 Chapter 26. Part 1 of Pilgrimage to Almedina 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 26. Part 1 of Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Almedina and Mecca by Richard Francis Burton. From Alsuwarkia to Mecca. We have now left the territory of Almedina. Alsuwarkia, which belongs to the sheriff of Mecca, is about 28 miles distant from Higria and by dead reckoning 99 miles along the road from the prophet's burial place. It's bearing from the last station was southwest 11 degrees. The town, consisting of about 100 houses, is built at the base and on the sides of a basaltic mass, which rises abruptly from the hard clay plain. The summit is converted into a rude fortless. Without one, no settlement can exist in Alhijaz. By a bulwark of uncut stone piled up so as to make a parapet. The lower part of the town is protected by a mud wall, with the usual semicircular towers. Inside, there is a bazaar, well supplied with meat, principally mutton, by the neighboring Badawin, and wheat, barley, and dates are grown near the town. There is little to describe in the narrow streets and the mud houses, which are essentially Arab. The fields around are divided into little square plots by earthen ridges and stone walls. Some of the palms are fine-grown trees, and the wells appear numerous. The water is near the surface and plentiful, but it has a brackish taste, highly disagreeable after a few days' use, and the effects are the reverse of calibiate. The town belongs to the Benuhusain, a race of schismatics mentioned in the foregoing pages. They claim the allegiance of the Badawi tribes around, principally mutire, and I was informed that their fealty to the Prince of Mecca is merely nominal. The morning after our arrival at Alsuwarkiya witnessed a commotion in our little party. He thereto, they had kept together in fear of the road. Among the number was one Ali Bin Yasin, a perfect old man of the sea. By profession, he was a zemzemi, or dispenser of water from the holy well. And he had a handsome palazo at the foot of Abu Kabaiz in Mecca, which he periodically converted into a boarding house. There are certain officers called zemzemi who distribute the holy water. In the case of a respectable pilgrim, they have a large jar of the shape described in Chapter 4, marked with his names and titles, and sent every morning to his lodgings. If he be generous, one or more will be placed in the harem that men may drink in his honor. The zemzemi expects a present varying from five to eleven dollars. Though past sixty, very decrepit, bent by age, white bearded, and toothless, he still acted ciceroni to pilgrims, and for that purpose traveled once every year to Almadina. These trips had given him the cunning of a veteran voyager. He lived well and cheaply. His home-made shook-doof, the model of comfort, was garnished with soft cushions and pillows, whilst from the pockets protruded select bottles of pickled limes and similar luxuries. He had his traveling shisha, water pipe, and at the halting place, disdaining the crowded, ricking tent, he had the contrivance for converting his vehicle into a habitation. Footnote The shisha, smoked on the camel, is a tin canister divided into two compartments, the lower half for the water, the upper one for the tobacco. The cover is pierced with holes to feed the fire, and a short hookah snake projects from one side. End of footnote He was a type of the Arab old man. He mumbled all day and three quarters of the night, for he had disonsomni. His nerves were so fine that if anyone mounted his shook-doof, the unfortunate was condemned to lie like a statue. Fijiti and prigishly neat, nothing annoyed him so much as a moment's delay, or an article out of place, a rag removed from his water-gaglet or a cooking pot imperfectly free from soot, and I judged his avarice by observing that he made a point of picking up and eating the grains scattered from our pomegranates, exclaiming that the heavenly seed, located there by Arab superstition, might be one of those so wantonly wasted. Ali bin Yasin, returning to his native city, had not been happy in his choice of a companion this time. The other occupant of the handsome shook-doof was an ignoble-faced Egyptian from Al-Madina. This ill-suited pair claved together for a while, but at al-Suwarkiya, some dispute about a copper coin made them permanent foes, with threats and abuse such as none but an Egyptian could tamely hear. Ali kicked his quantum friend out of the vehicle. But terrified, after reflection, by the possibility that the man, now his enemy, might combine with two or three Syrians of our party to do him a harm, and frightened by a few black looks, the senior determined to fortify himself by a friend. Connected with the boy Muhammad's family, he easily obtained an introduction to me. I kissed my hand with great servility, declared that his servant had behaved disgracefully, and begged my protection together with an occasional attendance of my slave. This was readily granted in pity for the old man, who became immensely grateful. He offered at once to take Sheikh Nurin to his shook-doof. The boy had already reduced to ruins, the frail structure of his shibria, by lying upon it lengthways, whereas prudent travelers sit in it cross-legged and facing the camel. Moreover, he had been left to scorn by the Badawin, who, seeing him pull up his dramedari to mount and dismount, had questioned his sex, and that remained him to be a woman of the Mian. Footnote Badawin I could not rebuke them. The poor fellow's timidity was a ridiculous contrast to the Badawi's style of mounting. A pull at the camel's head, the left foot placed on the neck, an agile spring, and a scramble into the saddle. Sheikh Nur, elated by the sight of old Ali's luxuries, promised himself some joyous hours, but next morning, he owned with a sigh that he had purchased splendor at the extravagant price of happiness. The senior's tongue never rested throughout the live long night. During our half-hold at Also Arquilla, we determined to have a small feast. We bought some fresh dates, and we paid a dollar and a half for a ship. Hungry travelers considered liver and fry a dish to set before a shake. On this occasion, however, our enjoyment was marred by the water. Even Sawyer's dinners would scarcely charm if washed down with cups of a certain mineral spring found at Epsom. We started at 10 a.m., Monday, 5th of September, in a south-easterly direction, and traveled over a flat, thinly dotted with desert vegetation. At 1 p.m., we passed a basaltic ridge, and then entering along the pressed line of country, a kind of valley, paced down at five tedious hours. The Samoma's usual was blowing hard, and it seemed to affect the travelers' tempers. In one place, I saw a Turk who could not speak a word of Arabic, violently disputing with an Arab who could not understand the word of Turkish. The pilgrim insisted upon adding to the camel's load a few dry sticks, such as are picked up for cooking. The camel man, as perseveringly through of the extra burden. They screamed with rage, hustled each other, and at last, the Turk dealt the Arab a heavy blow. I afterwards heard that the pilgrim was mortally wounded that night, his stomach being ripped open with a dagger. On inquiring what had become of him, I was assured that he had been comfortably wrapped up in his shroud and placed in a half-dug grave. This is the general practice in the case of the poor and solitary, whom illness or accident incapacitates from proceeding. It is impossible to contemplate such a fate without horror. The torturing thirst of a wound, the burning sun heating the brain to madness, and worst of all, for they do not wait till death, the attacks of the jackal, the vulture, and the raven of the wild. Footnote When Indians would say he was killed upon the spot, they used the picturesque phrase, he asked not for water. End of footnote At 6 p.m., before the light of day had faded, we traversed the raft and troublesome ridge, descending it, our course lay in a southerly direction, along a road flanked on the left by low hills of red sandstone and bright porphyry. About an hour afterwards, we came to a basalt field through whose blocks we threaded our way painfully and slowly, for it was then dark. At 6 p.m., the camels began to stumble over the dwarf dykes of the wheat and barley fields, and presently we arrived at our halting place, a large village called Alsofina. The plain was already dotted with tents and lights. We found the Baghdad Karavan, whose route here falls into the Darb al-Sharki. It consists of a few persians and Kurds and collects the people of northeastern Arabia, Wahabis, and others. It is noted by the Agail tribe and by the fierce mountaineers of Jabal Shamar. Scarcely was our tent pitched when the distant pattering of musketry and an ominous tapping of the kettle drum sent all my companions in different directions to inquire what was the cause of quarrel. The Baghdad Kafila, though not more than 2,000 in number, men, women, and children, had been proving to the Damascus Karavan that being perfectly ready to fight, was not going to yield any point of precedence. From that time, the two bodies encamped in different places. I never saw a more pergnacious assembly, a look sufficed for a quarrel. One saw a Habi stood in front of us and by pointing with his finger and other insulting gestures, showed his hatred to the Chibuk in which I was visibly indulging. It was impossible to refrain from justizing his insolence and smiling offer of the offending pipe. This made him draw his dagger without a thought, but it was sheathed again, for we all cocked our pistols and this gentry preferred steel to lead. We had traveled about 17 miles, and the direction of al-Sufayna from our last halting place was southeast five degrees. Though it was night when we encamped, Sheikh Masood set out to water his morning camels. They had not quenched their thirst for three days. He returned in a depressed state, having been bled by the soldier Yadawel to the extent of 40 pya stress or about eight shillings. After supper, we spread our rugs and prepared to rest, and here I first remarked the coolness of the nights, proving at this season of the year a considerable altitude above the sea. As a general rule, the atmosphere stagnated between sunrise and 7 a.m., when the light wind rose. During the 4 noon, the breeze strengthened, and it gradually diminished through the afternoon. Often about sunset, there was a gail accompanied by dry storms of dust, at al-Sufayna, though there was no night breeze and little dew, a blanket was necessary, and the hours of darkness was introduced to a namesake, one Sheikh Abdullah of Mecca. Having committed his shugduf to his son, alado 14, he had ridden forward on a dromedary and had suddenly fallen ill. His objects in meeting me were to ask for some medicine and for a temporary seat in my shugduf. The latter I offered with pleasure as the boy Muhammad was longing to mount a camel. The Sheikh's illness was nothing but weakness brought on by the hardships of the journey. He attributed it to the hot wind and to the weight of a bag of dollars which he had attached to his waist belt. He was a man about 40, long, thin, pale, and of a purely nervous temperament. And a few questions elicited the fact that he had lately and suddenly given up his daily opium pill. I prepared one for him, placed him in my litter, and persuaded him to stowaway in some place where it would be less troublesome. He was my companion for two marches at the end of which he found his own shugduf. I never met amongst the Arab citizens a better bread or a better informed man. At Constantinopo he had learned a little French, Italian, and Greek and from the properties of a shrub to the varieties of honey he was full of useful knowledge and openable as a dictionary. Footnote The Arabs are curious in and fond of honey. Meka alone