he presently recovered temper, and as subsequent events showed, they had chosen the right part. Had he not been forced to repay his debt, he would have despised me as a freshman, and would have coveted more. As it was, the boy Mohammed bore the brunt of unpopular feeling, my want of liberality being traced to his secret and perfidious admonitions. He supported his burden the more philosophically because, as he notably calculated, every dollar saved at Almedina would be spent under his stewardship at Mecca. At four p.m. July 24 we left Sueqa, all of us in the crosses of humours, and travelled in a north-east direction. So out of temper were my companions that, at sunset of the whole party, Ahmed Effendi was the only one who would eat supper. The rest sat upon the ground, pouting, grumbling, and they had been allowed to exhaust my stock of Latakia, smoking Syrian tobacco, as if it were a grievance. Such a game at naughty children, I have seldom seen being played by Oriental men. The boy Mohammed privately remarked to me that the camel men's beards were now in his fist, meaning that we were out of their kinsmen, the herds reach. As soon as an opportunity to quarrel with them, and because one of his questions was not answered in the shortest possible time, he proceeded to abuse them in language which send their hands flying in the direction of their swords. Despite however this threatening demeanour, the youth knowing that he now could safely go to any lengths continued his ill words, and Mansoor's face was so comically furious that I felt too much amused to interfere. At last the camel men disappeared, thereby punishing us most effectually for our sport. The road lay up rocky hill and down stony veil, a tripping and stumbling dromedary had been substituted for the usual monitor. The consequence was that we had either a totter or a tumble once every mile during the whole of that long night. In vain the now fiery Mohammed called for the assistance of the camel men with the full force of his lungs. Where be those owls, those oxens of the oxen, those beggars, those cut-off ones, those foreigners, those sons of flight? footnote, a popular but not a bad pun, herb or fight becomes by the alteration of the age, herb or flight, and a footnote. Withered be their hands, palsied be their fingers, the foul mustachioed fellows, basis of the Arabs that ever hammered ten pegs, sneaking cats, goats of al-Akhfash, footnote. The old Arabic proverb is, a greater wise acre than the goat of Akhfash, it is seldom intelligible to the vulgar and the footnote. Truly I will torture them the torture of the oil, footnote. That is to say, I will burn them metaphorically as the fiery which consumes the oil, a most idiomatic hijazi threat, and a footnote. The minds of infamy, the cold of countenance, a footnote. A cold of countenance is a fool. Arabs use the word cold in a peculiar way. May Allah refrigerate thy countenance, i.e. may it show misery and want. By Allah cold speech, that is to say, a silly or an abuse of terror, and a footnote. The bedouin brotherhood of the camel-man looked at him wickedly, muttering the while. By Allah and by Allah and by Allah, oh boy, we will frog thee like a hound when we catch thee in the desert. All our party called upon him to desist, but his temper had got completely the upper hand over his discretion, and as he expressed himself in such classic and idiomatic hijazi that I had not the heart to stop him. Some days after our arrival at Al-Madinah, Sheikh Hamid warned him seriously never again to go such perilous lengths, as the many herds were celebrated for shooting or punyarding the man who ventured to use to them even the mild epithet O Jackass. And in the quiet of the city, the boy Mohammed, like a sobered man, shuddering at dangers, braved when drunk, harkened with discomposure, and penitence to his friend's words. The only immediate consequence of his abuse was that my broken shaft of became a mere ruin and we passed the dark hours perched like two birds upon the only entire bits of framework the cots contained. The sun had nearly risen, July 25th, before I shook off the lethargic effects of such a night. All around me were hurrying their camels, regardless of rough ground, and not a soul spoke to his neighbor. Are there robbers inside? was the natural question. No, replied Mohammed, they are walking with their eyes, they will presently see their homes. That is to say, they would use, if necessary, the dearest and noblest parts of their bodies, i.e. their eyes, to the duty of the basest, i.e. their feet, and a footnote. Rapidly we passed the word Al-Aqiq. Writers mentioned two Aqiqs. The superior comprises the whole side of Al-Madinah, extending from the western ridge, mentioned below, to the cemetery of Al-Baqir. The inferior is the fumara here alluded to. It is on the Meccan Road, about four miles south-west of Al-Madinah, and its waters fall into the Himrateran. It is called the Blessed Valley because the Prophet was ordered by an angel to pray in it, and a footnote, of which, O my friend, this is Aqiq, then stand by it, endeavouring to be distracted by love, if not really a lover. Footnote. The esoteric meaning of this couplet is, Man, this is a lovely portion of God's creation, then stand by it, and hear, learn to love the perfections of the supreme friend. And a footnote. And a thousand other such pretty things have been said by the Arab poets. It was as dry as summer's dust, and its beautiful trees appeared in the shape of vegetable mummies. Half an hour after leaving the Blessed Valley, we came to a huge flight of steps, roughly cut in a long broad line of black scuriasis basalt. This is termed the Mederrij, or flight of steps, over the western ridge of the so-called Haratain. Footnote. Al Haratain for Al Haratani, the oblique case of the dual and plural noun being universally used