 Chapter 28 of Pilgrimage to Elmerdina 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, recording by Anna Simon. Chapter 28 of Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Elmerdina and Mecca by Richard Francis Burton. The Ceremonies of the Jaume Altaville, or The First Day. At 10 a.m. on the 8th Zohidja, A.H. 1269, Monday 12th September 1853, habit in our Ixam, or Pilgrimage garbs, we mounted the Lyrde. Sheikh Massoud had been standing at the door from dawn time in patience to start before the Damascus and the Egyptian caravans made the road dangerous. Our delay arose from the tyrannical conduct of the boy Mohammed, who insisted upon leaving his little nephew behind. It was long before he yielded. I then placed the poor child, who was crying bitterly, in a litter between us, and at last we started. We followed the road by which the caravans entered Mecca. It was covered with wide-robed pilgrims, some few wending their way on foot, others riding, and all men barefooted and bareheaded. Footnote. Pilgrims who would win the heavenly reward promised to those who walk start at an early hour. And footnote. Most of the wealthier classes mounted asses. The scene was, as usual, one of strange contrasts. Badawin with striding, swift dromedaries, Turkish dignitaries on fine horses, the most picturesque beggars, and the most uninteresting nizam. Not a little wrangling mingled with the loud bursts of tabiat. Dead animals dotted the ground, and carcasses had been cast into a dry tank in the birkat al-Shami, which caused every badawi to hold his nose. Footnote. The true badawi, the one in the tainted atmosphere of towns, is always known by bits of cotton in his nostrils, or by his ca-chief tightly drawn over his nose, a heavy frown marking extreme disgust. And footnote. Here on the right of the road, the poorer pilgrims, who could not find houses, had erected huts and pitched their erect tents, traversing the suburb al-Mabda, Mabada, in a valley between the two barren prolongations of Kaikan and Kandama. We turn to the northeast, leaving on the left certain barracks of Turkish soldiery, and the Negro militia here stationed, with the Sanyat Kuda in the background. Then advancing about three thousand paces over rising ground, we pass by the conical head of Jabal Nur, and enter the plain of many names. Footnote. Jabal Nur is anciently called Hira. It is still visited as the place of the Prophet's early lucorbrations, and because here the first verse of the Quran descended. As I did not ascend the hill, I must refer readers for a description of it to Burkhardt, volume 1, page 320. The plain of many names, al-Abdah, low ground, al-Qaif, the declivity, Fina Makkah, the court of Mecca, al-Muhassib, from Hasbah, a shining white pebble, corrupted by our authors, to Mithab and Mossab. End footnote. It contained nothing but a few whitewashed walls surrounding places of prayer, and a number of stone cisterns, some well preserved, others in ruins. All, however, were dry, and water vendors crowded the roadside. People in lumps of granite grew there like grass, and from under every large stone a shakemasude took a light in showing, a small scorpion, with tail curled over its back, flat, partial like from the invaders of its home. At eleven a.m., ascending a moudaj, or flight of stone steps, about thirty yards broad, we passed without difficulty, for we were in advance of the caravans over the akhaba, or steeps, and a narrow hill-girt entrance to the low gravel basin in which Muna lies. Footnote, the spot where Qusai fought and where Muhammad made his covenant, end footnote. Muna, more classically called Mina, is a place of considerable sanctity. Footnote, if Ptolemy's Minai be rightly located in this valley, the present name and derivation Muna, desire, because Adam, here desired, paradise of Allah, must be modern. Sail, following Pococ, makes Mina, from mana, allude to the flowing of victim's blood. Possibly it may be the plural of Minyad, which in many Arabic dialects means a village. This basin was doubtless, thickly populated in ancient times, and Muslim historians mention its seven idols representing the seven planets. End footnote. Its three standing miracles are these, the pebbles thrown at the devil returned by angelic agency to whence they came. During the three days of drying meat, rapacious beasts and birds cannot prey there, and lastly flies do not settle upon the articles of food exposed so abundantly in the bazaars. Footnote, according to Muhammad the pebbles of the accepted are removed by angels, as however each man and woman must throw forty-nine or seventy stones, it is fair to suspect the intervention of something more material. Animals are frightened away by the bustling crowd, and flies are found in myriads. End footnote. During pilgrimage houses are led for an exorbitant sum, and it becomes a world's fair of Muslim merchants. At all other seasons it is almost deserted, in consequence such popular superstition of the Raj, or diabolical, lapidation. Footnote, this demoniacal practice is still as firmly believed in Arabia as it formerly was in Europe. End footnote. Distant about three miles from Mecca, it is a long, narrow, straggling village, composed of mud and stone houses of one or two stories, built in the common Arab style. Traversing a narrow street, we pass on a left, the great devil, which shall be described at a future time. After a quarter of an hour's hold, spent over pipes and coffee, we came to an open space, where stands the mosque Al-Qaif. Here, according to some Arabs, Adam lies, his head being at one end of one long wall, and is feet at another, whilst the dome covers his umphalic region. Grand preparations for fireworks were being made in this square, I especially remarked the fire-ship, which savoured strongly of Stamble. After passing through the town, we came to Batan al-Muhassir, the basin of the troubler, Satan, at the beginning of a descent leading to Mastalifah, the Approacher, where the road falls into the valley of the Arafat torrent. Footnote, Batan al-Muhassir, probably, because here Satan appeared to tempt Adam, Abraham, and Ishmael. The Kanunah Islam erroneously calls it the valley of Muhassir, and curats Mashar al-Haram into Muzar al-Haram, the holy shrine. And footnote. At noon we reached the Muzalifah, also called Mashar al-Haram, the place dedicated to religious ceremonies. Footnote, many, even since sale corrected the error, have confounded this Mashar al-Haram with Mashid al-Haram of Mecca. According to Al-Fassi, quoted by Burkhardt, it is the name of a little eminence at the end of the Muzalifah valley, and anciently called Jabal-Kusa. It is also, he says, applied to an elevated platform in closing the mosque of Muzalifah. Ibn Jabar makes Mashar al-Haram synonymous with Muzalifah, to which he gives a third name, Jami, and footnote. It is known in al-Islam as the minaret without the mosque, opposed to Mashid nimra, which is the mosque without the minaret. Halfway between Muna and Arafat, it is about three miles from both. There is something peculiarly striking in the distant appearance of the tall solitary tower rising abruptly from the desolate valley of gravel, flanked with buttresses of yellow rock. No wonder that the ancient Arabs loved to give the high-sounding name of this oratory to distant places in their giant caliph empire. Here, as we hold it to perform the midday prayer, we were overtaken by the Damascus caravan. It was a grand spectacle. The Mahmou, no longer naked as upon the line of march, fleshed in the sun all green and gold. Around the moving host of white-robed pilgrims hovered a crowd of badawin, male and female, all mounted on swift dromedaries, and many of them armed to the teeth. As their drapery floated in the wind and their faces were veiled with the lisam, it was frequently difficult to distinguish the sex of the wild being, flogging its animal to speed. These people, as has been said, often resort to Arafat for blood revenge in hopes of finding the victim unprepared. Nothing can be more sinful in al-Islam than such deed. It is murder made sicker by sacrilege, yet the prevalence of the practice proves how feeble is the religions hold upon the race. The women are as unscrupulous, are remarked many of them emulating the men in reckless riding, and striking with their sticks every animal in the way. Travelling eastward up their Arafat fiumara, after about half an hour we came to a narrow pass called al-Aqshabain, or the two rugged hills. Footnote, Bacard calls it mazumein, or al-Mazik, the pass. Aqshab may mean wooded or rugged, in which letter sends it is frequently applied to hills. Kaikan and Abu Qabaiz at Mecca are called al-Aqshabain in some books. The left hill in Ibn Jabir's time was celebrated as a meeting place for brigands. And footnote. Here the spurs of the rock limited the road to about a hundred paces, and it is generally a scene of great confusion. After this we arrived at al-Bazan, the basin, a widening of the plain. Footnote, Qutb al-Din, makes another bazaan, the southern limit of Mecca, and footnote. And another half hour brought us to the al-Amein, the two signs, whitewashed pillars, or rather thin, narrow walls surmounted with pinnacles, which denote the precincts of the Arafat plain. Here in full sight of the holy hill, standing boldly out from the deep blue sky, the host of pilgrims broke into loud labaix. A little beyond and to our right was a simple enclosure called the mazshid nimra. Footnote. Bacard calls his building, which he confounds with the jami Ibrahim, the jami nimra. It was erected, he says, by Kurt Bay of Egypt, and had fallen into decay. It has now been repaired, and is generally considered neutral and not sanctuary ground between the Harim of Mecca and the holy hill. And footnote. We then turned from our eastern course northwards, and began threading our way down the main street of the town of Tens, which clisped about the southern foot of Arafat. At last, about three p.m., we found a vacant space near the mahtbak, or kitchen, formerly belonging to a Sharif's palace, but now are ruined with a few shells of arches. Arafat is about six hours' very slow march, or twelve miles, on the taif road due east of Mecca. Footnote. Mr. W. Muir, in his valuable life of Muhammad, volume 1, page 205, remarks upon this passage that at an earlier point I made Muna three miles from Mecca, and Musalifah about three miles from Muna, and Arafat three miles from Musalifah, a total of nine, but the lesser estimate does not include the outskirts of Mecca on the breath of the Arafat plain. The Kolkata review, article 1, September 1853, notably Urz, in making Arafat 18 miles east of Mecca. Ibn Jubeir reckons five miles from Mecca to Musalifah, and five from this to Arafat. And footnote. We