affords eight or nine different varieties. The best and in Arab parlance the coldest is the green kind produced by bees at feed upon a thorny plant called siha. The white and red honeys rank next. The worst is the asal asmar, brown honey which sells for something under a piastre per pound. The Abyssinian mead is unknown in Alhijas but honey enters into a variety of dishes. End of footnote We parted near Meka where I met him only once and then accidentally in the valley of Muna. At half past five a.m. on Tuesday the sixth of September we rose refreshed by the cool comfortable night and loaded the camels. I had an opportunity of inspecting al-Sufayna. The village of fifty or sixty mud-walled flat-roofed houses defended by the usual rampart. Around it lie ample date grounds and fields of wheat, barley and maize. Its pazara at this season of the year is well supplied. Even fowls can be procured. We traveled towards the southeast and entered a country destitute of the low ranges of hill which from Almadina southwards had bounded the horizon. After a two miles march our camels climbed up a precipituse ridge and then descended into a broad gravel plain. From ten to eleven a.m. our course lay south early over a high table land and we afterwards traversed for five hours and a half a plain which bore signs of standing water. This day's march was peculiarly Arabia. It was a desert people only with echoes. A place of death for what little there is to die in it. A wilderness where, to use my companion's phrase, there is nothing but he. Footnote La Siwa Hu that is where there is none but Allah. End of footnote Nature's copped flay discovered all her skeleton to the gazer's eye. The horizon was a sea of mirage. Gigantic sand columns wheeled over the plain and on both sides of our road were huge piles of bay rock standing detached upon the surface of sand and clay. Here they appeared in oval lamps, heaped up with semblance of symmetry. There a single boulder stood with its narrow foundation based upon a pedestal of low dome shape and rock. All were of a pink coarse grain granite which flakes off in large crasts at the influence of the atmosphere. I remarked one block which could not measure fewer than 30 feet in height. Through these scenes we traveled till about half past 4 p.m. when the gun suddenly roared a halt. There was not a trace of human habitation around us. A few parched shrubs and the granite heaps were the only objects diversifying the hard clay plain. Sheikh Masood correctly guessed the cause of our detention at the inhospitable halting place of the mutair, Badawim. Cook your bread and boil your coffee said the old man. The carmers will rest for a while and the gun will sound at nightfall. We had passed over about 18 miles of ground and our present direction was southwest 20 degrees of al-Sofina. At half past 10 p.m. we heard a signal for departure and as the moon was still young we prepared for a hard night's work. We took a southwest early course through what is called Awar, rough ground covered with thicket. Darkness fell upon us like a pall. The camels tripped and stumbled tossing their litters like cockboats in a short sea. At times the shug-doops were well night turn off their backs. When we came to a ridge worse than usual Old Masood would seize my camels halter and accompanied by his son and nephew bearing lights encouraged animals with gesture and voice. It was a strange wild scene. The black basaltic field was dotted with a huge and doubtful forms of spongy-footed camels with silent red looming like phantoms in the midnight air. The hot wind moaned and veiled from the torches flakes and sheets of flame and fiery smoke whilst ever and unknown a swift-traveling taktrawan drawn by mules and surrounded by runners bearing gigantic mashaus or cresets through a passing glow of red light upon the dark road and the dusky multitude. Footnote This article, an iron cylinder with bands mounted on a long pole corresponds with the European Crescent of the 15th century. The Pasha's Cresets are known by their smell, a little incense being mingled with the wood. By this means the badawin discovered a dignitaris place. End of footnote On this occasion, the rule was every man for himself. Each pressed forward into the best path, thinking only of preceding his neighbor. The Syrians amongst whom our little party had become entangled, proved and pleasant companions. They often stopped away, insisting upon their right to precedence. On one occasion, a horseman had the audacity to untie the halter of my dramedary and das to cast as adrift as it were in order to make room for some excluded friend. I seized my sword but Shaik Abdullah stayed my hand and addressed the intruder in terms sufficiently violent to make him sink away. Nor was this the only occasion when my companion was successful with the Syrians. He would begin with the mild, move a little o my father, followed if fruitless, by out of the way of father of Syria and if still ineffectual, advancing to way begun o he. Footnote Abu Sham, a familiar address in Alhijas to Syrians. They are called abusers of the salt from their treachery at the spring of Shimmer, the executed murderer of the Imam Hossein, because he was a native of that country. Such is the detestation in which the Shia sect, especially the Persians, hold Syria and the Syrians, that I hardly ever met with a truly religious man who did not desire a general massacre of the polluted race. And history informs us that the plains of Syria have repeatedly been wrenched blood, shed by sectarian animosity. Yet Jalal al-Din, history of Jerusalem says, as to the mascos, all learned men fully agree that it is the most eminent of the cities after Mecca and Al-Madinah. Hence its many titles, The Smile of the Prophet, The Great Gate of Pilgrimage, Sham Sharif, The Right Hand of the Cities of Syria, etc. And many sayings of Muhammad in honor of Syria are recorded. He was fond of using such syriac words as bakhun bakhun, to Ali and kakhun kakhun to Hossein. I will not enter into the curious history of the latter world, which spread to Egypt and slightly altered passed through Latin mythology into French, English, German, Italian, and other modern European tongues. End of footnote This ranged between civility and sternness. If without effect, it was supported by revilings to the abusers of the salt, the Yazid, the offspring of Shamir. Another remark which I made about my companion's conduct, well illustrates a difference between the eastern and the western man. When traversing a dangerous place, Sheikh Abdullah, the European, attended to his camel with loud cries of high high footnote. There is a regular language to camels. Ik ik makes them kneel, ya ya urges them on, high high induces caution and so on. End of footnote. Sheikh Abdullah, the Asiatic commanded himself to Allah by repeated ejaculations of yasatir yasatar footnote. Both these names of the Almighty are of kindred origin. The former is generally used when a woman is in danger of exposing her face by accident or an animal of falling. End of footnote. The morning of Wednesday, September 7th, broke as we entered a wide plain. In many places were signs of water. Lines of basalt here and there seemed the surface and wide sheets of the tofacious gypsum called by the Arab subqa shown like mirrors set in the raset framework of the flat. This substance is found in cakes, often a foot long by an inch in depth, curled by the sun's rays, an overlying claying to which water had sunk. After a harassing night, they came on with a sad feeling of oppression, greatly increased by the unnatural glare. In vain the sight dejected to the ground, stooped for relief then's hot ascending streams and keen reflection pained. We were disappointed in our expectations of water which usually abounds near the station as its name Al-Qadir denotes. At 10 am, we pitched to tent in the first convenient spot and we lost no time in stretching our cramped leaves upon the bosom of Mother Earth. From the halting place of Damutair to Al-Qadir is a march of about 20 miles in the direction southwest 21 degrees. Al-Qadir is an extensive plain which probably presents the appearance of a lake after heavy rains. It is overgrown in parts with desert vegetation and requires nothing but a regular supply of water to make it useful to men. On the east, it is bounded by a wall of rock at whose base are three wells said to have been dug by the Calif Haroon. They are guarded by a burge or tower which betray symptoms of decay. In our anxiety to rest we had strayed from the Damascus Caravan amongst the mountaineers of Shamar. Our sheikh Masood manifestly did not like the company for shortly after 3 pm he insisted upon our striking the tent and rejoining the haj which lay in camp about 2 miles distant in the western part of the basin. We loaded therefore and half an hour before sunset found ourselves in more congenial society. To my greatest disappointment astay was observable in the Caravan I at once understood that another night march was in store for us. At 6 pm we again mounted and turned towards the eastern plain. A heavy shower was falling upon the western hills when skim damp and dangerous blasts. Between 9 pm and dawn of the next day we had a repetition of the last night scenes over a road so rugged and dangerous that I wondered how men could prefer to travel in the darkness. But the camos of Damascus were now worn out with fatigue. They could not endure the sun and our time was too precious for a halt. My night was spent perched upon the front bar of my sug duf encouraging the dramedari and that we had not one fall excited my extreme astonishment. At 5 am, Thursday, 8th of September we entered a wide plain thickly closed with the usual thorny trees in whose strong grasp many a sug duf lost its covering and not a few were dragged with their screaming inmates to the ground. About 5 hours afterwards we crossed the high ridge and saw below us the camp of the caravan not more than 2 miles distant. As we approached it a figure came running out to meet us. It was the boy Mohammed who heartily tired of riding a dramedari with his friend and possibly hungry hastened to inform my companion Abdullah that he would lead him to his sug duf and to his son. The shake, a little offended by the fact that for two days we had taken the trouble to see or to inquire about him received Mohammed roughly but the youth guessing the grievance explained it away by swearing that he and all the party had tried in vain to find us. These were the semblance of truth. It is almost impossible to come upon anyone who strays from his place in so large and motley a body. At 11 am we had reached our station. It is about 24 miles and its direction is southeast 10 degrees. It is called al-Birkat, the tank from a large and now ruinous cistern built of ewn stone by the calif haroon. Footnote al-Birkat in this part of Arabia may be an artificial cistern or a natural basin. In the latter case, it is smaller than agadir. This road was a favorite with haroon al-Rashid, the payus tyrant who boasted and performed either a pilgrimage or a crusade. The reader will find in the herbalot an account of the celebrated visit of haroon to the holy cities. Nor less known in oriental history is the pilgrimage of Zubayda Khatun, wife of haroon and mother of Amin by this route. End of footnote. The land belongs to the otaiba Badawin, the bravest and most ferocious tribe in Alhijas since they note their dread of this banditi by asserting that to increase their courage, they drink their enemies' blood. Footnote Some believe this literally. Others consider it a phrase expressive of blood thirstiness. It is the only suspicion of cannibalism if I may use the word now attaching to Alhijas. Possibly the disgusting act may occasionally have taken place after a stern fight of more than usual who does not remember the account of the Turkish officer licking