for the nominative in colloquial Arabic. The other one of the two ridges will be described in a future part of this book. And a footnote. It is holy ground for the Apostle spoke well of it. Arrived at the top, we passed through a lane of dark lava, with steep banks on both sides, and after a few minutes, a full view of the city suddenly opened upon us. Footnote. The city is first seen from the top of the valley, called Naqab or Sha'ab Ali, close to the Wadi al-Aqiq, a long narrow pass about five miles from Al-Madina. Here, according to some, was the Mosque of Al-Halifa, where the Prophet put on pilgrim's garb when travelling to Mecca. It is also called the Mosque of the Tree, because near it grew a fruit tree under which the Prophet twice sat. Ibn Jubeir considers that the Haram, or the sacred precincts of Al-Madina, is the space enclosed by three points. The Al-Halifa, Mount Ahud, and the Mosque of Quba. To the present day pilgrims draw off their worldly garments at the Al-Halifa. And a footnote. We halted our beasts, as if by word of command. All of us descended, in invitation of the pious of old, and sat down, jaded and hungry as we were, to feast our eyes with a view of the holy city. O Allah, this is the Haram, the sanctuary of thy Apostle. Make it to us a protection from Hellfire, and a refuge from eternal punishment. O open the gates of thy mercy, and let us pass through them to the land of joy. And O Allah, bless the last of prophets, the seal of prophecy, with blessings in number as the stars of heaven, and the waves of the sea, and the sands of the waste. Bless him, O Lord of mighty and majesty, as long as the cornfield and the date-grove continue to feed mankind. Footnote. That is to say, throughout all ages and nations, the Arabs divide the world into two great bodies, themselves first, and secondly, Ajami, i.e., all that are not Arabs. Similar by partitions are the Hindus and Mleicans, the Jews and the Gentiles, the Greeks and the Barbarians, etc., etc. And a footnote. And again. Live forever, O most excellent of prophets, live in the shadow of happiness during the hours of night and the times of day, whilst the bird of tamarisks, or the dove, moaneth like the childless mother, whilst the west wind blows gently over the hills of Nijj and the lightning flashes bright in the firmament of Al-Hijjahs. Such were the poetical exclamations that rose all around me, showing how deeply tinged with imagination becomes the language of the Arab under the influence of strong passion or religious enthusiasm. I now understood the full value of the phrase in the Muslim ritual, and when his, the pilgrims' eyes fall upon the trees of Al-Medina, let him raise his voice and bless the apostle with the choices of blessings. In all the fair view before us, nothing was more striking after the desolation through which we had passed than the gardens and the orchards about the town. It was impossible not to enter into the spirit of my companions, and truly I believe that for some minutes my enthusiasm rose as high as theirs. But presently when we remounted, the traveller returned strong upon me. Footnote. Religious men, especially those belonging to the school of Al-Malik, enter into Al-Medina after the example of Ali, on foot, reverently as the pilgrims approach Makkah, and a footnote. I made a rough sketch of the town, put questions about the principal buildings, and in fact collected materials for the next chapter. The distance traversed that night was about twenty-two miles in direction, varying from easterly to north easterly. We reached Al-Medina on the twenty-fifth of July, thus taking nearly eight days to travel over a little more than a hundred and thirty miles. This journey is performed with camels in four days, and a good dromedary will do it without difficulty in half that time. Footnote. Barbosa makes three days' journey from Myanmar to Al-Medina. Depello, eight, and Ovington, six. The usual time is from four to five days. A fertile source of error to home geographers, computing distance in Arabia. Is there a neglecting the difference between the slow camel travelling and the fast dromedary riding? The following is a synopsis of our stations. One. From Myanmar, eleventh of July to Misahel, northeast, is sixteen miles. Two. From Misahel, nineteenth of July to Bir Said, south, thirty-four miles, and east, sixty-four miles. Three. From Bir Said, twentieth of July to Al-Himra, northeast, fourteen miles. Four. From Al-Himra, twenty-first of July to Bir Abbas, east, twenty-four miles. Five. From Bir Abbas, twenty-third of July to Suweika, east, twenty-two miles. Six. From Suweika, twenty-fourth of July to Al-Medina, north, twenty-two miles, and east, sixty-eight miles. Total English miles, a hundred and thirty-two. And a footnote. End of chapter fourteen. Chapter fifteen of Personal Narrative of Pilgrimage to Al-Medina and Mecca. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Chapter fifteen of Personal Narrative of Pilgrimage to Al-Medina and Mecca by Richard Francis Burton. Through the suburb of Al-Medina to Hammett's house. As we looked eastward, the sun arose out of the horizon of low hill, blurred and dotted with small, tufted trees, which gained from the morning mists a giant stature, and the earth was tamed with purple and gold. Before us lay a spacious plain, bounded in front by the undulating ground of niched. On the left was a grim pile of rocks, the celebrated mount ahead, with a clump of verdure and a white dome or two nestling at its base. Rightwards broad streaks of lily-colored mists, here thick with gathered dew, there pierced and thinned by the morning rays. Stretched over the date-groves and the gardens of Quba, which stood out in emerald green from the dull, tawny surface of the plain. Below, distant about two miles, lay Al-Medina. At first sight it appeared a large place, but a