arrived there in shorter time, but our wary camels, during the last third of the way, frequently threw themselves upon the ground. Human beings suffered more. Between Muna and Arafat, I saw no fewer than five men fall down and die upon the highway. Exhausted and moribund, they had dragged themselves out, to give up the ghost, where it departs to instant peyatitude. Footnote. Those who die on a pilgrimage become martyrs. And footnote. The spectacle showed how easy it is to die in these latitudes. Footnote. I cannot help believing that some unknown cause renders death easier to men in hot than in cold climates. Certain it is that in Europe rare are the quiet and painless deathbeds so common in the east. And footnote. Each man suddenly staggered, fell as if shot, and after brief convulsion lay still as marble. The corpses were carefully taken up and carelessly buried that same evening, in a vacant space amongst the crowds and camped upon the Arafat plain. Footnote. We bury our dead to preserve them as it were. The Muslim tries to secure rapid decomposition and makes the graveyard a dangerous as well as a disagreeable place. And footnote. The boy Mohammed, who had long chaved at my pretentious claim to dervish hood, resolved on this occasion to be grand. To swell the party he had invited Omar Effendi, whom we accidentally met in the streets of Mecca, to join us. But failing therein he brought with him two cousins, fat youths of sixteen and seventeen, and his mother's ground floor servants. These were four Indians, an old man, his wife, a middle-aged woman of the most ordinary appearance, their son, a sharp boy who spoke excellent Arabic, and a family friend, a stout fellow, about thirty years old. Footnote. Arabs observe that Indians, unless brought young into the country, never learn its language well. They have a word to express the vicious pronunciation of a slave or an Indian, Barbarat Ahunud. This root Barbra, Arabic, like the Greek Barbaros, appears to be derived from the Sanskrit Varvara, an outcast, a barbarian, a man with curly hair. Footnote. They were Punjabis, and the bachelor's history was instructive. He was gaining an honest livelihood in his own country, when suddenly one night Hazard Ali, dressed in green, and mounted upon his charger at Doldal. Footnote Ali's charger was named Mahmoun, or according to others, Zuljana, the winged. Indians generally confounded with Doldal, Muhammad's mule. And Footnote, at least so said the narrator, appeared, crying in a terrible voice, how long will thou toil for this world, and be idle about the life to come? From that moment, like an English murderer, he knew no peace. Conscience and Hazard Ali haunted him. Footnote, these visions are common in history. Ali appeared to the Imam Shafay, saluted him, an omen of eternal felicity, placed a ring upon his finger, as a sign that his fame should extend wide as the donors, and sent him to the Holy Land. Ibrahim bin Adam, the saint poet, hearing, when hunting, a voice exclaim, Man, it is not for this that Allah made thee, answered, it is Allah who speaks, his servant will obey. He changed clothes with an attendant, and wandered forth upon a pilgrimage, celebrated in Allah's lume. He performed it alone, and making one thousand, one hundred, genuflections each mile, prolonged it to twelve years. The history of Colonel Gardner, and of many others amongst ourselves, proved that these visions are not confined to the Arabs. And Footnote. Finding life unendurable at home, he sold everything, raised a sum of twenty pounds, and started for the Holy Land. He reached Jeddah with a few rupees in his pocket, and came to Mecca, where everything being exorbitantly dear, and charity all but unknown, he might have starved had he not been received by his old friend. The married pair and their son had been taken as house servants by the boy Muhammad's mother, who generously allowed them shelter and a pound of rice per diem to each, but not a farthing of pay. They were even expected to provide their own turmeric and onions, yet these poor people were anxiously awaiting the opportunity to visit Ahmadina, without which their pilgrimage would not, they believed, be complete. They would beg their way through the terrible desert, and its badamin, an old man, a boy, and a woman. What were their chances of returning to their homes? Such, I believe, is too often the history of those wretches whom a fit of religious enthusiasm, likeest to insanity, hurries away to the Holy Land. I strongly recommend the subject to the consideration of our Indian government as one that calls loudly for their interference. No Eastern ruler parts, as we do with the subjects, all object to lose productive power. To an empire of opinion, this emigration is fraught with evils. It sends forth a horde of malcontents that ripen into bigots. It teaches foreign nations to despise our rule, and it unveils the present nakedness of once wealthy India, and we have both prevention and cure in our own hands. As no Muslim, except a Maliki, is bound to pilgrimage without a sum sufficient to support himself and his family, all who embark at the different ports of India should be obliged to prove their solvency before being provided with a permit. The wise consul at Jedha ought also to be instructed to assist our Indian pilgrims. Mr. Cole, when holding that appointment, informed me that, though men die of starvation in the streets, he was unable to relieve them. The highways of Mecca abound in pathetic Indian beggars, who affect lank bodies, shrinking frames, whining voices, and so on and so forth. There are no fewer than 1500 Indians at Mecca and Jedha, besides 7 or 800 in Al Yaman. Such a body requires a consul. Footnote? There is a consul for Jedha now, 1879, but till lately he was an unpaid. End footnote. By the representation of a wise consul, when other powers send an officer of superior rank to Al Hijaz, we voluntarily place ourselves in an inferior position. And although the Meccan Sharif might for a time object to establishing a Muslim agent at the holy city, with orders to report to the consul at Jedha, it is possible that he will not be able to do so. With the Indians' assistance, the boy Muhammad removed the handsome Persian rugs with which he had covered the Shukduv, pitched the tent, carpeted the ground, disposed a divan of silk and satin cushions round the interior, and strewed the centre with new shabuks, and highly polished shishas. At the doorway was placed a large copper fire pan, which was placed on the side of the building. At the doorway was placed a large copper fire pan, with coffee-pots singing a welcome to visitors. In front of us were the litters, and by diverse similar arrangements our establishment was made to look fine. The youth also insisted upon my removing the rida, or upper cotton cloth, which had become waysoiled, and he supplied its place by a rich Kashmir, left with him some years before by a son of the king of Delhi. Little thought I that this bravery of a tyre would lose me every word of the Arafat sermon next day. Arafat, anciently called Jabal-Illal, Arabic, the Mount of Wrestling and Prayer, and now Jabal-Or-Rahma, the Mount of Mercy, is a mass of coarse granite split into large blocks with a thin coat of withered thorns. About one mile in circumference, it rises abruptly to the height of 180 or 200 feet from the low gravelly plain, a dwarf wall at the southern base forming the line of demarcation. It is separated by a baton arna, Arabic, a sandy veil, from the spurs of the taif hills. Footnote. This veil is not considered standing ground because Satan once appeared to the prophet as he was traversing it. And footnote. Nothing can be more picturesque than the view at the folds of the azure peaks behind and the vast encampments scattered over the barren yellow plain below. Footnote. According to Kuthabal Din, the Arafat plain was once highly cultivated. Stone-lined cisterns abound and ruins of buildings are frequent. At the eastern foot of the mountain was a broad canal, beginning at a spur of the taif hills and conveying water to Mecca. It is now destroyed beyond Arafat. The plain is cut with torrents which at times sweep with desolating violence into the holy city and a thick desert vegetation shows that water is not deep below the surface. And footnote. On the north lay the regularly pitched camp of the guards that defend the unarmed pilgrims. To the eastward was a chauris encampment with the bright mummills and the gilt knobs of the grandees' pavilions, while on the southern and western sides the tens of the vulgar crowded the ground, disposed in dowar or circles. After many calculations I estimated the number to be not fewer than 50,000 of all ages and sexes. A sad falling off it is true, but still considerable. Ali Bay, A.D. 1807, calculates 83,000 pilgrims. Burkhardt, 1814, 70,000. I reduce it in 1853 to 50,000. And in 1854, owing to political causes, it fell to about 25,000. Of these at fewest 10,000 are mechens, as every one who can leave the city does so at pilgrimage time. The Arabs have a superstition that the numbers at Arafat cannot be counted and that if fewer than 600,000 mortals stand upon the hill to hear the sermon, the angels descend and complete the number. Even this year, my Arab friends declared that 150,000 spirits were present in human shape. It may be observed that when the good old Bertrand de la Procure, Esquire Carver, to Philip of Burgundy, declares that a yearly caravan from Damascus to Almadina must always be composed of 700,000 persons, and that this number being incomplete, when Philip of Burgundy sends some of his angels to make it up, he probably confounds the caravan with the Arafat multitude. The Holy Hill owes its name and honours to a well-known legend. Footnote. The word is explained in many ways. One derivation has already been mentioned. Others assert that when Gabriel taught Abraham the ceremonies, he ended by saying, When our first parents forfeited heaven by eating wheat, which deprived them of their primeval purity, they were cast down upon earth. The serpent descended at Isbahan, the peacock at Kabul, Satan at Bilbaiz, others say Semlan and Seistan, Eve upon Arafat, and Adam at Isbahan, and Adam at Isbahan, and Adam at Isbahan, and Adam at Isbahan, Eve upon Arafat, and Adam at Ceylon. The letter, determining to seek his wife, began a journey to which earth owes its present model to appearance. Wherever our first father placed his foot, which was large, a town afterwards arose, between the strides will always be country. Wandering for many years, he came to the mountain of Mercy where our common mother was continually calling upon his name, and their recognition placed the name of Arafat. Upon its summit, Adam, instructed by the Archangel Gabriel, erected