his blood after having sabered the corpse of a Russian spy. It is said that the mutair and the otaiba are not allowed to enter Mecca even during the pilgrimage season. End of footnote. My companions shook their heads when questioned upon the subject and prayed that we might not become too well acquainted with them. An ill omen speech. Tapasha allowed as a rest of five hours at Albirkat. We spent them in my tent which was crowded with Sheikh Abdullah's friends. To require me for this inconvenience, he prepared for me an excellent water pipe, a cup of coffee rich, untainted by cloves and by cinnamon would have been delicious and a dish of dry fruits. As we were now near the holy city, all the meccans were busy canvassing for lodgers and offering their services kuwaro stewar of early occurrence. In our party was an Arnaut, a white bearded old man so decrepit that he could scarcely stand and yet so violent that no one could manage him but his African slave, a brazen face little rich about 14 years of age. Words were banded between this angry senior and Sheikh Masood, when the latter insinuated zerkastically that if the former had teeth he would be more intelligible. Arnaut in his rage seized the pole, raised it and delivered a blow which missed the camelman but which brought the striker headlong to the ground. Masood exclaimed with shrieks of rage, how we come to this that every old woman turks mites us? Our party had the greatest trouble to quiet the quarrelers. The Arab listened to us when we threatened him with apasha but Arnaut, whose rage was like red hot steel, would hear nothing but our repeated declarations that unless he behaved more like a pilgrim we should be compelled to leave him and his slave behind. At 4 p.m. we left Albirkat and traveled eastwards over rolling ground thickly wooded. There was a network of footpaths through the thickets and clouds obscured the moon. The consequence was inevitable loss of way. About 2 a.m. we began ascending hills in a southwesterly direction and presently we fell into the bed of a large rock girth Fiumara which runs from east to west. The sands were overgrown with saline and salsalatius plants. The colacointada which having no support spreads along the ground footnote. Colacointada is here used as in most parts of the east medicinally. The pulp and the seeds of the ripe fruit are scooped out and the rind is filled with milk which is exposed to the night air and drunk in the morning. End of footnote. The sena with its small green leaf the razia stricta footnote. Used in Arabian medicine as a refrigerant and tonic it abounds in Sind in Afghanistan where according to that most practical of botanists the lamented doctor's talks it is called Ishwag end of footnote. In a large luxuriant variety of the Asclepias gigantea cotton over with mist endu. Footnote. Here called Asher according to Setzen it bears the longsought apple of Sodom yet if truth be told the soft green bag is as unlike an apple as can be imagined nor is the hard and brittle yellow rind of the ripe fruit a bit more resembling. The Arabs used to think of the green bag with steel fillings as a tonic and speak highly of its effects. They employed also to intoxicate or narcotize monkeys and other animals which they wished to catch. It is esteemed in Hindu medicine. The Numbians and Indians used the filaments of the fruit as tinder they become white and shining as floss silk. The Badawin also have applied it to a similar purpose. Our Egyptian travelers call it the silk tree and in northern Africa where it abounds Europeans make of it stuffing for the mattresses which are expensive and highly esteemed for their coolness and cleanliness. In Bengal a kind of gupta percha is made by boiling the juice. These weeds so common in the east may one day become in the west an important article of commerce. End of footnote. At 6am September 9th at the foot of Humara and turning to the west we arrived about an hour afterwards at the station. Alzariba, the valley is an undulating plain amongst high granite hills. In many parts it was faintly green. Water was close to the surface and rain stood upon the ground. During the night we had traveled about 23 miles and our present station was southeast 56 degrees from our last. At 8am we prepared to perform the ceremony of Al-Iram assuming the pilgrim garb. As Al-Zariba is the mikat or the appointed place. Footnote. Al-Iram literally meaning prohibition or making unlawful equivalent to our mortification is applied to the ceremony of the toilet and also to the dress itself. The vulgar pronounce the word al-Ram it is opposed to ilal making lawful or returning to leical life. The further from mikat is assumed provided that it be during the three months of Hajj the greater is the religious merit of the pilgrim. Consequently some come from India and Egypt in the dangerous attire. Those coming from the north assume the pilgrim garb at or off the village of Rabiq. Between the noon day and the afternoon prayers a barber attended to shave our heads, cut our nails and trim our moustaches. Then having bathed and perfumed ourselves the latter is a questionable point. We donned the attire which is nothing but two new cotton cloths each six feet long by three and a half broad white with narrow red stripes and fringes. In fact the costume called al-Ede Skyro Footnote These sheets are not positively necessary. Any clean cotton cloth not sewn in any part will serve equally well. Servants in attendance expect the master to present them with an iram. End of footnote One of these sheets technically termed Darida is thrown over the back and exposing the arm and shoulder is knotted at the right side The isar is wrapped round the loins from waist to knee and knotted or tucked in at the middle supports itself. Our heads were bare and nothing was allowed upon the instep. Footnote Sandals are made at Mecca expressly for the pilgrimage the poor classes cut off the upper leathers of an old pair of shoes. End of footnote It is said that some clans of Arabs still preserve this religious but most uncomfortable costume. It is doubtless of ancient date and to this day in the region lying west of the Red Sea it continues to be the common dress of the people. After the toilet we were placed with our faces in the direction of Mecca and ordered to say aloud I vow this iram of Haj the pilgrimage and the umra, the little pilgrimage to Allah Almighty. Footnote This niyat as it is technically called is preferably performed aloud. Some authorities, however, directed to be meditated soto voce. End of footnote Having thus performed a two bow prayer we repeated without rising from the sitting position these words O Allah, verily I propose the Haj and the umra then enable me to accomplish the two and accept them both of me and make both blessed to me. Follow the talbiyat or exclaiming Here I am, O Allah, here am I no partner has thou, here am I verily the praise and the grace are thine and the empire no partner has thou, here am I Footnote Talbiyat is from the word labayka here I am in the cry labayk alahum mal labayk labayka Lasharika lakalabayk Inna lamda wala niyamata lakawalumuk Lasharika lakalabayk Some add Here I am and I honor thee I, the son of thy two slaves beneficens and good are all between thy hands. A single talbiyat is a shard or positive condition and its repetition is a sunat or custom of the prophet. The talbiyat is allowed in any language, but is preferred in Arabic. It has a few varieties. The form above given is the most common. End of footnote. And we were warned to repeat these words as often as possible until the conclusion of the ceremonies. Then Sheikh Abdullah who acted as director of our consciences, made us be good pilgrims, avoiding quarrels, immorality, bad language and light conversation. We should avoid killing yam, causing an animal to fly and even pointing it out for destruction. Nor should we scratch ourselves, save with the open palm, lest vermin be destroyed, or a hair uprooted by the nail. Footnote. The object of this ordinances is clearly to inculcate the strictest observance of the truths of God. Pilgrims, however, are allowed to slay nauseous, namely a crow, a kite, a scorpion, a rat and a biting dog. End of footnote. We were to respect the sanctuary by sparing the trees and not to pluck a single blade of grass. As regards personal considerations, we were to abstain from all oils, perfumes and anguents. From washing the head with mallow or with loat leaves, dyeing, shaving, cutting or velicating a single pile or hair. And though we might take advantage of shade and even form it with appraised hands, we must by no means cover our sconces. For each infraction of this ordinances we must sacrifice a sheep. And it is commonly said by Muslims that none but the prophet could be perfect in the intricacies of pilgrimage. Footnote. Victim is sacrificed as a confession that the offender deems himself worthy of death. The offerer is not allowed to taste any portion of his offering. End of footnote. Old Ali began with an irregularity. He declared that age prevented his assuming the garb, but that arrived at Mecca he would clear himself by an offering. The wife and daughters of a Turkish pilgrim of our party assumed the iram at the same time as ourselves. They appeared dressed in white garments and they had exchanged the lisa that cockatish fold of muslin which veils without concealing the lower part of the face for a hideous mask made of split, dried and plated palm leaves with two bull's eyes for light. Footnote. The reason why this ugly must be worn is that a woman's veil during the pilgrimage ceremonies is not allowed to touch her face. End of footnote. I could not help laughing when these strange figures met my sight and to judge from the shaking of their shoulders, they were not less susceptible to the merriment which they had caused. At 3pm we left Al-Zariba traveling towards the southwest and a wondrously picturesque scene met the eye. Crowds hurried along, habited in the pilgrim garb, whose whiteness contrasted strangely with their black skins, their newly-shaven heads glistening in the sun and their long black hair streaming in the wind. The rocks rung with shouts of La Baik, La Baik. At the pass we fell in with the Wahabis, accompanying the bag that caravan screaming Hiramai and guided by a large, loud kettle drum they followed in double file the camel of a standard bearer whose green flag bore in huge letters the formula of the Muslim creed. They were wild-looking mountaineers, dark and fierce with hair twisted into thin daliq or plates, each was armed with a long spear, a matchla or a dagger. They were seated upon coarse wooden saddles without cushions or stirrups, a fine saddle cloth alone denoting a chief. The women emulated the men. They either guided their own dramedaris or in a pillion, they clang to their husbands, veil steady stained and their continents certainly belonged not to a soft sex. These Wahabis were by no means pleasant companions. Most of them were followed by spared dramedaris either unladen or carrying water skins, father, fuel and other necessaries for the march. The beasts delighted in dashing fiercely through our file, which being together, head and tail, was thrown each time into the greatest confusion. And whenever we were observed smoking, we were cursed allowed for infidels and idolaters. Looking back at al-Zeriba soon after our departure, I saw a heavy nimbo settle upon the hilltops, a sheet of rain being stretched between it and the plain. The glow grumbling of thunder sounded joyful in our ears. We hoped for a shower but were disappointed by a dust storm which ended with a few heavy drops. There arose a report that the Badawin had attacked a party of mechans with stones and the news caused men to look exceeding grave. At five p.m. we entered the wide bed of the fumara down which we were to travel all night. Here the country falls rapidly