closer inspection proved the impression to be erroneous. A tortuous road from the hara to the city wound across the plain, and led to a tall rectangular gateway, pierced in the ruinous mud-wall which surrounds the suburb. This is the embody entrance. It is flanked on the left, speaking as catcher, by the domes and minarets of a pretty Turkish building, the Taqiyya, erected by the late Muhammed Ali for the reception of dervish travelers. On the right by a long, low line of white-washed buildings, garnished with ugly square windows and imitation of civilized barracks. Beginning from the left hand, we sat upon the ridge. The remarkable features of the town thus presented themselves in succession. Outside, among the palm trees to the north of the city, were picturesque ruins of a large, old, civil, or public fountain, and between this and the anciente stood a conspicuous building in the Turkish pavilion style, the governor's palace. Under northwest angle of the town wall is a tall, white-washed fort, partly built upon an outcropping mass of rocks. Its ramparts and embrasures give it a modern and European appearance, which contrasts strangely with its truly oriental history. Footnote. In the east, wherever there is a compound of fort and city that plays has certainly been in the habit of being divided against itself. Surat in western India is a well-known instance. I must refer the reader to Burkhard travels of Arabia volume 2, page 281, and onwards, for a detailed account of the feuds and effrays between the Agha of the castle and the Agha of the town. Their days has now gone by, for the moment. And a footnote. In the suburb, Almanakhha, the kneeling place of the camels, the brand-new domes and minarets of the five mosques, stand brightly out of the dull grey mass of house and ground. And behind, in the most easterly part of the city, remarkable from afar, is the gem of El Medina, the four tall, substantial towers and a flashing green dome under which the Apostles remains rest. Footnote. Sir John Mandeville, writing in the fourteenth century, informed Europe that Mahomet Lyeth in the scythe of Methone. In the nineteenth century, Mr. Halliwell, his editor, teaches us in a footnote that Methone is Mecca. It is strange how often this gross mistake is still made by respectable authors in France as well as in England, and the Fitna. Half concealed by this mass of buildings and by the houses of the town are certain white specks upon green surface, the tombs that adorn the venerable cemetery, Al-Baqir. From that point, southwards begins the mass of palm groves celebrated in Al-Islam as the trees of El Medina. The foreground is well fitted to set off such view. Fields of black balsatics courier showing clear signs of volcanic origin are broken up into huge blocks and boulders, through which a descent tolerably steep for camels lines down into the plain. After a few minutes' rest I remounted and slowly rode on towards the gate. Even at this early hour the way was crowded with an eager multitude coming out to meet the caravan. My companions preferred walking, apparently for the better convenience of kissing, embracing, and shaking hands with relations and friends. Truly the Arabs show more heart on these occasions than any oriental people I know. They are of more affectionate nature than Persians, and their manners are far more demonstrative than those of the Indians. The respectable Mariam's younger son, a pleasant contrast to her surly elder, was weeping aloud for joy as he ran round his mother's camel, standing on tiptoe, she bending double in vain attempts to exchange a kiss, and generally when near relatives or intimates or school companions met the fountains of their eyes were open. Friends and comrades greeted one another regardless of rank or fortune, with affectionate embraces and an abundance of queries which neither parties seemed to think of answering. The general model of saluting was to throw one arm over the shoulder and the other round aside, placing the chin first upon the left and then upon the right collarbone, and rapidly shifting till a jam satis suggested itself to both parties. In various, recognized their superiors by attempting to kiss hands which were violently snatched away, whilst mere acquaintances gave each other a cordial poignée de mel, and then rising the fingertips to their lips kissed them with apparent relish. Passing through the Bob-Ambari we defiled slowly down a broad dusty street and averse the head out or the quarters of Ambaria, the principal in the Manacha suburb. The thoroughfare is by no means remarkable after Cairo, only it is rather wider and more regular than the traveller is accustomed to in Asiatic cities. I was astonished to see on both sides of the way, in so small a place so large a number of houses too ruinous to be occupied. Then we crossed a bridge, a single little round arch of roughly hewn stone, built over the bed of a torrent, a seh, which in some parts appeared about fifty feet broad, with banks showing a high and deeply indented watermark. Footnote, this torrent is called a seh, or the running water, which properly speaking is the name of a well-wooded wadi outside the town in the direction of Quba, and a footnote. Here the road aboots upon an open space called Barral Manacha, or more concisely, alber, or the plain. Footnote, Manacha is a place where camels kneel down, it is a derivation from the better known route to Nakh, or to cause the animal to kneel, and a footnote. Straight forward a line leads directly to the Bab el-Masr, or the Egyptian gate of the city. But we turned off to the right, and after advancing few yards we found ourselves at the entrance of our friend Hamid's house. The sheikh had preceded us early that morning in order to prepare an apartment for his guests, and to receive the first loud congratulations and embraces of his mother