a madah, or a place of prayer, and between this spot and the Nimra Mosque, the couple abode till death. Others declare that after recognition, the first pair returned to India, whence for forty-four years in succession, they visited the sacred city at pilgrimage time. From the Holy Hill, I walked down to look at the camp arrangements. The main street of tents and booths, huts and shops, was bright with lanterns, and the bazaars were crowded with people and stocked with all manner of eastern delicacies. Some anomalous spectacles met the eye. Many pilgrims, especially the soldiers, were in a local costume. In one place, a half-drunken arnaud stalked down the road, elbowing peaceful passengers in hopes of a crawl. In another part, a huge, dimly-lit tent, reeking hot and garnished with cane-seeds, contained knots of Egyptians as their red tarposhes, white turbans and black zabuts showed, noisily intoxicating themselves with forbidden hemp. There were frequent brawls and great confusion. Many men had lost their parties, and, mixed with loud labaics, rose the shouted names of women and others of men. I was surprised at the disproportion of female nomenclature. The missing number of fair ones seemed to double that of the other sex, and at that practice so opposed to the customs of the Muslim world, at length the boy Mohammed enlightened me. Egyptian and other bold women when unable to join the pilgrimage will pay or persuade a friend to shout their names in hearing of the Holy Hill, in the next spot next year. So the welkin rang with the indecent sounds of oh Fatima, oh Zainab, oh Qajran. Footnote. The letter name, Ratan, is servile. Respectable women are never publicly addressed by Muslims, except as Dorte, female pilgrim, after some male relation, oh mother of Mohammed, oh sister of Omar, or Tugbonman by a man's name. It will be ill-omant and dangerous where the true name known. So most women, when travelling, adopt an alias. Whoever knew an Afghan fair who was not Nur Jahn or Sahib Jahn. And footnote. Plunderers, too, were abroad. As we returned to the tent we found a crowd assembled near it. A woman had seized a thief as he was beginning operations to hold his beard till man ran to her assistance. And we were obliged to defend by force our position against a knot of grave diggers who would bury a little heap of bodies within a yard or two of our tent. One point struck me at once, the difference in point of cleanliness between an encampment of citizens and of Badawan. Poor Masoud said holding his nose in ineffable disgust for which he was derided by the meccans. I called him with quoting the celebrated song of Maisouna, the beautiful Badawi wife of the Caliph Moaviyah. Nothing can be more charming in its own Arabic than this little song. The Badaween never hear it without screams of joy. Oh, take these purple robes away. Give back my cloak of camel's hair and bear me from this towering pile to where the black tents flap in the air. The camel's cold with faltering tread, the bays at all but me, the light me more than ambling mules than every art of minstrelsy, and any cousin, poor but free, might take me fatted ass from thee. Footnote. The British reader will be shocked to hear that by the term fatted ass the intellectual lady alluded to her husband. The story is that Moaviyah, overhearing the song, sent back the singer to her cousin and beloved wilds. Mysuna departed with her son Yazid and did not return to Damascus till the fatted ass had joined his forefathers. Yazid inherited, with his mother's talons, all her contempt for his father. At least the following quatrain addressed to Moaviyah, and generally known in al-Islam, would appear to argue anything but reverence. I drank the water of the vine that draught had power to rouse thy wrath, grim father. Now, indeed, this joyous to carouse. I'll drink, be wrath, I wreck not. Ah, dear to this heart of mine it is to scoff a sire's command to quaff forbidden wine. End Footnote. The old man, delighted, clapped my shoulder and exclaimed, Verily, O father of Moustachos, I will show thee the black tens of my tribe this year. At length night came and we threw ourselves upon our rugs, but not to sleep. Close by, to our bane, was a prayerful old gentleman who began his devotions at a late hour and concluded them not before dawn. He reminded me of the undergraduate my neighbour at Trinity College, Oxford, who would spout escalus at two a.m. Sometimes the chant would grow drowsy and my ears would hear a dull retreating sound. Presently, as if in self-reproach, it would rise to a sharp travel and proceed at a rate perfectly appalling. The coffee-houses, too, were by no means silent. Deep into the night I heard the clapping of hands accompanying merry Arab songs and the loud shouts of laughter of the Egyptian hemp-drinkers. And the guards and protectors of the camp were not Charlie's or night-nurse's. End of Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Of Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El Medina and Mecca by Richard Francis Burton This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recorded by Ling. Chapter 29 Of Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El Medina and Mecca by Richard Francis Burton The Ceremonies of Yom Arafat or the Second Day The Morning of the Ninth Shared in by Military Sounds Allowed Discharge of Canon warned us to arise and to prepare for the ceremonies of this eventful day. After Ablution and Prayer I proceeded with the boy Muhammad to inspect the numerous consecrated sites on the Mount of Mercy. In the first place we were repaired to a spot on rising ground to the southeast and within a hundred yards of the hill. It is called Jam as Sakhra or the Assembling Place of the Rock. Footnote Ali Bey calls the Jam al-Rahma or the Assembling Place of Mercy and a footnote. From two granite boulders upon which the Prophet stood to perform tilbiyyat there is nothing but a small enclosure of dwarf and whitewashed stone walls divided into halves for men and women by a similar partition and provided with a niche to direct prayers towards Mecca. Entering by steps we found crowds of devotees and guardians who, for consideration, offered mats and carpets. After a two-bow prayer and a long supplication opposite the niche we retired to the inner compartment stood upon a boulder and shouted at a bake. Then, strutting our way through many obstacles of tent and stone we ascended to broad flight of rugged steps which winds up the southern face of the rocky hill. At this early hour it was crowded with pilgrims, principally Bedouin and Wahhabis who had secured favourable positions for hearing the sermon. Already their green flag was planted upon the summit close to Adam's place of prayer. The wilder Arabs insist that wqulf or standing should take place upon the hill. This is not done by the more civilised who hold that all the plain within the alamein According to Ali Bey, the Maliki school was not allowed to stand upon the mountain. About half way up accounted 66 steps and remarked that they became narrower and steeper. Crowds of beggars instantly seized the pilgrims' robes and strove to prevent our entering at second enclosure. This place which resembles the former except that it has but one compartment and no boulders is used to address his followers and here to the present day the khatib or the preacher in imitation of the last of the prophets sitting upon a dromedary recites that a fat sermon. Here also we prayed a two-about prayer and gave a small sum to the guardian. Then descending with increased difficulty to the hill-top we arrived at a large staccote platform with prayer niche and a kind of obelisk mean and badly built of lime and granite stone whitewashed and conspicuous from afar. Footnote Here was a small chapel which the Wahhabis were demolishing when Ali Bey was at Mecca. It has not been rebuilt upon the spot the prophet according to Burkhard used to stand during the ceremonies. End of footnote. It is called the Maqam or Mada Sayedina Adam. Footnote What gives this name to a place a little way on the left in about 40 steps up the mountain and a footnote. Here we performed the customary ceremonies amongst a crowd of pilgrims and then we walked down the little hill. Close to the plain we saw the place where the Egyptian and the Damascus Mahmel stand during the sermon and descending the wall that surrounds Arafat by a steep and narrow flight of coarse stone steps We also now ride the fountain which supplies the place with water. It bubbles from the rock and is exceedingly pure as such water generally is in El Hijaz. Our excursion employed us longer than the description requires. Nine o'clock had struck before we reached the plain. All were in a state of excitement. Guns fired incessantly. Horsemen and camel riders galloped about without apparent object. Even the women and children ordered and walked, too restless even to sleep. Arrived at the tent I was unpleasantly surprised to find a new visitor in an old acquaintance. Ali bin Yasin the Zimzimi He had lost his mule and wandering in search of its keepers he unfortunately fell in with our party. I had solid reasons to regret the mishap. He was far too curious and too observant to suit my tastes. On the present occasion being uncomfortable made us equally so. Accustomed to all the terrible neatness of an elderly downzelin Great Britain a few specks of dirt upon the rugs and half a dozen bits of cinder upon the ground suffice to give him attacks of nerves. That day we breakfasted late. For a night must come before we could eat again. After midday prayer we performed ablutions. Some the greater others the less in preparation for the wakuf or standing. From noon onwards the hum and murmur of the multitude increased and people were seen swarming about in all directions. A second discharge of cannon at about 3.15 p.m. announced the approach of Al-Asr, the afternoon prayer and almost immediately we heard the no-but or ban proceeding the Sharif's procession as he went at his way towards the mountain. Fortunately my tent was pitched close to the road so that without trouble I had a perfect view first swept a cloud of mace-bearers who as usual on such occasions cleared the path with scant ceremony. They were followed by the horsemen of the desert wielding long and tufted spears. Immediately behind them came the Sharif's lead horses upon which I fixed a curious eye. All were highly bred and one a brownish dude with black points struck me as a perfection of an Arab. They were all small and all apparently of the northern race. Footnote. In Solomon's time the Egyptian horse cost 150 silver shekels which if the greater shekel be meant would still be about the average price 18 pounds. Abbas the late Pasha did his best to buy first-rate