towards the sea as the increasing heat of the air, the direction of the water, courses and signs of violence in the country. The fumara varies in breadth from 150 feet to three quarters of a mile. Its course I was told is towards the southwest and it enters the sea near Jeddah. The channel is a coarse sand with here and there masses of sheet rock and patches of thin vegetation. At about half past five p.m. we entered a suspicious looking place. On the right was a stony buttress, along whose base the stream, when there is one, swings. And to this depression was a road limited by the rocks and thorn trees which filled the other half of the channel. The left side was a precipice, grim and barren, but not so abrupt as its brother. Opposite us, the way seemed to barred by piles of hills, crest rising above crest into the far blue distance. They still smiled upon the upper peaks, but the lower slopes and the fumara bed were already cartend with gray somber shade. A dump seemed to fall upon our spirits as we approached this valley perilous. I remarked that the voices of the women and children sunk into silence and the loud la-bike of the pilgrims were gradually steeled. Whilst still speculating upon the cause of this phenomenon, it became apparent a small curl of the smoke like a lady's ringlet on the summit of the right-hand precipice caught my eye. And simultaneous with the echoing crack of the matchlock, a high-trotting dramedari in front of me rolled over upon the sands. A bullet had split its heart, throwing the rider a goodly somersault of five or six yards. End of Chapter 26, Part 1 Recording by Shena Serre, Fresno, California. Part 2 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Chapter 26 of personal narrative of Pilgrimage to El Medina and Mecca by Richard Francis Burton. From Asweria to Mecca. Part 2 In sue, terrible confusion, women screamed, children cried and men vociferated each once driving with might and main to urge his animal out of the place of death. But the road being narrow, they only managed to jam the vehicles in a solid, immovable mass. At every matchlock shot, a shudder ran through the huge body as when the surgeon's scalpel touches some more sensitive nerve. The irregular horseman, perfectly useless, galloped up and down over the stones, shouting to and ordering to another. The pasha of the army had his red carpet spread at the foot of the left-hand precipice and debated over his pipe with the officers what ought to be done. No good genius whispered, crown the heights. Then it was that the conduct of the hohobbies found favor in my eyes. They came up, galloping their camels. Torrents less rapid and less rash. With their elflocks tossing in the wind and their flaring matches, casting a strange lurid light over their features. Taking up a position, one body began to fire upon their taba robbers whilst two or three hundred dismountings warmed up the hill under the guidance of the Sharif Z. I have remarked this nobleman at El Medina as a model specimen of the pure Arab. Like all Sharifs, he is celebrated for bravery and has killed many with his own hand. The Sharifs are born and bred to fighting the peculiar privileges of their case, favor their development of pagnacity. Thus the modern Diyah or price of blood being eight hundred dollars for a common Muslim, the chiefs demand for one of their number double that sum, with a sword, a camel, a female slave and other items, and if one of their slaves or servants be slain, a fourfold price. The rigorous way in which this custom is carried out gives the Sharif and his retainer great power among the Arabs as a general rule there at the bottom of all mischief. It was a Sharif, Hussain bin Ali who tore down and trampled upon the British flag at Malka. A Sharif, Abdul Rahman al-Waht, who murdered Captain Melon near La Hage, a page might be filled with names of distinguished ruffians. And a footnote, when urged at Zariba to ride into Mecca, he swore that he would not leave a caravan till inside of the walls and fortunately for the pilgrims he kept his word. Presently the firing was heard far in our rear, the robbers having fled. The head of the column advanced and the dance body of the pilgrims opened out. Our forced halt was now exchanged for a fight. It required much management to steer our desert craft clear of danger, but Sheikh Masoud was equal to the occasion. That many were not was evident by the boxes and baggage Had no means of ascertaining the number of men killed and wounded. Reports were contradictory and exaggeration unanimous. The robbers were said to be a hundred and fifteen number. Their object was blunder and they would eat the shot camels. But their principal ambition was to boast. We, the Itaba, on such and such a night, stopped the sultans mahmal one whole hour in the past. At the beginning of the skirmish I had primed my pistol for use, but soon seeing that there was nothing to be done and wishing to make an impression, nowhere does a boba deal now go down so well as in the east, I called aloud for my supper. Sheikh Noor, exanimate with fear, could not move. The boy Muhammad Ejakulay did only an oh sir, and the people around us claimed and discussed by Allah he eats. Sheikh Abdullah the Makkan, being a man of spirit, was amused by the spectacle. Are these Afghan manners, afendim? He inquired from the shuktaf behind me. Yes, I replied aloud, in my country we always dine before an attack of robbers, because that gentry is in the habit of sending men to bed supperless. The sheikh laughed aloud, but those around him looked offended. I thought the bravado this time mall place, but a little vent which took place on my way to Jidda proved that it was not quite a failure. As we advanced, our escort took care to fire every large asclepius to disperse the shades which buried us. Again, the scene became wondrous wild. Full many a ways I wandered over, claw many a crack, crossed many a show, but my hallowdom I seen so rude, so wild as this, yet so so blind in barrenness. Nare did my wandering footsteps press wherever a chance to roam. On either side were ribbed precipice, dark angry and towering above, till their summits mingled with the glooms of the night, and between them formidable looked a chasm, down which our host hurried with shouts and discharges of matchlocks. The torch smoke and the night fires of flaming asclepius formed a canopy, sable above, and live it bred below. It hung over our heads like a sheet and divided the cliffs into two equal parts. Here the fire flashed fiercely from a tall thorn that crackled and shot up showers of sparks into the air. There it died away in lurid gleams which lit up a truly stigian scene. As usual, however, the picturesque had its inconveniences. There was no path. Rocks, stone banks, and trees obstructed our passage. The camel, now blind in darkness, then dazzled by a flood of light, stumbled frequently, in some places slipping down a steep descent in others over a sheet of mud. There were furious quarrels and fierce language between camelmen and their hirers and threats to fellow travelers. In fact, we were united in discord. I passed that night crying, Hey, hey! Switching the camel and fruitlessly endeavoring to festigate Masood's nephew, who resolutely slept under the water bags. During the hours of darkness we made four or five halts, then we boiled coffee and smoked pipes, but man and beast were beginning to suffer from a deadly fatigue. Dawn, Saturday, September 10th found us still traveling down the Fimara, which here is about a hundred yards broad. The granite hills on both sides were less precipitious and the borders of the torrent bed became natural quays of stiff clay, which showed a water mark of from 12 to 15 feet in height. In many parts, the bed was muddy and the moist places, as usual, caused accidents. I happened to be looking back at Shaykh Abdullah, who was then riding in old Ali Bin Yassin's fine Shukduf. Suddenly the camel's four legs disappeared from under him, his right side flattening the ground. And the two riders were pitched severally out of the smashed vehicle. Abdullah started up furious and with great zest abused the Bedouin who were absent. Feed these Arabs, he exclaimed, quoting a Turkish proverb, and they will fire at heaven. But I observed that when Shaykh Masrout came up, the citizen was only gruff. When we turned northward and sighted Al-Mazik, more generally known as Wadi-le-Ymoun or the valley of the Lines, on the right bank of the Fumara stood the Meccan Sharif's state pavilion green and gold. It was surrounded by his attendants and he had prepared to receive the pasha of the caravan. We advanced half a mile and encamped temporarily in a hill-gurt bulge of the Fumara Bed. At 8 am we had traveled about twenty-four miles from Azarba and the direction of our present station was southwest fifty degrees. Shaykh Masrout allowed us only four hours' help. He wished to proceed the main body. After breaking our fast joyously upon limes, puma-granates and fresh dates, we saw it forth to admire the beauties of the place. We are once more on classic ground, the ground of the ancient Arab poets. Desert is the village. Waste the halting place and home. At Mina, Orijam and Ghul, wild bees on heated room. On Rayyan Hill the channel lines have left their naked trace. Time worn as primal red that dints the mountain's flinty face. Footnote. In these lines of Labid, the Mina alluded to most not we are warned by the socialists to be confounded with Mina or the vulgar town, Muna or the valley in Rayyan or hills close to the Wadi-Lay Moon. The passage made me suspect that inscriptions would be found among the rocks and the scholars informs us that many used to write upon rocks in order that their writing might remain. Dasimu Allaqa Delebit page 289. I neither saw nor heard of any but some months afterwards I was delighted to hear from the Abbey Hamilton that he had discovered in one of the rock of the presence of Sysotris or Ramses II and a footnote. And this Wadi celebrated for the purity of its air had from remote ages been a favorite resort of the Meccans. Nothing can be more soothing to the brain than the dark green foliage of the limes and pomegranates. And from the base of the southern hill burst a bubbling stream whose air fresh and dull tiakwe flow through the gardens filling them with the most delicious of melodies the glad sound which nature in these regions knows. Exactly at noon Masood sees the halter of the foremost camel and we started down the Fimara. Troops of Bedewee girls looked over the orchard walls laughingly and children came out west we arrived at a point where the torrent bed turns to the right and quitting it we climbed with difficulty over a steep bridge of granite before three o'clock we entered a hill-gurt plain which my companions called Sola. In some places were clumps of trees and scattered villages warned us that we were approaching a city. Far to the left rose the blue peaks of life and the mountain road a white thread upon the narrow height so as pointed way here I first saw the tree or rather shrub which bears the balm of Gilead are so celebrated for its tonic and stomacic properties. Fit note the balsam of Theophrastus and Dios Corridis a corruption of the Arabic Balisan or Basham by which name the Bedouin know it. In the valley of the Jordan it was worth its weight in silver and kings word to Egypt. It was grown at Heliopolis. The last tree died there. We are told by neighbor in the early part of 17th century according to others in AD 1502 a circumstance the more curious as it was used by the Cups in Crism and by Europe for anointing kings. From Egypt it was carried to Al-Hijaz where it now grows wild on sandy and stony grounds but I could not discover the date of its naturalization. Muslims generally believe it to have been presented to Solomon by Bilqis or the Queen of Sheba. Bruce relates that it was produced