and the daughter of his uncle. Footnote, Arabs and indeed most Orientals are generally received after returning from a journey with shrill cries of joy by all the fair part of the household, and they do not like strangers to hear this demonstration. And a footnote. Apparently he had not concluded this pleasing duty when we arrived, for the camels were kneeling at least five minutes before he came out to offer the usual hospitable salutation. I stared to see the difference of his appearance this morning. The razor had passed over his head and face. Footnote, an eastern barber is not content to pass the razor over hairy spots. He must scrape the forehead, trim the eyebrows, clean the cheeks, run the blade rapidly over the nose, correct the helper and underlines of the moustache, parting them in the center and so on. And a footnote. The former was now surmounted by a muslin turban of goodly size, wound round a new embroidered cap, and the latter, beside being clean, boasted of neat little moustaches, turned up like two commas, whilst a well-trimmed goat's beard narrowed until resembled what our grammars call an exclamation point. The dirty-torn shirt with the bits of rope-round loins had been exchanged for a jubba or outer cloak of light pink marinos, a light-sleeved caftan of rich-flowered stuff, a fine shirt of halayli, silk and cotton and sash of plate pattern, elaborately fringed at both ends and four-better display, wound round two-thirds of his body. Footnote. Halayli is cotton stuff, with long stripes of white silk, a favorited material amongst the city Arabs. At Constantinople where the best is sold, the piece which will cut into two shirts cost about thirty shillings. End of footnote. His pantaloons were also of halayli, with tasteful edgings about ankles like pantilettes, while his bare and sunburned feet had undergone a thorough purification before being cased in a new miz, inner slippers and papush, or outer slippers, of bright lemon-colored leather of the newest and most fashionable Constantinople-iton cut. Footnote. The miz, in colloquial Arabic, are the tight-fitting inner slippers of soft cardivane leather worn as stockings inside the slipper. They are always clean, so they may be retained in the mosque or on the D1, the D-van or sofa. End of footnote. In one of his now-delicate hands, the sheikh bore a mother of pearl rosary, token of piety. In the other, a handsome pipe with a jasmine stick and an expensive amber mouthpiece. His tobacco pouch dangling from his waist, like the little purse in the bosom pocket of his coat, was of broad cloth, richly embroidered with gold. In course of time I saw that all my companions had metamorphosed themselves in an equally remarkable manner, as men of sense they appeared in tatters where they were or when they wished to be unknown, and in fine linen where and when the world judged their prosperity by their attire. Their grand suits of clothes therefore were worn only for a few days after returning from the journey by way of proof that the wearer had wandered to some purpose. They were afterwards laid up in lavender and reserved for choice occasions, as old ladies in Europe store up their state dresses. The sheikh, whose manners had changed with his garments, from the vulgar and boisterous to a certain state courtesy, took my hand and led me up the majlis or the place of sitting is the drawing or the reception room. It is usually the first story of the house below the apartments of the women. And behind us followed the boy Mohammed, looking more downcast and ashamed of himself that I can't possibly describe. He was still in his rags, and he felt keenly what every visitor staring at him was doing, and he felt that he was still in his rags, and he felt keenly what every visitor staring at him would mentally inquire. Who may that not be? With the deepest dejectedness he squeezed himself into a corner, and Sheikh Noor, who was foully dirty as an Indian envoyage always is, would have joined him in his shame, had I not ordered the slave to make himself generally useful. It is customary, for all relations and friends, to call upon the traveller the very day he returns, that is to say, if amity is to endure. The pipes therefore stood readily filled, the divans were duly spread, and the coffee was being boiled upon a brassiere in the passage. Footnote, the coffee drank at El Medina is generally of a good quality. In Egypt that beverage in the common coffee shops is, as required by the people who frequent those places, bitter is death, black as Satan, and as hot as Jehannam. To affect this desiratum, therefore they toast the grain to blackness, boil it to bitterness, and then drink the scalding stuff of the consistency of water gruel. At El Medina, on the contrary, as indeed in the house of the better classes, even in Egypt, the grain is carefully picked, and that the flavor may be preserved, is never put on the fire until required. It is toasted, too, till it becomes yellow, not black, and afterwards is bruised, not pounded, to powder. The water into which it is thrown is allowed to boil up three times, before which a cold sprinkling is administered to clear it, and then the fine light done in fusion is poured off into another pot. Those who admire kamak, or froth, do not use a second vessel. The Arabs seldom drink more than one cup of coffee at a time, but many the time is every half an hour of the day. The coffee husk, or kishir of El Yaman, is here unknown, and of it no. Scarcely had I taken my place at the cool windowsill. It was the best in the room. When the visitors began to pour in, and the sheikh rose to welcome and embrace them, they sat down, smoked, chatted politics, asked all manners of questions about the other wayfarers and absent friends, drank coffee, and, after half an hour's visit, rose abruptly, and exchanging embraces to cleave. The little