Arab stallions. On one occasion he sent a mission to Al-Madinah for the sole purpose of fetching a rare work on Ferrari yet it is doubt whether he had ever a first-rate Nishti. A Badawi sent to Cairo by one of the chiefs of Nishti being shown by the viceroy over the stables on being asked his opinion of the blood replied bluntly to the great man's disgust that they did not contain a single thoroughbred. He added an apology on their part of his laird for the animals he had brought from Arabia saying that neither Salta nor Sheikh could procure culs of the best strain. For none of these horses are of the long-legged monster called in England a thoroughbred give twenty pounds. There were mere rats, short and stunted ragged and fleshless with rough coats and a slouching walk. But the experienced glance notes at once the fine snake-like head ears like reeds, wide and projecting nostrils, large eyes, fiery and soft alternately, broad brow deep base of skull, white chest, crooked tail, bledded with muscle and long elastic pasturness. And the animal put out to speed soon displayed the wondrous force of the blood. In fact, when buying Arabs there are only three things to be considered, blood, blood and again blood. In Marco Polo's time I then supplied the Indian market. The state of the tribes round the eye of Yemen has effectually closed the road against the horse caravans for many years past. It is said that Dhu Muhammad and Dhu Hussein sub-families of the Benu Yem, a large tribe living around north of Sana'a in Yemen, have a fine large breed called al-Jofi and the clan Al-Awlaqi, rear animals celebrated for swiftness and endurance. The other races are stunted and some Arabs declare that the air of Yemen causes a degeneracy in the first generation. The Bedouin on the contrary uphold their superiority and talk at most contempt of the African horse. In India we now depend for Arab blood upon the Persian Gulf and the consequence of monopoly display themselves in an increased price for inferior animals. Our studs are generally believed to be sinks for rupees. The governments of India now object. It is said to rearing at a great cost animals distinguished by nothing but ferocity. It is evident that al-Hijjahs can never stock in the Indian market. Whether a nudge will supply us when the transit becomes safe is a consideration which only time can decide. Meanwhile it would be highly advisable to take steps for restoring the ad-in trade by entering into closer relations with the Imam of Sana'a and the Bedouin chiefs of the north of Yemen. End of footnote. Of their old crimson velvet comparisons the less said the better. No little Indian Nawab would show odd so shabby state occasions. After the charges paraded a band of black slaves on foot bearing huge matchlocks and immediately preceded by three green and two red flags came the Sharif riding in front of his family and courtiers. The prince habited in a simple white ehram and bare-headed mounted a mule. The only sign of his rank was a large green and gold embroidered umbrella held over him by a slave. The rear was brought up by another troop of Bedouin on horses and camels. Behind his procession were the tents whose doors and walls were scarcely visible for the crowd and the picturesque background was the granite hill covered wherever standing rumors to be found with white-robed pilgrims shouting in a bake and waving the skirts of their glistening garments violently over their heads. Slowly and solemnly the procession advanced towards the hill exactly at the hour of Al-Asr. The two mahmals had taken their station side by side on a platform in the lower slope. That of Damascus could be distinguished as the narrower and the more ornamented of the pair. The Sharif placed himself with his standard bearers and his retinue a little above the mahmals while hearing the preacher. The pilgrims crowded up to the foot of the mountain. The loud lab-bake of the Bedouin and the Wahhabis fell to a solemn silence, and the waving of the white robe seized, a sign that the preacher had begun the Khutbah or sermon of the standing upon Arafat. I obtained the following note upon the ceremonies of Wahhabi Pilgrimage from one of their princes, Khalid Bey. The Wahhabi, who it must be born in mind, calls himself a muwahid or unitarian in opposition to a mushrik or polytheist any other sect but his own. At Mecca follows out his two principal tenets, public prayer for men daily for women on Fridays and rejection of the Prophet's mediation. Imitating Muhammad he spends the first night of Pilgrimage at Mina, stands upon the hill Arafat, and returning to Mina passes three whole days there. He deries other Muslims, abridges and simplifies the kaba ceremonies and if possible is guided in his devotions by one of his own sect. And a footnote. From my tent I could distinguish the form of the old man upon his camel but the distance was too great for ear to reach. But how came I to be at the tent? A short confession will explain. They will strive me who believe in inspired Spencer's lines and every spirit as it is more pure and hath in it the more of heavenly light so it the fairer body doth procure to habit in. The evil came of a fairer body. I had prepared in cashette a slip of paper and had hit in my Ihrama pencil, destined to put down the heads of this rarely heard discourse but unhappily that red cashmere shawl was upon my shoulders. Close to us at a party of fair meccans, apparently belonging to the higher classes, and one of these I had already several times remarked. She was a tall girl about eighteen years old with regular features, a skin somewhat citron colored but soft and clear, symmetrical eyebrows, the most beautiful eyes and a figure all grace. There was no head thrown back no straighten neck, no flat shoulders nor toes turned out, in fact no elegant barbarism. The shape was with the Arab's love, soft bending and relaxed as a woman's figure ought to be. Unhappily she wore instead of the usual veil, a yashmak or transparent muslin bound around the face and the apron, mother or duenne, by whose size she stood was apparently a very unsuspicious or complacent old person. Fleurtillag fixed a glance of admiration upon my cashmere. I directed a reply with interest at her eyes. She then, by the usual cacadish gesture, threw back an inch or two of head veil, disclosing broad bands of jitty hair, crowning a lovely oval. My palpable admiration of the new charm was rewarded by a partial removal of the yashmak, when a dim-pulled mouth and rounded chin stood out from the envious muslin. Seeing that my companions were safely employed, I entered upon the dangerous ground of raising hand to forehead. She smiled almost imperceptibly and turned away, the pilgrim was in ecstasy. The sermon was then half over. I was resolved to stay upon the pain and see what Fleurtillag would do. Grace to the cashmere we came to a good understanding. The next page will record my disappointment. That evening the pilgrim resumed his soil cotton cloth and testily returned the red shawl to the boy Mohammed. The sermon always lasts till near sunset, or about three hours. At first it was spoken amid profound silence. Then loud scattered amines. And volleys of Lebesque exploded at uncertain intervals. At last the breeze brought to our ears a purgatorial chorus of cries sobs and shrieks. Even my party thought proper to be affected. Old Ali rubbed his eyes, which in no case unconnected that dollars could by any amount of straining be made to shed even crocodile's tears, and the boy Mohammed wisely hid his face in the skirt of his rida. Presently the people exhausted and the ocean began to descend the hill in small parties. And those below struck their tents and commenced loading their canals, although at least an hour's sermon remained. On this occasion, however, all hurried to be foremost, as the race or modified is enjoyed by none but the Bedouin. Although we worked with a will, our animals were not ready to move before sunset, when the preacher gave the signal of a slough of permission to depart. The Bedouin froze like waves of a great sea that, in mid-shock, confound each other white with foam and fear, rushed down the hill with a lab-bake sounding like a blast, and took the road to Mina. Then I saw the scene which has given to this part of the ceremony is the name of a duffman out of fat, the hurry from out of fat. Every man urged his beast with might and mane. It was sunset. The plain bristle with ten pegs, litters were crushed, pedestrians were trampled, camels were overthrown, single combats with sticks and other weapons took place. Here a woman, their child, and their unanimal were lost. Briefly it was a chaotic infusion. To my disgust old Ali insisted upon bestowing his company upon me. He gave his newly found mule to the boy Mohammed, bidding him to take care of the beast and mounted with me in the shook-duff. I had persuaded Sheikh Masoud a dollar to keep close in rear of the pretty meccan, and I wanted to sketch the holy hill. The senior began to give orders about the camel. I counter-ordered. The camel was halted. I urged it on. Old Ali directed it to be stopped. Meanwhile the charming face that smiled at me from the litter grew dimmer and dimmer. The more I stormed the less I was listened to. A string of camels crossed our path. I lost sight of the beauty. Then we began to advance. Again, my determination to sketch seemed likely to fail before the Zamzamie's little snake eyes. After a few minutes angry search for expedience one suggested itself. Effendi said old Ali, sit quiet, there is danger here. I tossed about like one suffering from evil conscience or from the colic. Effendi shrieked the senior. What are thou doing? Thou will be the death of us. I replied with a violent plunge. It is all thy fault. There! Another plunge. Put thy beard out of the other opening and Allah will make it easy to us. In the ecstasy of fear my tormentor turned his face as he was hidden towards the camel's head. A second halt ensued when I looked out at the aperture in rear and made a rough drawing of the mountain of mercy. At the Akhshabayn, double lines of camels bristling with glass at a shock more noisy than the meeting of torrents. It was already dark. No man knew what he was doing. The guns roared like the brazen notes re-echoed far and wide by the harsh voices of the stony hills. A shower of rockets bursting in the air threw into still greater confusion the timorous mob of women and children. At the same time martial music rose from the masses of Nivam and the stouter-hearted pilgrims were not sparing of their bake. An ait kumobarak. May your festival be happy. Footnote. La bake is repeated until the pilgrims reach Minna and not afterwards. Another phrase is untom minelae din or may you be