at Muhammad's prayer from the blood of the Baddard martyrs. The Gospel of Infancy Book 1 Chapter 8 we read 9. Hence day Joseph and Mary went out to that second more which is now called Batarya the modern and Arabic name for Heliopolis 10. And in Batarya the Lord Jesus caused a well to spring forth and he washed his coat. 11. And a balsam is produced or grows in that country from the sweat which ran down there from the Lord Jesus. The sycamore is still shown and the learned recognizing this ridiculous old legend the hero Sikaminon of pagan Egypt under rich Isis and horosat. Hence, Sir J. Monderville an old writer a loot reverent later the sovereign virtues of the bound. I believe its qualities to have been exaggerated have found it useful in dressing wounds. Burkhard volume 2 page 124 alludes to but appears not to have seen it. The best balsam is produced upon stony hills like Arafat and Minna. In hot weather incisions are made in the bark and the soft gum which exudes is collected in bottles. The best kind is the consistency of honey and yellowish brown like traco. It is frequently adulterated with water. When if my informant Sheikh Abdullah speak the truth, it is much lighter in weight. I have never heard of the vipers which Pliny mentions as a bounding in these trees and which Bruce declares were shown to him alive at Jeddah at Yambur. Dr. Carter found a ball under the name of Luban Dukah among the gara tribe of eastern Arabia and botanists have seen it at Aden. We may fairly question its being originally from the banks of Jordan and a footnote. I told Sheikh Masood honestly the act was witnessed by our party with a roar of laughter and the astounded sheikh was warned that he had become subject of an atoning sacrifice. Footnote this being one of them haramat or actions forbidden to a pilgrim at all time says the Muslim there are three vile trades viz. Those of the Hareq Al-Hajar or the stone burner the Qata Al-Shajar the tree cutter and a footnote. Of course he denounced me as the instigator and I could not fairly refuse assistance. The tree has of late years been carefully described by many botanists. I would only say that the bark resembled in color a cherry stick pipe. The inside was a light yellow and the juice made my fingers stick together. At 4 p.m. we came to a steep and rocky pass up which we toiled with difficulty. The pass of the country was rising once more and again presented the aspect of numerous small basins divided and surrounded by hills. As we jogged on we were passed by the cavalcade of no less personage than the Sharif of Makkah. Abdul Mutale bin Ghale is a dark beardless old man with African features derived from his mother. He was plainly dressed in white garments and white muslin turban which made him look jet black. Footnote. This attire was customary and a footnote. He rode an ambling mule and the only emblem of his dignity was the large green satin umbrella born by an attendant on foot. Footnote. From India to Abyssinia the umbrella is the sign of royalty. The Arabs of Makkah and Sana'a probably derived a custom from the Hindus and a footnote. Scattered around him were about 40 matchlock men mostly slaves. At long intervals their father came his four sons Ridatbay, Abdullah, Ali and Ahmed the latter still a child. The three elder brothers rode splendid dromedaries at speed. They were young men of light complexion with true Makkah and cast of features showily dressed in bright-colored silks and armed to denote their rank with sword and gold-hilted dagger. Footnote. I purposely omit long descriptions of the Sharif. My fellow travelers Mr. Didier and Hamilton being far more competent to lay the subject before the public. A few political remarks may not be deemed out of place. The present Sharif despite his civilized training at Constantinople is and must be a fanatic, bigoted man. He applied for the expulsion of the British Vice Consulate Jidda on the grounds that an infidel should not hold position in the Holy Land. His pride and reserve have made him few friends although the Makkahs and enthusiastic nationality extol his bravery to the skies and praise him for conduct as well as for courage. His position at present is anomalous. Ahmad Baja of Al-Hijaz rules politically as representative of the Sultan. The Sharif who, like the Pope, claims temporal as well as spiritual dominion attempts to command authorities by force of bigotry. The Basha heads the Turkish now the ruling party. The Sharif has in his interest both for each other on all possible occasions quarrels are bitter and endless. There is no government and the vessel of the state is in danger of being waterlocked in consequence of the squabbling between the two captains. When I was at Makkah all were in a ferment. The Sharif having, as I said, insist upon the Basha living life. The position of the Turks and Al-Hijaz becomes every day more dangerous. Want of money presses upon them to degrading measures. In February 1853 the Basha hired a forced loan from the merchants and but for Mr. Cole's spirit and firmness the English Portuguese would have been compelled to contribute their share. After a long and animated discussion the Basha yielded the point by imprisoning his recusant subjects who insisted upon Indians paying like themselves. He waited in person with an apology upon Mr. Cole though established at Juddesons 1838 the French councils contented with the proxy never required a return of visit from the governor. If the Turks frequently reduced to such expedience for the payment of their troops they will soon be swept from the land. On the other hand the Sharif approaches a crisis. His salary paid by the sultan may be roughly estimated at 15,000 per annum. If the Turks maintain their footing in Arabia it will probably be found that an honorable retreat at Istanbul is better than the 31st descendant of the prophet than a turbulent life of Mecca or that a reduced allowance of 500 pounds per annum would place him in a higher spiritual though in a lower temporal position. Since the above was written the Sharif Abdul-Muttalip has been deposed the Arabs of Al-Hijaz united in revolt against the sultan but after a few skirmishes they were reduced to subjection by their old ruler Sharif Bina'un and a footnote we halted as evening approached and strained our eyes but all in vain to catch sight of Mecca which lies in a winding valley. By Sheikh Abdul-Las Direction I recited after the usual devotions the following prayer the reader is forewarned that it is difficult to preserve the flowers of oriental rhetoric in a European tongue. Oh Allah verily this is thy safeguard amn and thy haram into those entereth become or harrem my flesh and blood my bones and skin to hellfire Oh Allah save me from thy wrath on the day when servants shall be raised from the dead I conjure thee by this that thou art Allah beside whom is none thou only and the merciful the compassionate and have mercy upon our Lord Muhammad and upon the progeny of our Lord Muhammad and upon his followers one and all. This was concluded to the Talbiyat and sent a special prayer for myself. Again we mounted and night completed our disappointment. About 1 am I was aroused by general excitement. Makka Makka cried some voices the sanctuary oh the sanctuary exclaimed others and all burst into loud labake not unfrequently broken by swabs I looked out from my litter and saw by the light of the southern stars the dim outlines a shade darker than the surrounding plain. We were passing over the last ridge by a cutting called Sanyat Qata the winding place of the cut Fiknut Sanyat means winding path and Quda Formally Makka had three gates Babal Mala northeast Babal Amra or Bab Zahir on the Jadda Road West and Bab Misfal on the Yemen Road These were still standing in the 12th century but the walls were destroyed. It is better to enter Makka but this is not a matter of vital consequence in pilgrimage and of Fiknut The winding path is flanked on both sides by watchtowers which command the Darbar Mala or road leading from north into Makka Hence we passed the Ma'abada or the northern suburb where the Sharif's Palace is built Fiknut It is a large white wash building with extensive wooden balcony windows but no pretensions architectural splendor around it trees grow and amongst them I remarked a young Coco Al-Adresi A.D. 1554 calls the place Al-Marba This may be a clerical error for the present day all know it as a Ma'abada or pronounced it Al-Mabda The Nubian describes it as a stone castle three miles from town in a palm garden The word Ma'abada says Qutabaddin means body of servants and it is applied generally to this suburb because here was a body of a Bedouin in charge of the Masjid Al-Ijaba a mosque now not existing End of Fiknut After this on the left hand came the deserted boat of Sharif bin Aoun now said to be a haunted house Fiknut I cannot conceive what made the accurate neighbor fall into the strange error that apparitions are unknown in Arabia Arabs fear to sleep alone to enter the bath at night My cemetery is during dark and to sit amongst ruins simply for fear of apparitions and Arabia together with Persia has applied half the western world with its ghost stories and tales of angels demons and fairies to quote Milton the land is struck with superstition as with a planet End of Fiknut opposite to it lies the Jinnat Al-Maila the holy cemetery of Mecca then turning to the right we enter the Suleymaniya or the Afghan quarter here the boy Mohammed being an inhabitant of the Shamir or the Syrian ward thought proper to display some apprehension the two are on bad terms children never meet without exchanging volleys of stones and men fight furiously with quarter staves sometimes despite the terrors of religion the knife and saber are drawn but their hostilities have their code if a citizen be killed there there is a subscription for blood money an inhabitant of one quarter passing singly through another becomes a guest once beyond the walls he is likely to be beaten to insensibility by his hospitable foes at the Suleymaniya we turned off the main road into the byway and ascended by narrow lanes to the rough heights of Jabal Hindi upon which stands a small whitewashed and crenellated building called the fort then descending we threaded dark streets in places crowded with rude calls and the skifigures and finally at 2 am we found ourselves at the door of the boy Mohammed's house from Waidilay moon to Makka the distance according to my calculation was about 23 miles the direction southeast 45 degrees we arrived on the morning of Sunday 7th of the al-Hijjil or 11th of September 1853 and had one day before the beginning of the pilgrimage to repose and visit the haram I concrete this chapter with a few remarks upon the watershed of al-Hijjaz the country in my humble opinion has compound slope southwards and westwards I have however little but the conviction of the modern Arabs to support the assertion that this part of Arabia declines from the north all declare that the course of water to be southerly unbelieve the fountain of Arafat to pass underground from Baghdad the slope as geographers know is still a disputed point Ritter, Jomar and some old Arab authors make the country rise towards the south while swalin and others express an opposite opinion from the sea to al-Musahal it is a gentle rise the watermarks of the fumaras show that al-Madina is considerably above the coast though geographers may not be correct in claiming for Jabal Radwa a height of 6,000 feet yet that elevation is not perhaps too great for the plateau upon which stands the Apostles burial place from al-Madina to a Sweriqiya is another gentle rise and from the latter to Azariba stagnating water denotes a level I believe report of a perennial lake on the eastern boundary of al-Hijaz as little as the river placed by Ptolemy between Yambar and Makka no Badoe could tell me of this feature which had it existed