men entered the assembly after an accolade at the door, noiselessly squatted upon the worst seats with polite congest to the rest of the assembly, smoked their coffee as it were under protest, and glided out of the room as quietly as they crept in. The great people generally busy and consequential individuals upon whose contenances were writ large the words, well to do in the world, appeared in a noise that made each person in the room rise that, eventually, upon his feet, sat down with importance, monopolized the conversation, and departing in a dignified manner, expected all to stand on the occasion. As ye had, holy war, as usual, was the grand topic of conversation, the sultan had ordered the tsar to become Muslim. The tsar had sued for peace and offered tribute and fealty, but the sultan had exclaimed, No, by Allah, al-Islam! The tsar could not be expected to take such a step without little hesitation, but Allah smites the faces of infidels after Majid would dispose of the Moscow in a short time. Fidna, Moscow is the common name for the Russians in Egypt and El-Hijaz, and of Fidna. After which he would turn his victorious army against all the idolaters of Ferencistan, beginning with the English, the French, and the Arwam, or Greeks. Fidna, the Greeks are well known at El-Medina, and several of the historians complained that some of the minor holy places had fallen into the hands of this race. Muslims, or pretended Muslims, I presume, who prevented people visiting them. It is curious that imposter Kagliostro should have hit upon the truth when he located Greeks at El-Medina. Amongst much of this nonsense, when applied to, for my opinion, I was careful to make it popular, I heard news foreboding no good to my journey towards Muscat. The Bedouin had decided that there was an Arab contingent, and had been looking forward to the spoils of Europe. This caused great quarrels as all the men wanted to go, and not a ten-year-old would be left behind. The consequence was that this amiable people was fighting in all directions. At least so said the visitors, and I afterwards found out that they were not far from wrong. This amann is a great family, in numbers, as in dignity. From eight a.m. till midday, therefore, the Majlis was crowded with people, and politeness delayed our breakfast until an unconsiderable hour. To the plague of strangers succeeded that of children. No sooner did the parlor become comparatively speaking vacant than they rushed in en masse, treating upon our toes, making the noise of a nursery madling's, pulling to pieces everything they could lay their hands upon, and using language that would have alarmed an old man-o-war's man. Footnote. Parents and full-grown men amused themselves with grossly abusing children, almost as soon as they can speak in order to excite their rage and to judge their dispositions. This applies to infant population with a large stocking trade of ribaldry. They literally lisp in bad language and a footnote. In fact, no one can conceive the plague, but those who have studied the enfant terrible, which India sends home in cargos. An urchin, scarcely three years old, told me, because I objected to his perching upon my wounded foot, that his father had a sword at home with which he would cut my throat from ear to ear, suiting the action to the word. By few taunts I made the little wretch furious with rage. He shook his infant fist at me, and then, opening his enormous round black eyes to their utmost stretch, he looked at me, and licked his knee with portentous meaning. Shaikh Hamid, appearing to come in at the moment, stood aghast at the doorway, chin in hand to see the offended object to such indignity, and it was not without trouble that I saved the offender from summary nursery discipline. Another scamp caught one of my loaded pistols before I could snatch it out of his hand and clapped it to his neighbor's head. Fortunately, he was on half-cock, and the trigger was stiff. Then a serious and majestic boy, about six years old, with an ink stand in his belt, token of his receiving a literary education, seized my pipe and began to smoke it with huge puffs. I ventured, laughingly, to institute a comparison between the length of this person and the pipe-stick. When he threw it upon the ground and stared at me fixedly with flaming eyes and features distorted by anger, the calls of his boldness soon appeared. The boy, instead of being well beaten, was scolded with fierce faces, a mode of punishment which only made them laugh. They had redeeming points, however. They were manly angry boys, who punched one another like anglosaxons in the house. Whilst abroad they were always fighting with sticks and stones, and they examined our weapons before ordaining to look at anything else, as if eighteen out of five had been the general age. At last I so far broke through the laws of the Arab politeness as to inform my host in plain words how inconceivably wretched the boy Mohammed was thereby rendered, that I was hungry, thirsty, and sleepy, and that I wanted to be alone before visiting the haram. A good-natured sheikh who was preparing to go out at once in order to pray for his father's grave immediately brought breakfast, lighted a pipe, spread a bed, darkened the room, turned out the children, and left me to the society I most desired, my own. Then I overheard him summon his mother, wife, and other female relatives into the storeroom where his treasure had been carefully stowed away. During the forenoon in the presence of the visitors, one of Hamid's uncles had urged him, half-chocularly, to bring out the shekhara. The sheikh did not care to do anything of the kind. Every time a new box is opened in this part of the world, the owner's generosity is appealed to by those whom a refusal offends, and he must allow himself to be plundered with the best possible