the keepers of festival. End of footnote. After the pass of the two rugged hills the road widened an old alley who during the bumping had been in a silent convulsion of terror recovered speech and spirits. This change he evidenced by beginning to be troublesome once more again a resolve to be his equal. Exclaiming my eyes are yellow with hunger I seized a pot full of savoury meat which the old man had previously stored for supper and without further preamble began to eat it greedily. At the same time ready to shout with laughter at the mumbling and grumbling sounds that receded from the darkness of the road before reaching Muzdalifah and being fatigued we resolved to pass the night there. Footnote. Hanafis usually follow the prophet's example in nighting at Muzdalifah. In the evening after the prayers they attend the mosque listen to the discourse and shout plentiful tears. Mulsha Faiz spend only a few hours at Muzdalifah. End of footnote. The mosque was brilliantly illuminated footnote. Some sects consider the prayer at Muzdalifah a matter of vital importance. End of footnote. But my hungry companions apparently thought more supper and sleep and of devotion. Footnote. We failed to buy meat at Adafat afternoon. Although the bazaar was large and well stocked, it is usual to eat flesh there consequently it is greedily bought up at an exorbitant price. End of footnote. Whilst the tent was being raised the Indians prepared our food, boiled our coffee, filled our bread, our rugs. Before sleeping each man collected for himself seven jamra, bits of granite at the size of a small bean. Footnote. Jamra is a small pebble. It is also called hasa and the plural hasayat. End of footnote. Then we were with emotion and exertion all let down except the boy Muhammad who preceded us to find a camping ground at Mina. Old Ali in landing his mule made the most stringent with the youth about the exact place and the exact hour of meeting an act of simplicity at which I could not but smile. The time was by no means peaceful or silent. Lines of camels passed us every ten minutes and the shouting of travelers continued till near dawn. Pilgrims ought to have knighted at the mosque but as breakout's time so in mine baggage was considered to be in danger thereabouts and consequently most of the devotees spent sermon hours in brooding over their boxes. End of Chapter 29 Chapter 30 of personal narrative of Pilgrimage to El Medina and Mecca by Richard Francis Burton. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Chapter 30 The Ceremonies of the Yeoman Nahr or the Third Day on 10th of the Hijjah Wednesday September 14th, a gun warned us to lose no time. We arose hurriedly and started up the baton Mahassir Tumina but this means we lost at Muzdalifah the Salat Al-A'id or festival prayers. The great salamnity of the Muslim year performed by all the community at daybreak. My companion was so anxious to reach Mecca that he would not hear of devotions. About 8am we entered the village and looked for the boy Muhammed in vain. Old Ali was dreadfully perplexed. A host of high-born Turkish pilgrims were, he said, expecting him. His mule was missing, could never appear, he must be late, should probably never reach Mecca. What would become of him? I began by administering Admonition to the mind diseased. But signally failing in your cure I amused myself with contemplating the world from my shook-dove leaving the office of directing it to Zamsimi. Now he stopped then he pressed forward. Here he thought he saw Muhammed, there he discovered our tent. At one time he would knock the camel to wait. In patience, his supreme hour. At another, half mad with nervousness, he would urge the excellent Mas'ud to hopeless inquiries. Finally, by good fortune, we found one of the boy Muhammed's cousins who led us to an enclosure called Hush Al-Uzam in the southern portion of the basin, at the base of Mount Sabir. Footnote. Even pitching ground here is charged to pilgrims. And a footnote. There we pitched the tent, refreshed ourselves and awaited the truant's return. Old Ali failing to disturb my equanimity, attempted as those who consort with philosophers often do to quarrel with me. But finding no material wherewith to build a dispute in such fragment as, ah, hmm, Allah he hinted desperate intentions against the boy Muhammed. When, however, the youth appeared with even more jauntiness of mean than usual, Ali Bin Yasin lost heart, brushed by him, mounted his mule, and doubtless cursing us under the tongue, rode away frowning viciously with his heels playing upon the beast's ribs. Muhammed had been delayed, he said, by the difficulty of finding asses who were now to mount for throwing. As a preliminary to which we washed with seven waters, the seven pebbles brought from Muzdalifah and bound them in our Ahrams. Footnote. Some authorities advised that this rite of Rami be performed on foot, and a footnote. Our first destination was the entrance to the western end of the long line which composes the Muna village. We found a swarming crowd in the narrow road opposite the Jamrat Al-Aqaba, or as it is vulgarly called the Shaytan al-Kibir, or the Great Devil. Footnote. The word Jamra is applied to the place of stoning as well as to the stones, and a footnote. These names distinguish it from another pillar, the Wustal, or a central place of stoning, built in the middle of Muna, and a third at the eastern end, Al-Ula, or the first place. Footnote. These numbers mark the successive spots where the devil in the shape of an old cheque appeared to Adam, Abraham, and Ismael, and was driven back by the simple process taught by Gabriel, offering stones at about the size of a bean, and a footnote. The Shaytan al-Kibir is a dwarf buttress of rude masonry about eight feet high by two-and-a-half broad, placed against a rough wall of stones at the Macan entrance to Muna. As the ceremony of Rami, or lapidation, must be performed with old pilgrims between sunrise and sunset, and as the fiend was malicious enough to appear in a rugged pass, the crowd makes the place dangerous. Footnote. I borrow this phrase from Ali Bey, who, however, speaks more like an ignorant Catalonian than a learned Abbasid, when he calls the pillar La Maison de Diable, and facetiously asserts that the devil had the malice to place his house in a Louis Fortet III, qui n'a pas trente-quatre pieds de loge and a footnote. On one side of the road, which is not forty feet broad, stood a row of shops belonging principally to barbers. On the other side is the rugged wall against which the pillar stands, with a cheval de fries of Bedouin and naked boys. The narrow place was crowded with pilgrims, all struggling like drowning men to approach as near as possible to the devil. It would have been easy to run over the heads of the mass. Amongst them were horsemen with rearing chargers, Bedouin on wild camels and grandees on mules and asses, with outrunners were breaking away by assault and battery. I had read Ali Bey's self-felicitations upon escaping this place with only two wounds in the left leg, and I had duly provided myself a dagger. The precaution was not useless. Scarcely had my donkey entered the crowd, then he was overthrown by dromedary and I found myself under the stamping and roaring beast's stomach, avoiding being trampled upon by a judicious use of the knife. I lost no time in escaping from a place so ignobley dangerous. So Muslim travelers assert in proof of the sanctity of the spot that no Muslim is ever killed there. Meccans assured me that their origins are by no means rare. Presently the boy Muhammad fought his way out of the crowd with a bleeding nose. We both sat down upon a bench before a barber's booth and schooled by adversity awaited with patience and opportunity. Finding an opening we approached within about five cubits of the place, and holding each stone between the thumb and the forefinger of the right hand we cast it at the pillar. Footnote. Some hold the pebble and does a marble. Others between the thumb and the forefinger extend it. Others shoot them from the thumb knuckle and most men consult their convenience and a footnote. Exclaiming in the name of Allah and Allah is almighty, I do this in hatred of the fiend and to his shame. After which came the tahlil and the thana or praise to Allah. The seven stones being duly thrown we retired and entering the barber's booth our places upon one of the earth and benches around it. This was the time to remove the ehram or the pilgrim's garb and return to ehral the normal state of al-Islam. The barber shaved our heads and after trimming our beers and cutting our nails made us repeat these words. I purposed loosening my ehram according to the practice of the prophet whom may Allah bless and preserve who Allah make unto me in light a purity and a generous reward. In the name of Allah and Allah is almighty at the conclusion of his labour the barber politely addressed us to Naiman pleasure to you. To which we as sermonously replied Allah give thee pleasure. Footnote. The barber removed all my hair. Hanafiz shaved at least a quarter of the head. Shafiz a few hairs on the right side. The prayer is as usual differently worded. Some saying oh Allah this is my forelock is in thy hand then grant me for every hair a light on resurrection day by thy mercy oh most merciful of the merciful. I remarked that the hair was allowed to lie upon the ground whereas strict muslims with that reverence for man's body the temple of the supreme which characterizes their creed carefully buried in the earth. And a footnote. We had no clothes with us but we could use our cloths to cover our heads and slippers to defend our feet from the fiery sun and we now could safely twirl our mustachios and stroke our beards. Placid enjoyments of which we had been deprived by the laws of pilgrimage. After resting about an hour in the booth which though crowded with sitting customers was delightfully cool compared with the burning fire of the road we mounted our asses and at 11am we started Mecca words. This return from Minna to Mecca is called the Nafr or the flight. Footnote. This word is confined with dafah by many muslim authors. Some speak of the Nafr from Arafah to Misdalifah and the dafah from Misdalifah to Minna. I have used the words as my Mu'tawif used them. End of footnote. We did not fail to keep our asses at speed with a few hulls to refresh ourselves with gugglets of water. There was nothing remarkable in the scene. Our ride in was a repetition of our ride out. In about half an hour we entered the city passing through that classical locality called Batan Quresh which was crowded with people and then we repaired to the boy Mohammed's house for the purpose of bathing and preparing to visit the Kaaba. Shortly after our arrival the youth returned