would have changed the whole conditions and history of the country we know the Greeks river to be a fumara and the lake probably owes its existence to a similar cause a heavy fall of rain at Azariba is a decided fall which continues to see the Arafat turns sweeps from east to west with great force and sometimes carrying away the habitations and injuring the sanctuary footnote this is a synopsis of our marches which pro-tracted on Burkhart's map gives an error of 10 miles from al-Madina to jaz-shareefa south-east 50 degrees is 22 miles from jaz-shareefa to gharab south-west 10 degrees 24 miles from gharab to al-hijria south-east 22 degrees 25 miles from al-hijria to as-sweireqia south-west 11 degrees 28 miles from as-sweireqia to as-sufaina south-east 5 degrees 17 miles from as-sufaina to banoomotir south-west 20 degrees 18 miles from banoomotir to al-gadir south-west 21 degrees 20 miles from al-gadir to Burkhart 24 miles from al-birqat to as-sareefa south-east 56 degrees 23 miles from as-sareefa to adilaymoon south-west 50 degrees 24 miles from adilaymoon to makka south-east 45 degrees 23 miles total English miles 248 end of note end of chapter 26 chapter 27 of personal narrative of pilgrimage to al-Madina and makka by Richard Francis Burton the first visit to the house of Allah the boy Mohammed left me in the street and having at last persuaded to sleep and tired Indian porter by violent kicks and testy answers the 20 equals queries to swing open the huge gate of the building of the building but the purpose was to make it clear that the building was completely in the surrounding and west-west and the roof in the middle of the building make it clear that the building When the huge gate of his fortress, he rushed upstairs to embrace his mother. After a minute, I heard the zaghiretta, lul or shrill cry, which in these lands welcomes the wonder of home. The sound so gladdening to the returner sent a chill to the stranger's heart. Footnote, the Egyptian word is generally pronounced zaghiretta. The plural is zaghiretta, corrupted into Zeralit. The classical Arabic term is tahlil. The Persian call the cry kil. It is peculiar to women, and is formed by raising the voice to its highest pitch, vibrating it at the same time by rolling the tongue, whose modulations express now joy and now grief. To my ear it's always resembled the brain-piercing notes of a fife. Dr. Buchanan likens it to a serpent uttering human sounds. The unsavory comparison, however, may owe its origin to the circumstance that Dr. Buchanan heard it at the orgies of Jagannath. End of footnote. Presently the youth returned. His manner had changed from a boisterous and jaunty demeanor to one of grave and attentive courtesy. I had become his guest. He led me into the gloomy hall, seated me upon a large and carpeted mataba or a platform, and told his Bahramian and great sir, the Hindustani porter, to bring a light. Footnote. As an Indian is called Mian or sir, an elderly Indian becomes Bahramian, great or ancient sir. I shall have occasion to speak at a future period of these Indians at Mecca, end of footnote. Meanwhile, a certain shuffling of slipper'd feet above informed my ears that the Kabira, the mistress of the house, was intent on hospitable thoughts. Footnote. Sitte al Kabira, or simply al Kabira, or the great lady, is the title given to the mistress of the house. End of footnote. When the camels were unloaded, appeared a dish of fine vermicelli, browned and powdered with loaf sugar. Labo'y Muhammad, I, and Sheikh Noor, lost no time in exerting our right hands, and truly, after our hungry journey, we found the Kunafa delicious. After the meal, we procured cuts from a neighboring coffee house, and we lay down wary and anxious to snatch an hour or two of repose. At dawn, we were expected to perform our Tawafil Qudum, or circumambulation of arrival, at the Hadam. Scarcely had the first smile of morning beamed upon the rugged head of the eastern hill, Abukubase, when we arose, bathed, and proceeded in our pilgrim garb to the sanctuary. Footnote. Abukubase bounce Makka from the east. According to many Muslims, Adam and his wife and their son Seth lie buried in a cave here. Others place his tomb at Mina, the majority at Najaf. The early Christians had a tradition that our first parents were interred under Mount Calvary. The Jews placed their grave near Hebron. Habil, or Abel, is well known to be entombed at Damascus, and Kabil, or Cain, rests at last under the Jabal Shamsan, the highest wall of the Hadam crater, where he and his progeny tempted by Iblis erected the first fire temple. It certainly deserves to be the sabokur of the first murderer. The worship, however, was probably imported from India where Agni, the fire god, was, as the Vedas proved the object of man's earliest adoration. We enter the Babaziyada, or the principal north-endore, descended two long flights of steps, traversed the cloister and stood in the sight of the Baytullah. There, at last it lay, the born of my long and wary pilgrimage, realizing the plans and hopes of many and many a year, the mirage medium of fancy invested the huge catafalque and its gloomy pal with peculiar charms. There were no giant fragments of horror antiquity as in Egypt. No remains of graceful and harmonious beauty as in Greece and Italy no barbarous gorgeousness as in the buildings of India, yet the view was strange, unique, and how few have looked upon the celebrated shrine. I may truly say that of all the worshippers who clung weeping to the curtain or who pressed their beating hearts to the stone, none felt for the moment a deeper emotion than did the haji from the far north. It was as if the poetical legends of the Arab spoke truth and that the waving wings of angels, not the sweet breeze of mourning, were agitating and swelling the black covering of the shrine. But to compass humbling truth, theirs was the high feeling of religious enthusiasm. Mine was the ecstasy of a gratified pride. Few Muslims contemplate for the first time the Kaaba without fear and awe. There is a popular jest against newcomers that they generally inquire the direction of prayer. This being the qiblah, or fronting place, Muslims pray all around it, a circumstance which of course cannot take place in any spot of al-Islam but the haram. The boy Muhammad therefore left me for a few minutes to myself, but presently he warned me that it was time to begin. Advancing, we enter through the Babbanu Sheba, the gate of the sons of Sheba, or old woman. But no, the popular legend of this gate is that when Abraham and his son were ordered to rebuild the Kaaba, they found a spot occupied by an old woman. She consented to remove the house on condition that the key of the new temple should be entrusted to her and to her descendants forever and ever. The origin of this is that Banu Sheba means the sons of the old woman, as well as descendants of Sheba. Then history tells us that Banu Sheba are derived from one Sheba, bin Uthman, bin Talha, bin Sheba, bin Talha, bin Abdul-Dar, who was sent by Muawiya to make some alterations in the Kaaba. According to others, the Kaaba's key was committed to the charge of Uthman bin Talha by the prophet. End of footnote. There we raised our hands, repeated the lab bake, the takbir and the tahleel. After which we uttered certain supplications and drew our hands down to our faces. Then we proceeded to the Shafi's place of worship, the open pavement between the Maqame Abraham and the well Zemzam, where we performed the usual two-bow prayer in honor of the mosque. This was followed by a cup of holy water and a present to the saqqas or carriers. Who, for the consideration, distributed in my name a large, earthen, baseful to poor pilgrims? The word Zemzam has doubtful origin. Some derive it from Zem, Zem, or murmuring of its waters. Others from Zem, Zem, or Fill, Fill, i.e. a bottle, haggars in patient exclamation when she saw the stream. Sale translates it into Stay, Stay and says that Hajar called out in the Egyptian tongue to prevent her son wandering. The haqama or rationalists of Islam who invariably connect their faith with the worship of Venus especially and the heavenly bodies generally derive Zemzam from the Persian and make it signify the great luminary. Hence they say the Zemzam as well as the Kaaba denoting the kuthayt or ammonian worship of sun and fire deserves man's reverence. So the Persian poet Haqqani addresses these two buildings, O Kaaba, thou traveler of the heavens, O Venus, thou fire of the world. Thus Wahid Muhammad, founder of the Wahidiya sect, identifies the qiblah and the sun. Therefore he says the door fronts to east. By the name Zemman, right, sham, left, qibl, or east wind, fronting, and dubur, or west wind from the back. It is evident that worshipers front at the rising sun. According to the haqama, the original back stone represents Venus which in the border of the heavens is a star of the planets and symbolical of the generative power of nature where whose passive energy the universe was warmed into life and motion, the Hindus accuse the Muslims of adoring the baithullah. Who Muslim? If thou worship the Kaaba, why reproach the worshipers of idols? says Raiman Shah and Musailama, who in his attempt to found a fresh faith gained by the historic epithet of liar, allowed his followers to turn their faces in any direction. Mentally, jaculating, I address myself to thee who has neither side nor figure, a doctrine which might be sensible in the abstract but certainly not material enough and pride flattering to win him many converts in Arabia. The produce of Zemzam is held in great esteem. It is used for drinking and religious ablution but for no baser purposes and the Matkan's advice pilgrims always to break their fast with it. It is apt to cause diarrhea and boils and I never saw a stranger drink it without a ripe face. Sale is decidedly correct in his assertion. The flavor is a salt-mitter much resembling an infusion of teaspoon full of epsom salts in a large tumbler of tippet water. Moreover, it's exceedingly heavy to the digestion. For this reason, Turks and other strangers prefer rain water collected in cisterns and sold for five far things a gugglet. It was a favorite amusement with me to watch them whilst they drank the holy water and to tone their scant and irreverent potations. The strictures of Calcutta review No. 41, Article 1 Bayes upon the taste of Zemzam are unfounded. In these days, a critic cannot be excused of such hasty judgments. At Calcutta or Bombay, he would easily find a jar of Zemzam water which he might taste for himself. Upon this passage, Mr. W. Mirror, Life of Mohammed, Volume 1, Page 258 Remarks that the flavor of stale water bottled up for months would not be a criterion of the same water freshly drawn, but it might easily be analyzed. The water is transmitted to distant regions in glazed earthen jars covered with basket work and sealed by the Zemzamis. Religious men break the lenton fast with it, apply it to their eyes to brighten vision and imbibe a few drops at the hour of death when Satan stands by holding a bowl of pure swatter at the price of the departing soul. Of course, modern superstition is not idle about the waters of Zemzam. The copious reply of the well is considered atmakka miraculous. In distant countries, it facilitates the pronunciation of Arabic to the student and everywhere, the nauseous drought is highly meritorious in a religious point of view. We then advance towards the eastern angle of the Kaaba in which he's inserted the black stone and standing about ten yards from it repeated with upraised hands, there is no God but Allah alone. Whos covenant is truth and whos servant is victorious, there is no God but Allah without sharer. His is the kingdom to him be praised and he, over all things, is potent. After which we approach as close as we could to the stone. A crowd of pilgrims preventing or touching it at that time, we