grace. Hamid, therefore, prudently suffered all to depart before exhibiting his spoils, which to judge by the exclamations of delight which they elicited from feminine lips proved highly satisfactory to those concerned. After sleeping, we all set out in a body to the harem, as this is a duty which must not be delayed by the pious. The boy Muhammad was in better spirits, the effect of having borrowed from Hamid, amongst other articles of clothing, and exceedingly gaudy embroidered coat. As for the sheikh Noor, he had brushed up his tarbouj, and by no means of some cast-off dresses of mine had made himself look like a respectable Bessinian slave in a non-descript toilet. Half Turkish, half Indian, had proposed to reserve the ceremony of ziyarat or visitation for another chapter, and to conclude this with a short account of our style of living in the sheikh's hospitable house. Hamid's abode is a small corner building, open under north and east to the Barra-al-Manacha. The ground floor shows only a kind of room, in which coarse articles, like old chukdufs, mats, and bits of sacking, are lying about. The rest are devoted to the purpose of surge. Ascending dark winding steps of ragged stone covered with hard black earth, you come to the first floor, where the men live. It consists of two rooms to the front of the house, one a mejlis and another converted into a store. Behind them is a dark passage, into which the doors open and the back of the first story is a long windowless room, containing a henafiya or a large copper water pot, and other conveniences for purification. Footnote, the henafiya is a large vessel of copper, sometimes thinned with a cock in the lower part, and generally a neewer or a basin to receive the water. And a footnote, on the second floor is the kitchen, which I did not inspect, it being as usual occupied by the harem. The mejlis has dwarf windows, or rather apertures in the northern and eastern walls, with rude wooden shutters and red blinds, the embrasures being garnished with cushions where you sit morning and evening to enjoy the cool air. The ceilings of date-sticks laid across palm rafters, stained red, and the walls are of rough scurrier, burnt bricks and woodwork cemented with lime. The only signs of furniture in the sitting room are a diwan round the size and a carpet in the center. Footnote, it is wonderful that this most comfortable inexpensive and ornamental style of furnishing a room has not been often or imitated in India and the hot countries of Europe. The diwan, it must be not confounded with the leather and perversion which obtains that name in our club smoking rooms, is a line of flat cushions, range round the room, either placed upon the ground, or on wooden benches, or on a step of masonry, farrying in height according to the fashion of the day. When such foundation is used, it should be about a yard in breadth and slope very gently from the outer edge towards the wall, for the greater convenience of reclining. Cut and stuffed pillows covered with chintz for summer and silk for winter are placed against the wall and can be moved to make a luxurious heap. Their covers are generally of the same color, except those at the end. The seat of honor is denoted by a small square cut and stuffed silk coverlet placed in one of the corners, which the position of the windows determines the place of distinction being on the left of the host. As in Egypt, you have a neatly furnished room for five to six pounds, and a footnote. A huge wooden box like a seaman's chest occupies one of the corners. In the southern wall there is a sofa, or a little shelf of common stone, sunk under a single arch. Upon this are placed articles in hourly use, perfume bottles, coffee cups, a stray book or two and sometimes a turban to be out of the children's way. Two hooks on the western wall hung jealously high up, hold a pair of pistols with handsome crimson cords and tassels, and half a dozen cherry stick pipes. The center of the room is never without one or more shishas or water pipes. Footnote, the Medina Shisha is a large coconut with a tall wooden stem, both garnished with brass ornaments. Some travelling differences in the latter distinguishes it from the Makka pipe. Both are conveniently mounted upon small brass tripods, and are easily overturned, scattering fire and water over the carpets. The lei, or snakes, are substantial manufacture of eliemen. Some grandees at El Medina have glass, Turkish shishas and Constantinople snakes, which are of admirable elegance compared with the clumsy and unsightly Arab inventions and a footnote. And in the corner is a large copper brazier containing fire with all the utensils for making coffee, either disposed upon its broad brim or lying about the floor. The passage, like the stairs, is spread over with hard black earth and is regularly watered twice a day during the hot weather. The household consisted of Hamid's mother, wife, some nephews and nieces, small children who ran about in half-wild and more than half-nude state, and two African slave-girls. When the Damascus caravan came in, it was further reinforced by the arrival of his three younger brothers. Though the house was not grand, it was made lively by the varied views of the Medina Shisha's windows. From the east you looked upon the square El Ber, the town walls beyond it, the Egyptian gate, the lofty minarets of the harem, and the distant outlines of Jabal-Uhd. Footnote. From this window I sketched the walls and the Egyptian gate of the Medina. And a footnote. The north commanded a prospect of Muhammad's mosque, one of the five masajids, or the five mosques, or the five suburban mosques. Footnote. This mosque must not be confounded with the harem. It is described in Chapter 15. And a footnote. Of part of the fort wall, and when the Damascus caravan came in, of the gay scene of the Prado beneath, the mesulis was