home with excitement, exclaiming rise offending, dress and follow me. The Kaaba though open would for a time be empty so that we should escape the crowd. My pilgrims garb which had not been removed was made to look neat and somewhat Indian and we salad forth together without loss of time. The crowd had gathered around the Kaaba. I had no wish to stand bare-headed and bare-footed in midday September sun. At the cry of open the path for the haji who would enter the house, the gazers made way. Two stout meccans who stood below the door raised me in their arms, whilst the third drew me from above into the building. At the entrance I was accosted by several officials, dark-looking meccans of whom the blackest and plainest was a youth of the Benu Sheba family. Footnote. They keep the keys of the house. In my day the head of the family was made, and a footnote. The sound q'azul of al-hijaz he held in his hand a huge silver-guilt padlock of the Kaaba. Footnote. In Ibn Jubeir's time this large padlock was of gold. It is said popularly that none but the Benu Sheba can open it. A minor miracle doubtless proceeding from the art of some Eastern Hobbes or Barama and a footnote, and presently taking his seat upon a kind of wooden press in the left corner of the hall. He officially inquired my name, nation and other particulars. Their replies were satisfactory and the boy Muhammad was authoritatively ordered to conduct me around the building and to recite the prayers. I will not deny that looking at the windowless walls the officials at the door and the crowd of excited fanatics below, and the place death considering who I was. Footnote. However safe a Christian might be at Mecca nothing could preserve him from the ready knives of enraged fanatics if detected in the house. The very idea is pollution to a Muslim. And a footnote. My feelings were of a trap-draught description acknowledged by the immortal nephew of his uncle Perez. This did not however prevent my carefully observing the scene during our long prayers and making a rough plan with a pencil upon my white ehram. Nothing is more simple than the interior of this celebrated building. The pavement which is leveled with a ground is composed of slabs of fine and various colored marbles mostly however white disposed checker-wise. The walls as far as they can be seen are of the same material but the pieces are irregularly shaped and many of them are engraved with long inscriptions of the souls and other modern characters. The upper part of the walls together with the ceiling at which it is considered disrespectful to look are covered with handsome red demasque. Footnote. I do not know the origin of this superstition but it would be unsafe for a pilgrim to look fixedly at the camp of ceiling. Under the aras I was told is a strong planking of size or Indian teak and above it a stuccoed sathe or flat roof and a footnote flowered over with gold and tucked up about six feet high so as to be removed from pilgrim's hands. Footnote. Exactly realizing the description of our English bard, goodly aras of great majesty, woven with gold and silk so close and near that the rich metal lurk at privilege as feigning to be hit from envious eye. End of footnote. The flat roof is upheld by three cross-beams whose shapes appear under the aras. They rest upon the eastern and western walls and are supported in the center by three columns. Footnote. Ibn Jubeir mentions three columns of teak, Burqart and Ali Bay too. In Al-Fasih's day there were four. The Quraish erected six columns in double row. Generally the pillars have been three in number. End of footnote. Covered with carpet and ornamented aloe's wood. Footnote. This wood which has been used of old ornaments, sacred buildings in the east is brought to Mecca in great quantities by the Malay and Javav pilgrims. The Beskan is known by its old-day appearance and a fizzing sound and fire. The cunning vendors easily supply it with desi dirata. End of footnote. At the Iraqi corner there is a dwarf door called Babatoba of repentance. Footnote. Ibn Jubeir calls it Babur Rahma. End of footnote. It leads into a narrow passage and to the staircase by which the servants ascend to the roof. It is never opened except for working purposes. The Aswad or Asad corner. Footnote. The Hajar Aswad is also called Al-Asad or the propitious. End of footnote. It is occupied by a flat top and quadrant shaped press or safe. Footnote. Here in Ibn Jubeir's time stood two boxes full of Qura'ans. End of footnote. In which at times it placed the key of the Ka'bah. Footnote. The key is sometimes in the hands of a child of the house of Sheba who sits in state with black slaves on both sides. End of footnote. Both door and safe are of al-Ozwood. Between the columns and about nine feet from the ground ran bars of a metal which I could not distinguish and hanging between them were many lamps set to be gold. Although there were in the Ka'bah but a few attendants engaged in preparing it for the entrance of the pilgrims. Footnote. In Ibn Jubeir's day the Ka'bah was opened with more ceremony. The ladder was rolled up to the door and the chief of the Benu Sheba ascending it was covered by attendants with a black veil from head to foot whilst he opened the padlock. Then having kissed the threshold he entered shut the door behind him and prayed to Raqad. After which all the Benu Sheba and lastly the vulgar were admitted. In these days the veil is obsolete. The sheikh enters the Ka'bah alone perfumes it and prays the pilgrims are then admitted in mass and the style in which the eunuchs handle their quarter staves form a scene more animated than the chorus. End of footnote. The windowless stone walls and the choked up door made it worse than the pyombi of Venice. Perspiration trickled in large drops and I thought with her what it must have been when filled with a mass of fiercely jostling and crushing fanatics. Our devotions consisted of two Ba'u prayer. Footnote. Some pray four instead of two Ba'us. End of footnote. Followed by long supplications at the Shammi or the west corner the Iraqi or the northern angle the Yemeni the south and lastly opposite the third of the black wall. Footnote. Burkhard earnestly says in every corner. End of footnote. These concluded I returned to the door where payment is made. The boy Muhammad told me that the total expense would be seven dollars at the same time he had been indulging aloud in his favorite Rodolmante boasting of my greatness and had declared me to be an Indian pilgrim. A race still supposed at Mecca to be made of gold. Footnote. These Indians are ever in extremes poppers or millionaires and like all Muslims the more they pay at Mecca the higher becomes their character and religious titles. Aturkeshpasha seldom squanders as much money as does a Muslim merchant from the far east. Khudebach the Lahore Shal dealer owned to having spent 800 Liras in feasting and presents. He appeared to consider that some a trifle, although had a debtor carried off one teeth of it his health would have been seriously affected. End of footnote. When seven dollars were tendered they were rejected with instance. Expecting something of the kind I had been careful to bring no more than eight. Being pulled at by half a dozen attendants my course was to look stupid and to pretend ignorance of the language. Presently the Shaba youth befought him of a contravence. Drawing forth from the press the key of the Kaaba he partly bared it of its green silk gold letter Etouy and rubbed a golden knob quarter foil shaped upon my eyes in order to brighten them. Footnote. The cover of the key is made like Abraham's veil of three colors red, black and green. It is of silk embroidered with golden letters and upon it are written the Bismillah the name of the reigning sultan bag of the key of the holy Kaaba and a bracelet from the family of Al-Ambraan Quran Chapter 3 It is made like the Kiswah at Khurunfish a place that will be noticed below. End of footnote. I submitted to the operation with a good grace and added a dollar, my last, to the former offering. The Sharif received it with a hopeless glance and to my satisfaction would not put forth his hand to be kissed. Then the attendance began to demand veils. I replied by opening my empty pouch. When let down from the door by the two brawny meccans I was expected to pay them and accordingly appointed to meet them at the boy Muhammad's house an arrangement to which they grumblingly When delivered from these troubles I was congratulated by my sharp companion, thus, wallah Fendi, thou hast escaped well, some men have left their skins behind. Footnote. A Korshe or Pilati the idea is common to most imaginative nations. End of footnote. All pilgrims do not enter the Kaaba and many refuse to do so for religious reasons. Footnote. The same is the case at Al-Madinah. Many religious men object unconscious grounds to enter the Prophet's mosque. The poet quoted below many visitations to Al-Madinah but never would persuade himself to approach the tomb. The Esquire carver saw two young Turks who had voluntarily had their eyes thrust out at Mecca as soon as they had seen the glory and visible sanctity of the tomb of Muhammad. I doubt the fact which thus appears ushered in by a fiction. End of footnote. Amr Afendi, for instance who had never missed the pilgrimage had never seen the interior of the Kaaba. Footnote. I have not thought it necessary to go deep into the list of Muharramad or actions forbidden to the pilgrim who has entered the Kaaba. They are numerous and meaningless. End of footnote. Those who treat the hallowed floor abound among other things never again to walk barefooted to take up fire with fingers or to tell lies. Most really conscientious men cannot afford the luxuries of slippers, tongs, and truth so thought Thomas when offered the apple which would have given him the tongue that cannot lie. My tongue is mine ain't true Thomas said. A goodly gift ye would gi to me. I neither doth to buy nor sell at fair or trist where I may be. I doth neither speak to prince or peer nor ask of grace from fair lady. Amongst the Hindus I have met with men who have proceeded upon a pilgrimage to Dwarka and yet who would not receive the brand of the god because lying would be forbidden to them. A confidential servant of a friend in Bombay naively declared that he would not be marked as the act would have ruined him. There is a sad truth in what he said. Lying to the Oriental is meat and drink and the roof that shelters him. The Kaaba had been dressed in her new attire when we entered. Footnote the use of the feminine pronoun is explained below when unclothed the Kaaba is called Ariana or Naked in opposition to its normal state Muharrama or Clad in Burqa. In Burqa's time the house remained naked for 15 