raised our hands to our ears in the first position of prayer and then lowering them exclaimed, Oh Allah, I do this in thy belief and in verification of thy book and in pursuance of thy prophet's example may Allah bless him and preserve. Oh Allah, extend my hand to thee and great is my desire to thee. Oh accept thou my supplication and diminish my obstacles and pity my humiliation and graciously grant me thy pardon. After which we were still unable to reach the stone. We raised our hands to our ears, the palms facing the stone as if touching it recited the various religious formula the takbir, the tehlil bless the prophet and kiss the fingertips of the right hand. The prophet used to weep when he touched the black stone and said that it was the place for the pouring furth of tears. According to most authors, the second caliph also used to kiss it. For this reason, most Muslims except for the Shafari school must touch the stone with both hands and apply their lips to it or touch it with their fingers which should be kissed or rub the palms upon it and afterwards draw them down the face. Under circumstances of difficulty, it is sufficient to stand before the stone but the prophet sin now or practice was to touch it. Lucian mentions a duration of the sun by kissing the hand. Then commends the ceremony of Tawaf or circumambulation our root being the mataf the low oval of polished granite immediately surrounding the kaba. Footnote. The Muslim in circumambulation presents his left shoulder. The Hindu's pradakshina consists in walking round with the right side towards the fein or idol possibly the former may be a modification of the latter which would appear to be the original form of the right. Its conjectural significance is an imitation of the procession of the heavenly bodies the motions of the spheres and the dances of the angels. These are also imitated in the circle of whirlings of the derishes and the shaharistani informs us that the Arab philosophers believe this sevenfold to be symbolical of the motion of the planets around the sun. It was adopted by the Greeks and Romans whose ambervalia and amberbalia appear to be eastern superstitions introduced by Numa or by the priestly line of princes into their pantism. And our procession round the Paris preserved the form of the ancient rites whose life is long since fled. Muslim moralists have not failed to draw spiritual food from this mass of materialism at the battle of law sa firahon and to be free from the wickedness and crime and crawls is the duty enjoined by religion but to circuit the house of the friend of Allah i.e. the heart to combat bodily propensities and to worship the angels is a business of the mystic path. Thus Saidi and his sermons which remind the Englishman of Paul York he who travels the caba on foot makes a circuit of the caba he who travels the pilgrimage of the caba in his heart is encircled by the caba and the greatest muslim divines sanctioned this visible representation of an invisible and heavenly shrine by declaring that without a material medium it is impossible for man to worship the eternal spirit and a footnote I repeated after my motawif or siseron footnote the motawif or delil is the guide at mecca footnote in the name of Allah and Allah is omnipotent I purposed to circuit seven circuits unto Almighty Allah glorified and exalted this is technically called the niyat or the intention of tawaf then we began the prayer O Allah I do this in thy belief and in verification of thy book and in faithfulness to thy covenant and in preserverance of the example of the apostle Mohammed till we reached the place al-Muthism between the corner of the black stone and the caba door here we ejaculated O Allah Thou has rights so pardon my transgressing them opposite the door we repeated O Allah fairly the house is thy house and the sanctuary is thy sanctuary and the safeguard thy safeguard and this is the place of him who flies to thee from hell fire at the little building called maqam ibrahim we said O Allah verily this is the place of Abraham who took refuge with and fled to thee from the fire O deny my flesh and blood my skin and bones to the eternal flames as we pace slowly round the north or Iraqi corner of the caba we exclaimed O Allah verily I take refuge with thee from polytheism and disobedience and hypocrisy and evil conversation and evil thoughts concerning family and property and progeny when fronting the mizab or the spout repeated the words O Allah verily a beg of thee faith which shall not decline and a certainty which shall not perish and the good aid of thy prophet may Allah bless him and preserve O Allah shadow me in thy shadow on that day when there is no shade by thy shadow and cause me to drink from the cup of thine apostle may Allah bless him and preserve that pleasant draught after which there is no thirst to all eternity O Lord of Honor and Glory turning the west corner or rikna sham may we exclaimed O Allah make it an acceptable pilgrimage and a forgiveness of sins and a laudable endeavor and a pleasant action in thy sight and a store which perisheth not O though glorious O though partner this was repeated thrice till we arrived at the Yemeni or the south corner where the crowd being less important we touched the wall with the right hand after the example of the prophet and kissed the fingertips finally between the south angle and that of the black stone where our circuit would be completed we said O Allah verily I take refuge with thee from infidelity and I take refuge with thee from want and from the tortures of the tomb and from the troubles of life and death I fly to thee from ignominy in this world and the next and I implore O Lord grant me in this life prosperity in the next life prosperity and save me from the punishment of fire thus finished a shalt or single course around the house of these we performed the first tree at the pace called Harwala very similar to the French pas gymnastique or trammul that is to say moving the shoulders as if walking in sand the four later are performed into amul slowly and leisurely the reverse of say or running these seven of shwar of course are called collectively one aspar the Muslim origin of this custom is too well known to require mention after each tofa or circuit we being unable to kiss or even touch the black stone fronted towards it raise our hands our ears and exclaimed in the name of Allah and Allah is omnipotent kiss talk fingers and resume the ceremony of circumambulation as before Allah and I believe et cetera at the conclusion of the tofa it is deemed advisable to attempt to kiss the stone for a time I stood looking at aspar the swarming crowd of Badawi and other pilgrims that besieged it the boy Muhammad was equal to the occasion during our circuit he had displayed a fiery zeal against heresy and shism by fouly abusing every person in his path and the inopportune introduction to work as ave Maria Polissima don't yet be letting the pig at the pot santisima and so forth he might for instance be repeating and I take refuge with thee from ignominie in this world and then oh thou rejected one son of the rejected would be interpolation addressed to some long bearded Khurasani and so he continued till I wondered that none dare to turn and rend him footnote in AD 1674 some wretched smear at impurity and everyone who kissed it retired with a solid beard the persians says Burkhardt were suspected of this sacrilege and now their ill fame was spread far at Alexandria they were described to me as people who defile the Kaaba it is scarce like necessary to say that a Shia as well as a Sunni would look upon such an action with lively horror the people of Mecca however like the Medini have turned the circumstance to their own advantage thus nine or ten years ago on the testimony of a boy who swore that he saw the inside of the Kaaba defiled by a persian they rose up cruelly beat the schismatics and carried them off to their peculiar quarter in the Shamiya forbidding their ingress to the Kaaba indeed in Muhammad Ali's time the persians rarely ventured upon a pilgrimage and even now that man is happy who gets over it without a beating the defilement of some Jew or Greek who risked his life to gratify a furious bigotry in the footnote after finally addressing the pilgrims of whom nothing could be seen but a mosaic occupants and shoulder blades the boy Muhammad collected about half a dozen stalwart Makans with whose assistance by sheer strength we waged our way into the thin and light like a crowd the Bedouin turned round upon us like wild cats with milk for six months they had become such living mummies that I could have managed singlehandedly half a dozen of them after thus reaching the stone despite popular indignation testified by impatient shouts who monopolized the use of it for at least ten minutes whilst kissing it and rubbing hands and forehead upon it I narrowly observed it and came away persuaded that it is an arrowlet it is curious that almost all travelers at the stone is volcanic Ali Bey calls it mineralogically a block of volcanic basalt whose circumference is sprinkled with little crystals pointed and straw-like with rooms of tall red fells path upon a dark background like velvet or charcoal except one of its protuberances which is reddish Berthard thought it was a lava containing several small extras particles of a whitish and yellowish substance Having kissed the stone we fought through the crowd to the place called elmultism Here we pressed our stomachs chest and right cheeks to the carba raising our arms high above our heads and exclaiming Oh Allah Oh Lord of the Ancient House free my neck from hellfire and preserve me from every ill deed and make me contented with that daily bread which Thou has given me and bless me in all Thou has granted Then came the sterfar or begging of pardon I beg pardon of Allah the most high who there is no other God but He The living, the eternal and unto Him I repent myself After which we bless the prophet and then ask for ourselves all that our souls most desired Futno Prayer is granted at 14 places besides elmultism One the place of circumambulation Two under the mizab or spout of the carba Three inside the carba Four at the well of zemzam Five behind Abraham's place of prayer Six and seven on Mount Safa and Marwa Eight during the ceremony called Say Nine upon Mount Arafat Ten at Musdalifah Eleven in Mina Twelve during the devil's toning Thirteen on first seeing the carba Fourteen the hatim or hijur and a fitno After embracing the multism we repair to the shafi a place of prayer near the maqami brahim and there resided two prostrations technically called Tsunatutawaf or the Apostles' practice of circumambulation The chapter repeated in the first was Say Thou, oh infidels In the second Say Thou, he is the one God Fitno The former is the 109th The latter is the 112th chapter of the Quran I have translated it in a previous volume End of Fitno We then went to the door of the building in which is Zemzam There was condemned to another nauseous draught and was deluged with two or three skinfuls of water dashed over my head and douche This ablution causes sins to fall from the spirit like dust Fitno These superstitions I must remark belong only to the vulgar End of Fitno During the petition we prayed Oh Allah Verily abig of the plentiful daily bread and profitable learning and the healing of every disease Then returned towards the black stones to the far way opposite because unable to touch it ejaculated the takbir the tahneel and the hamdalla and thoroughly worn out with scorched feet and a burning head Both extremities it must be remembered were bare and various delays had detained us till 10 am I left the mosque Fitno Strictly speaking we ought to have performed the ceremony called Say or the running seven times between Mount Safa and Marwa Fatig put this fresh trial completely out of the question End of Fitno The