tolerably cool during the early part of the day. In the afternoon the sun shone fiercely upon it. I had described the establishment at some length as a specimen of how the middle classes are lodged at the Medina. The upper ranks affect Turkish and Egyptian luxuries in their homes, as I had the opportunity of seeing at Omar Effendi's house in the Berr. And in these countries the abodes of the poor are everywhere, very similar. Our life in Sheikh Hamid's house was quiet but not disagreeable, and ever once had eyes upon the face of women, unless the African girls be allowed the title. Even these at first attempted to draw their ragged veils over their sable charms, and would not answer the simplest question. By degrees they allowed me to see them, and they ventured their voices to reply to me. Still they never threw off a certain appearance of shame. Footnote. Their voices are strangely soft and delicate, considering the appearance of organs from which they proceed. Possibly this may be a characteristic of the African voices. It is remarkable amongst the Somali women. And a footnote. I never saw nor even heard the youthful mistress of the house who stayed all day in the upper rooms. The old lady Hamid's mother would stand upon the stairs and converse aloud with her son, to when few people were about the house with me. She never, however, as afterwards happened to an ancient dame at Mecca came and sat by my side. When lying during midday in the gallery, I often saw parties of women mount the stairs to the gynaecognitus, and sometimes an individual would stand to shake a muffled hand with Hamid, to gossip a while and to put some questions concerning absent friends. Footnote. After touching the skin of a strange woman, it is not lawful in the Islam to pray without ablution. For this reason when a fair dame shakes hands with you, she wraps her fingers in a kerchief or in the end of her veil. And a footnote. But they were most decorously wrapped up, nor did they ever deign to deroger even by exposing an inch of cheek. At dawn we arose, washed, prayed, and broke our fast upon a crust of stale bread. Footnote. Literally means, let's open the saliva. The most idiomatic hijazi for the first morsel eaten in the morning hence it is called Fakr Req, also Gura and Tasbih, as the Egyptians call it al-Futur. End of footnote. Before smoking a pipe and drinking a cup of coffee. Footnote. Orientals invariably begin by eating an akratisma in the morning before they will smoke a pipe or drink a cup of coffee. They have also an insupperable prejudice against the internal use of cold water in this hour. End of footnote. Then it was time to dress, to mount, and to visit the Hedam, or one of the holy places outside the city. Returning before the sun became intolerable, we sat together with conversation and shisha and gibuks. Footnote. The tobacco generally smoked here is Syrian, which is brought down in large quantities by the Damascus caravan. Latakia is more expensive and generally too dry to retain its flavor. End of footnote. Coffee and cold water perfumed with mastic smoke. Footnote. The interior of the water jar here is perfumed with the smoke of mastic exactly as described by Lane. Model Egyptian's Volume 1, Chapter 5. I found at El Medina the prejudice alluded to by Sonini, namely that the fumes of the gum are prejudicial and sometimes fatal to invalids. End of footnote. We wailed away the time till our arrest on a dinner which appeared at the primitive hour of 11 a.m. The meal here is called El Ghedel, was served in the mejlis on a large copper tray, sent from the upper apartments. Ejaculating Bismillah, the Muslim Grace, we all sat around it and dipped equal hands in the dishes set before us. We had usually unleavened bread, different kinds of meat and vegetable stews, and at the end of the first course, plain boiled rice eaten with spoons. Then came the fruits, fresh dates, grapes, and pomegranates. After dinner, I used invariably to find some excuse such as the habit of the Qailu'la. Footnote. Qailu'la is the half-hour siesta about noon. It is a sunnah, and the Prophet said, Take the midday siesta, for verily the demons sleep not at this hour. Qailu'la is slumbering after morning prayers, our beautiful sleep, which causes heaviness and inability to work. Qailu'la is the sleeping about 9 a.m., the effect of which is poverty and wretchedness. Qailu'la, with a guttural calf, is sleeping before evening prayers, a practice reprobrated in every part of the east. And finally Qailu'la is sleeping immediately after sunset, also considered highly detrimental. And a footnote. Or the being a Saudawi excuse, a person of melancholy temperament. Footnote. The Arabs who suffer greatly from melancholia are kind to people afflicted with this complaint. It is supposed to cause a distaste for society and a longing for solitude, an unsettled habit of mind and a neglect of worldly affairs. Probably it is the effect of overworking the brain in a hot, dry atmosphere. I have remarked that in Arabia students are subject to it, and that amongst their philosophers and literary men there is scarcely an individual who was not spoken of as a Saudawi. My friend Omer Effendi used to complain that at times his temperament drove him out of the house. So much did he dislike the sound of the human voice to pass the day seated upon some eminence in the vicinity of the city. And a footnote. To have a rug spread in the dark passage behind the majlis, and there to lie reading, dosing, smoking, or riding in kashat, incomplete de Zabil, all through the worst part of the day from noon to sunset. Then came the hour for receiving or paying visits. We still kept up an intimacy with Omer Effendi and Sa'id the demon, although Salih Saqqar and Amjumal, either disliking our society or perhaps thinking our sphere of life too humble for their dignity, did not