days. Now the investiture is affected in a few hours and a footnote. The covering, however, instead of being secured at the bottom of the metal rings in the basement was tucked up by ropes from the roof and depended over each face in two long tongues. It was a brilliant black and the hezam, the zone over golden band running round the upper portion of the building as well as the Burqa were of dazzling brightness. Footnote The gold embroidered curtain covering the Kaaba door is called by the learned Burqa Al Kaaba or the Kaaba's face veil, the vulgar Burqa Fatima. They connected in idea with the prophet's daughter and a footnote. The origin of this custom must be sought in the ancient practice of typifying the church visible by a virgin or a bride. The poet Abdul Rahim Al-Bura'i in one of his agnostic effusions has embodied the idea and Makkah's bride, i.e. the Kaaba is displayed with miraculous signs. This idea doubtless led to the face veil, the covering and the guardianship of the eunuchs. The Makkah temple was first dressed as a mark of honour by Tuba the Himyaret when he judised. Footnote The pyramids, it is said, were covered from base to summit with yellow silk or satin and a footnote. If we accept this fact, which is vouched for by Oriental history, we are led to the conclusion that the children of Israel settled at Makkah had connected the temple with their own faith and, as a colorally, that the prophet of al-Islam introduced their apocrypal tradition into this creed. The pagan Arabs did not remove the coverings. The old and torn kisswa was covered with a new cloth and a weight threatened to crush the building. Footnote At present, the kisswa, it needs scarcely be said, does not cover the flat roof and the footnote. From the time of Qusay, the Kaaba was veiled by subscription to Labrabi'at al-Mugaira bin Abdullah, who, having acquired great wealth by commerce, offered to provide the kisswa on alternate years and thereby gained the name of al-Adil. The prophet preferred the covering of fine Yemen cloth and directed the expense to be defrayed by the Bait al-Mal, or public treasury. Amar chose Egyptian linen, ordering the kisswa to be renewed every year and this old covering to be distributed among the pilgrims. In the reign of Uthman, the Kaaba was twice clothed in winter and summer. For the former season it received a kamiz or a thob of brocade, with an izar or veil for the winter, a suit of fine linen. Muawiyah first supplied linen and brocade. He afterwards exchanged the former of four striped Yemen stuff and ordered Shaban bin Atman to strip the Kaaba and to perfume the walls with khaluq. Shaba divided the old kisswa among the pilgrims and Abdullah bin Abbas did not object to this distribution, footnote. When Shaba proposed to bury the old kisswa so that it might not be worn by the impure Iisha also directed him to sell it and to distribute the proceeds to the poor. The Meccans still follow the first half but neglect the other part of the order given by the mother of the Muslims. Qaldi Khan advises the proceeds of the sale being devoted to the repairs of the temple. The Siraj al-Wahaj positively forbids as a sin the cutting, transporting, selling, buying and placing it between the leaves of the Quran. Qutbatin from whom I borrowed these particulars introduces some fine and caustic distinctions. In his day, however, the Banu Shaba claimed the old after the arrival of the new kisswa and their right to it was admitted to the present day they continue to sell it. End of footnote. The Caliph Mahmoun of the 9th century ordered the dress to be changed three times a year. In his day it was red percate on the 10th of Muharram fine linen on the first of Rajab and white percate on the first of Shawwal. At last he was informed that the veil applied on the 10th of Muharram was too closely followed by the red percate in the next month and that it required renewing on the first of Shawwal. This he ordered to be done. Al-Mutawakkil of the 9th century when informed that the dress was spoiled by pilgrims at first ordered two to be given and the brocade shirt to be let down as far as the pavement. At last he sent a new veil every two months. During the Caliphate of the Abbasids this investiture came to signify sovereignty in Al-Hijaz which passed alternately from Baghdad to Egypt and Al-Yaman. In Al-Idrisi's time 12th century AD the kisswa was composed of black silk and renewed every year by the Caliph of Baghdad. Ibn Jubayr writes that it was green and gold. The kisswa remained with Egypt and Sultan Qalone of the 19th century. Footnote Some authors also mention a green kisswa applied by this monarch. Embroidered on it were certain verslets of the Quran and the formula of the Muslim faith and the names of the prophet's companions. End of footnote Conveyed the rents of two villages Beisuz and Sinbuz Footnote Burkhard says Beisuz and Sinbubayr End of footnote To the expense of providing an outer black and an inner red curtain to the Kaaba with hangings for the prophet's tomb at Al-Madinah When the holy land fell under the power of Uthmani Sultan Salim ordered the kisswa to be black and his son Sultan Saliman the Magnificent of the 16th century AD devoted considerable sums to the purpose. The kisswa was afterwards renewed at the ascension of each Sultan and the Wahhabis during the first year of their conquest covered the Kaaba with a red kisswa of the same stuff as the fight in Arabian Abba or cloak and made it at Al-Hasa. The kisswa is now worked at a current factory called Al-Khurunfush of the Tumbab Sha'iriya It is made by a hereditary family called the Beta Sladi and as the specimen in my possession proves it is a coarse tissue of silk and cotton mixed. The kisswa is composed of eight pieces two of each face of the Kaaba the seams being concealed by the Hisam a broad band which at a distance looks like gold. It is lined with a white calico and it is supplied with cotton robes. Anciently it is said all the Quranos interwoven into it. Now it is inscribed verily the first of houses founded for mankind to worship is that at Bakka Blessed and a direction to all creatures. Footnote From the family of Al-Imran Chapter 3 Bakka is a place of crowding hence applied to Makka generally Some writers however apply it to the part of the city around the Haram and a footnote Together with the seven chapters namely the cave, Mariam the family of Al-Imran repentance, Taha and Yasin and Tabarak the characters that is called Tummar the largest style of eastern calligraphy legible from a considerable distance Footnote It is larger than the souls admirers of eastern calligraphy Bismillah beautifully written in Tummar on the wall of Sultan Muayyad's Mosque at Cairo and a footnote The Hizam is a band about two feet broad and surrounding the Kaaba at two thirds of its height It is divided into four pieces which are sewn together On the first and second is inscribed the throne verslet and on the third and fourth the titles of the reigning Sultan These inscriptions like the burqa or the door curtain are gold worked into red silk by the Bait-as-Sadi When the Qiswa is ready at Khuranfush it is carried in procession to the Mosque Al-Hasanayn where it is lined soon and prepared for the journey Footnote Mr. Lane was given an ample and accurate description of the Qiswa I have added a few details derived of India of Cairo a professor of Arabic and an excellent French scholar and a footnote After quitting the Kaaba I returned home exhausted and washed with henna and warm water to mitigate the pain of the sun's skulls upon my arms, shoulders and breast The house was empty all the Turkish pilgrims being still at Mina and the Kibira, the old lady was covered into a room whose teak wainscottings covered with kufik and other inscriptions, large carpets and ample divans still showed a sort of ragged splendour The family had seen better days The Shari of Ralehp having confiscated three of its houses but it is still proud and cannot merge the past into the present In the drawing room where the Turkish Colonel occupied when at Mecca the Kibira supplied me with a pipe cold water and breakfast I won her heart by praising the graceless boy Mohammed and like all mothers she dearly loved the scamp of the family When he entered and saw his maternal parent standing near me with only the end of her veil drawn over her mouth he began to scold her with diverse insinuations Soon thou wilt sit amongst the men in the hall he exclaimed son rejoined the Kibira Fear Allah, thy mother is in years and truly she was so being at least fifty. Ah snare the youth who had formed as boys of the world must do or appear to do a very low estimate of the sex The old lady understood the drift of the exclamation and departed with a half laughing may Allah disappoint thee She soon however returned bringing me water for ablution and having heard that I had not yet sacrificed a sheep at Muna, he joined me to return and perform without delay the important ride. After resuming our local toilet and dressing gaily for the great festival we mounted our asses about the cool of the afternoon and returning to Muna we found the tent full of visitors Ali Bin Yasin the Zemzemi had sent me an amphora of holy water and the carrier was awaiting the customary dollar with him were several meccans one of whom spoke excellent Persian we sat down and chatted together for an hour and afterwards I learned from the boy Muhammad that all had pronounced me to be an aljami after their departure we debated about the victim which is only a sunnah or practice of the prophet Futna. Those who omit the ride fast ten days three during the pilgrimage season and the remaining seven at some other time and the Futna it is generally sacrificed immediately after the first lapidation and we had already been guilty of delay under these circumstances and considering the meager condition of my purse I would not buy a sheep but contended myself with watching my neighbors. They gave themselves great trouble especially a large party of Indians pitched near us to buy the victim cheap but the pedigree were not less acute and he was happy who paid less than a dollar and a quarter some preferred contributing to buy a lean ox none but the Sharif and the principal dignitary slaughtered camels the pilgrims dragged their victims to a smooth rock near their akaba above which stands a small open pavilion whose sides red with fresh blood showed that the prince and his attendants had been busy at sacrifice. Futna, the camel is sacrificed by thrusting a pointed instrument into the interval between the strenum and the neck. This anomaly may be accounted for by the thickness and the hardness of the muscles of the camel's throat. End of Futna. Others stood before their tents and directing the victim's face