boy Muhammad had miscalculated the amount of lodging in his mother's house She being a widow and a lone woman had made over for the season all the apartments to her brother A lean old mechan of true ancient type Vulture face kite clawed with a laugh like a haina and a mere shell of a body He regarded me with no favoring eye when I insisted as a guest upon having some place of retirement but he promised that after our return from Arafat a little storoom should be cleared out for me With that I was obliged to be content and to pass that day in the common male drawing room of the house a vestibule on the ground floor called in Egypt Takhtal Bush Fitno I have been diffuse in my description of the vestibule as it is the general way of laying out a ground floor at Mecca During the pilgrimage time the lower hall is usually converted into a shop for the display of goods especially when situated in a populous quarter End of a note Entering to the left was a large mataba or a platform and at the bottom a second of a smaller dimension and foully dirty Behind this was a dark and unclean storoom containing the haji's baggage Opposite the mataba Super intended by a family of lean Indians and by the side a doorless passage led to a bathing room and a staircase I had scarcely composed myself upon the carpet at mataba when the remainder was suddenly invaded by the Turkish or rather Slavatar pilgrims inhabiting the house and a host of their visitors They were large hairy men with gruff voices and square figures that did not take the least notice of me although feeling the intrusion I stretched out my legs with a provoking nonchalance Footnote This is equivalent to throwing oneself upon the sofa in Europe only in the East it asserts a decided claim to superiority The West would scarcely view it in that light and a footnote At last one of them addressed me in Turkish to which I replied by shaking my head His question being interpreted to me in Arabic I rolled out My native land is the land of Khurasan This provoked a stern and stony stare from the Turks and an ughh which said plainly enough Then you are pestilent heretic I surveyed them with a self-satisfied simper stretch my legs to travel further and converse with my water pipe Presently when they all departed for the time the boy Mohammed raised by request my green box of medicines and deposited upon the mataba thus defining as it were a line of demarcation and asserting my privilege to it before the Turks Most of these men were of one party headed by a colonel of Nizam whom they called a bay My acquaintance with them began roughly enough but afterwards with some exceptions who were gruff as an English butcher when accosted by a lean foreigner they proved to be kind-hearted and not unsociable men It often happens to the traveller as the charming Mrs. Malaprop observes to find intercourse all the better by beginning it with a little aversion In the evening Mohammed and followed by Sheikh Noor who carried a lantern and a praying rug I again repair to the navel of the world This time aesthetically to enjoy the delights of the hour after the gadi babling and remorseful day Fitnu Ivin Haikal begins his cosmography with Mecca because the temple of the Lord is situated there and the holy Kaaba is the navel of the earth and Mecca is styled in sacred rite the parent city or the mother of towns oftenately Ivin Haikal like most other Muslim travellers and geographers says no more about Mecca and a footnote The moon now approaching the full tip-to-brow of Abu Qubais and lit up the spectacle with a more solemn light In the midst stood a huge bear-like erection Black as the wings which some spirit of ill or a sepulcher flings except where the moonbeam streaked it like jets of silver falling upon the darkest marble point of rest for the eye the little pagoda like buildings and the domes around it with all their gilding and fret work vanished one object unique in appearance stood in view the temple of the one Allah the God of Abraham of Ismail and their posterity sublime it was and expressing by all the eloquence of fancy the grandeur of the one idea which vitalized al-Islam and the strength and steadfastness of its votaries The oval pavement men women and children mostly divided into parties which follow dumotolwif some walking stately others running whilst many stood in groups to prayer what a scene of contrasts here stalk the bedawi woman in her long black robe like a nun's surge and poppy colored face veil pierced to show two fiercely flashing orbs there an Indian woman with her hurried round a fain every now and then a corpse born upon its wooden shell circated the shrine by means of forebearers whom other Muslims as it is the custom occasionally relieved a few fair skin turks lounged about looking cold and repulsive as their want is in one place a fast kalkata kitmuk garsted with turban aari and arms akimbo contemplating the view jointly as those gentlemen's gentlemen will do in other rich with arms thrown on high so that every part of his person might touch the kaaba was clinging to the curtain and sobbing as though his heart would break from this spectacle my eyes turned towards a buko base the city extends in that direction halfway up the grim hill the sight might be compared at a humble distance to bath some riders like it to Florence but conceive a Florence without beauty to the south age about jihad the greater from the jihad above the cemetery almaela over which Khaled entered Mecca some topographers call the jihad upon which the fort is built the lesser and apply greater to jihad amir the hill in north of Mecca in the footnote also partly built over and crowned with a fort which at a distance looks less useful than romantic footnote the Meccans however do not fail to boast of its strength and has stood some sieges in the footnote a flood of pale light of sparkling upon at stony surface below the minarets became pillars of silver and the cloisters dimly strict by oil lamps bounded the views of the temple with horizontal lines of shade before nightfall the boy Muhammad rose to feed the mosque pigeons for whom he had brought a pocket full of barley he went to the place where these birds flock the line of pavement leading from the isolated arch to be seen sitting here with small piles of grain upon little plated trays of basket work for each they demand a copper piece and religious pilgrims consider it their duty to provide the reverend blue rocks with a plentiful meal the Hindu pandits assert that Shiva and his spouse under the forms unnames of Kapot Eshwara Pijangod and Kapotsi dwelt at Mecca the doe the Makkan pigeons resembling those of Venice are held sacred probably in consequence of the wild traditions of the Arabs about Noah's dove some authors declare that in Muhammad's time among the idols of the Makkan panthian was a pigeon carved in wood and above it another which highly mounting upon the prophet's shoulder pulled down this might have been a Hindu a Jewish or Christian symbol the Muslims connect the pigeon on two occasions with their faith first when that bird to whisper in Muhammad's ear and secondly during the flight to Al Medina moreover in many countries they are called Allah's Proclaimers because their movement when cooing resembles prostration almost everywhere that pigeon has entered into the history of religion which probably induced Mr. Lasals to incur the derision of our grandfathers by pronouncing it a holy bird at Mecca they are called the doves of the Kaaba and they never appear at table they are remarkable for propriety when setting upon the holy building this may be a minor miracle I would rather believe that there is some contravence on the roof my friend Mr. Bicknell remarks this marvel however having of late years been suspended may discern another omen of the approach of the long predicted period when unbelievers shall desecrate the sacred soil late in the evening I saw a negro in the state called Malbus religious frenzy to all appearance at the crudy he was a finer powerful man as the numbers required to hold him testified he threw his arms wildly about uttering shrill cries sounded like lalala and when held he swayed his body and waved his head from side to side like a chained and furious elephant straining out the deepest groans the Africans must appear unusually subject to this nervous state which seen by the ignorant and the imaginative would at once suggest demoniacal possession futnu a black slave is considered the best subject European travelers have frequently remarked their nervous sensibility in a Biscinia the melodies called Buddha and Tuglithia appear to depend upon some obscure connection between a weak impressionable brain and the strong will of a feared and hated rice the blacksmiths in the futnu either their organization is more impressionable or more probably the hardships privations and fatigues endured wildly traversing hospitable wilds and perilous seas have exalted their imaginations to a pitch bordering upon frenzy often they are seen prostrate on the pavement or clinging to the curtain or rubbing their foreheads upon the stones weeping bitterly and pouring forth the wildest ejaculations that night I stayed in the harem till 2am wishing to see if it would empty but the moral was to witness the aggressor out of at many therefore passed the hours of darkness in the harem numerous parties of pilgrims sat upon their rugs with lanterns in front of them conversing, praying and contemplating the caba the cloisters were full of merchants who restored there to talk shop and to vent such holy goods as combs, toothpicks and rosaries before 10pm I found no opportunity of praying the usual two prostrations over the grave of Ismail after waiting long and patiently I at last was tipping into the vacant place when another pilgrim easily seized them and despite his cries and struggles taught him to wait till midnight we sat chatting with a different sysaroni who came up to offer their services I could not help remarking their shabi and dirty clothes and was informed that during pilgrimage when splendor is liable to be spoiled there were out old dresses and appear and imagious for the harem fed when most travelers have left the city presently my two companions exhausted with fatigue with the intention of annexing a bit of the torn old kisswa or curtain but too many eyes were looking on at this season of the year the kisswa is much tattered at the base partly by pilgrims' fingers and partly by the strain of the cord which confines it when the wind is blowing it is considered a mere pekidilo to proloin a bit of venerable stuff but as the officers of the temple make money by selling it they certainly would visit detection with an merciful application of the quarter staff the peace in my position was given to me by the boy Muhammad before I left Mecca waistcoats cut out of the kisswa still make the combatants invenerable in battle and are considered presents fit for princes the Muslims generally tried to secure a strip of this cloth as a mark for the Quran or some such purpose the opportunity however was favorable for a survey and with a piece of tape in a simple process of stepping and spanning I managed to measure all the objects concerning which I was curious at last sleep began to weigh heavily upon my eyelids I awoke my companions and in the dizziness of slumber they walked with me through the tall narrow street from Babaziada to our home in the Shamia the brilliant moonshine prevented our complaining as other travelers had reason to do of the darkness and the difficulty of Mecca streets the town too appeared safe there were no watchmen and yet people slept everywhere upon cuts placed opposite their open doors arrived at the house we made some brief preparations for snatching a few hours sleep upon the mataba a place so stifling that nothing but other exhaustion could induce lethargy here end of chapter 27 criteria binding