appear once in Hamid's house. The evening prayers ensued, either at home or in the haram, followed by our aisha or dipnoll, another substantial meal like the dinner but more plentiful of bread, meat, vegetable, plain rice and fruits, concluding with the invariable pipes and coffee. To pass our soiree, we occasionally dressed in common clothes, shouldered in a boot, and went to the cafe. Footnote. This habit of going out at night in common clothes, with an a boot upon one's shoulder, is as far as I could discover popular at El Medina, but confined to the lowest classes at Mecca. The boy Mohammed always spoke of it with undiscussed disapprobation. During my stay at Mecca, I saw no such costume amongst respectable people there, though oftentimes there was a suspicion of a disguise and a footnote. Sometimes on festive occasions, we indulged in a tatuma or a tmiya, a late supper of sweet meats, pomegranates and dried fruits. Usually we sat upon mattresses, spread upon the ground, in the open air at the Sheikh's door, receiving evening guests chatting, telling stories and making merry, till each, as he felt the approach of the drowsy god, sank down into his proper place and fell asleep. Whatever may be the heat of the day, the night at El Medina, owing I suppose to its elevated position, is cool and pleasant. In order to allay the dust, the ground before the Sheikh's door was watered every evening, and the evaporation was almost too great to be safe. The boy Mohammed suffered from a smart attack of Lombago, which, however, yielded readily to friction of olive oil in which ginger had been boiled. Our greatest inconvenience at night time was the pugnacity of the animal creation. The horses of the troopers, tethered in the berl, were sure to break loose once in twelve hours. Some hobbled old nag, having slipped this headstall, would advance with kangaroo leaps towards a neighbor against whom it had a private grudge. Their heads would touch for a moment, and came a snort, and a winny, and a furious kick, and lastly a second horse loose and dashing about with head and tail viciously cocked. This was the signal of a general breaking of halterers and heel robes, after which Stampede scored the plane galloping, rearing, kicking, biting, snorting, pawing, screaming, with the dogs barking sympathetically, and the horse keeper shouting in hot pursuit. It was a strange sight to be seen by the moonlight, the forms of these demon-steeds exaggerated by the shades, and on more than one occasion we had to start up precipitately from our beds, and yield them to a couple of combatants who were determined to fight out their quarrel, allotrons, wherever the battlefield might be. The dogs of El Medina are not less Ignatius than the horse's footnote. Burkhart travels in Arabia Volume 2, page 268, remarks that El Medina is the only town in the East from which dogs are excluded. This was probably as much a relic of Wahhabism, the sect hating even to look at a dog, as arising from apprehension of a mosque being polluted by canine intrusion. I have seen one or two of these animals in the town, but I was told that when they enter it in any numbers the police magistrate issues orders to have them ejected in the footnote. They are stronger and braver than those that haunt the cities at Cairo, like the Egyptians that have amongst themselves a system of police regulations which brings down all the posse comitatus upon the unhappy straggler who ventures into a strange quarter of the town. They certainly met in El Berro upon common ground to decide the differences which much arised in so artificial a state of canine society. Having had many opportunities of watching them, I can positively assert that they were divided into two parties, which fought with a skill and a national munt that astounded me. Sometimes when one side gave way and as a retreat was degenerating into a suave quipeau, some proud warrior, a dog-hero, would sacrifice himself for the public wheel, and with gnawing teeth and howls of rage encountered assaults of the insolent victors until his flying friends had time to recover heart. Such my companions called Mubares. Footnote. The Mubares is the single combatant, the champion of the Arabian classical and chivalrous times. And a footnote. At other times some huge animal and edjax of his kind would plunge into the ring with frantic yells, roll over one dog, snap at the second, worry a third for a minute or two, and then dash off to a distant part, where a thicker field required his presence. This uncommon sagacity has been remarked by the Arabs who look on amused at their battles. Current in edjax are also certain superstitions about the dog resembling ours, only as usual more poetical and less grotesque. Most people believe that when the animal howls without apparent cause in the neighborhood of a house it forbodes death to one of the inmates. For the dog they say can distinguish the awful form of Israel, the angel of death, hovering over the doomed abode, whereas man's spiritual side is dull and dim by reason of his sins. When the Damascus caravan entered El Medina our day became a little more amusing. From the window of Sheikh Hamid's house there was a perpetual succession of strange scenes. The Persian old woman also had pitched his stance so near the door that the whole course of his private life became public and patent to the boy Muhammad whom used his companions by reporting all manner of ludicrous scenes. The Persian's wife was rather a pretty woman, and she excited the youth's fierce indignation by not veiling her face when he gazed at her, thereby showing that as his beard was not grown she considered him a mere boy. I will ask her to marry me, said Muhammad, and thereby arouse her shame. And he did so but, unhappy youth, the fair Persian never even ceased fanning herself. The boy Muhammad was for months confounded.