towards the akaba cut its throat ejaculating in the name of the most merciful god. As Mr. Lane justly observes the attribute of mercy is omitted on these occasions. End of Futna. The boy Mohammed sneeringly directed my attention to the Indians who, being a mild race had hired an Arab butcher to do the deed of blood and he arrived at the site of the murder. Futna, it is strange that the accurate Burkhard should make the Muslim deed of blood. And he aroused all sheikh noor's ire by his taunting comments upon the chicken-heartedness of the men of Hind. It is considered a meritorious act to give away the victim without eating any portion of its flesh. Parties of the cruelty might be seen sitting vulture-like contemplating the sheep and goats and no sooner was the signal given than they fell upon the bodies and cut them up without removing them. The surface of the valley soon came to resemble the dirtiest slaughter-house and my prescient soul drew bad orgrace for the future. We had spent a sultry afternoon in the basin of Munna which is not unlike a volcanic crater an addon closed up at the seaside. Towards night the occasional puffs of Samoom seized and through the air of deadly stillness a mass of purple nimbus bisected by a thin gray line of mist cloud rolled down upon us from the tithe hills. When the darkness gave the signal most of the pilgrims pressed towards the square in front of the Munna mosque to enjoy the pyrotechnics and the discharge of canon. But during the spectacle came on a windy storm whose lightnings flashing their fire from pole to pole piled the rockets and whose thunderings re-echoed by the rocky hills dumbed the punality of men. We were disappointed in our hopes of rain. A few huge drops padded upon the plain and sank into its thirsty entrails all the rest was thunder and lightning, dust, clouds and whirlwind. End of Chapter 30 Chapter 31 of Pilgrimage to El Medina and Mecca This is LibriVox recording or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Thelma Meyer Chapter 31 of Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El Medina and Mecca by Richard Francis Burton The Three Days of Drying Flesh All was dull after the excitement of the great festival. The heat of the succeeding night rendered every effort to sleep abortive. And as our little camp required a guard in a place so celebrated for plunderers I spent the greater part of the time sitting in the clear pure moonlight. Footnote 1 It is not safe to perform this ceremony at an early hour although the ritual is it being deferred after sunset. A crowd of women however assembled at the devils in the earlier part of the 11th night our 10th and these dames despite the oriental modesty of face veils attack a stranger with hands and stones as heartily as English hop gatherers hastened to duck the Actaeon who falls in their way. Hence popular usage allows stones to be thrown by men until the morning prayers of the 11th Zul Hijah and a footnote. After midnight we again repaired to the devils and beginning with the Ulla or first pillar at the eastern extremity of Muna through at each seven stones making a total of 21 with the ceremonies before described. On Thursday September 15th, 1853 we arose before dawn and prepared with a light breakfast for the fatigues of a climbing walk. After half an hour spent in hopping from Boulder to Boulder we arrived at a place situated on the lower declivity of the Jabal Sabir the northern wall of the Muna Basin here is the Majar Al Kabash the dragging place of the Ram a small whitewashed square divided into two compartments the first is entered by a few ragged steps in the southeast angle which lead to an enclosure 30 feet by 15 in the northeast corner is a block of granite a in which a huge gash several inches broad some feet deep and completely splitting the stone in knife shape notes the spot where Ibrahim's blade fell when the archangel Gabriel forbade him to slay Ismail his son the second compartment contains a diminutive hypogeum in this cave the patriarch sacrificed the victim which gives the place a name we descended by a flight of steps and under the stifling ledge of rock found mats and praying rugs which at this early hour were not overcrowded we followed the example of the patriarchs and prayed a two bow prayer in each of the enclosures after distributing the usual gratification we left the place and proceeded to mount the hill in hope of seeing some of the apes said still to haunt the heights these animals are supposed by the meccans to have been Jews thus transformed for having broken the Sabbath by hunting traditions about these animals vary in the different parts of Arabia at Odin for instance they are supposed to be a remnant of the rebellious tribe of odd it is curious that the popular Arabic like the Persian names Sa'adan, Maimun, Shadi etc etc are all expressive of a probably euphuistic piciousness end of footnote they abound in the elevated regions about Arafat and Taif where they are caught by mixing the juice of the Asclepius and narcotics with dates and other sweet bait footnote 3 the Egyptians generally catch train and take them to the banks of the Nile where the Kurayeti, 8-liter character and a footnote the Hadjazi ape is a hideous Sinocephalus with small eyes placed close together and almost hidden by a disproportionate snout a greenish brown coat long arms and a stern of lively pink like fresh meat they are docile and are said to be fond as liquors and to display an inordinate affection for women al-Masudi tells about them a variety of anecdotes according to him their principal use in Hind and Chin was to protect kings from poison by eating suspected dishes the Badawan have many tales concerning them it is universally believed that they catch and kill kites by exposing the rosy portion of their persons and concealing the rest the bird pounces upon what appears to be raw meat and presently finds himself viciously plucked alive throughout Arabia an old story is told of them a merchant was once plundered during his absence by a troop of these apes they tore open his bales and charmed with the scarlet you of the tar bushes began applying these articles of dress to uses quite opposite to their normal purpose the merchant was in despair when his slave offered for a consideration to recover the goods placing himself in the front like a fugalman to the ape company he went through a variety of maneuvers with a tar bush and concluded with throwing it far away the recruits carefully imitated him and the drill concluded with his firing a shot the plunderers decamped and the caps were recovered failing to see any apes we retired to the tent ere the sun waxed hot in anticipation of a terrible day nor were we far wrong in addition to the heat we had swarms of flies and the blood-stained earth began to reek with noisome vapours not moved in the air except kites and vultures speckling the deep blue sky the denizens of earth seemed paralysed by the fire from above I spent the time between breakfast and nightfall lying half-dressed upon a mat moving round the tent pole to escape the glare and watching my numerous neighbours male and female the Indians were particularly kind filling my pipe offering cooled water and performing similar little offices I repaid them with a supply of provisions which at the moona market prices these unfortunates could ill afford when the moon arose the boinoe hammered and I walked into the town performed our second lapidation the ceremony as the reader will have perceived is performed by the shafis on the tenth, the eleventh and the twelfth of Zul Hijah the Hanafis conclude their stoning on the thirteenth the times vary with each day and differ considerably in religious efficacy on the night of the tenth our ninth, for instance lapidation according to some authorities cannot take place others permit it with a sufficient reason between the dawn and sunrise it is my crew or disapproved of between sunrise and the declination is the sunat time and therefore the best from noon to sunset it is mooba or permissible the same is the case with the night if a cause exists on the eleventh and twelfth of Zul Hijah lapidation is disapproved of from sunset to sunrise the sunat is from noon to sunset and it is permissible at all other hours the number of stones thrown by the shafis is 49 viz seven on the tenth day seven at each pillar total twenty one on the eleventh day and the same on the twelfth Zul Hijah the Hanafis also throw twenty one stones on the thirteenth which raises their number to seventy the first seven bits of granite must be collected at Muzdalifah the rest may be taken from the Munah valley and all must be washed seven times before being thrown in throwing the Hanafis attempt to approach the pillar if possible standing within reach of it shafis may stand at a greater distance which should not however pass the limit of five qubits end of footnote and visited the coffee houses the shops were closed early but business was transacted in places of public resort till midnight we entered the houses of numerous acquaintances who accusted my companion and were hospitably welcomed with pipes and coffee the first question always was who is this pilgrim and more than once the reply an Afghan elicited the language of my own country which I could no longer speak of this phenomenon however nothing was thought many Afghans settled in India know not a word of push to and even above the passes many of the townspeople are imperfectly acquainted with it the meccans in consequence of their extensive intercourse with strangers and habits of travelling are admirable conversational linguists they speak Arabic remarkably well and with a volubility surpassing the most lively of our continental nations Persian, Turkish and Hindustani are generally known and the mutaweefs who devote themselves to various races of pilgrims soon become masters of many languages returning homewards we recall to a spot by the clapping of hands footnote 5 here called Safq it is mentioned by Herodotus and known to almost every oriental people the Badawan sometimes the rarely use a table or kettle drum yet amongst the parda or musical modes of the east we find the hijazi ranking with the Isfahane and the Iraqi Southern Arabia has never been celebrated for producing musicians like the banks of the Tigris to which we owe besides castanets and symbols the guitar the drum and the lute the modern harp the name of this instrument is the corruption of the Arabic al-ud Arabic text through the lute and lute and a footnote and the loud sound of song we found a crowd of Badawan surrounding a group engaged in their favorite occupation of dancing the performance is wild in the extreme resembling rather the hopping of bears than the inspirations of Turboscore the bystanders joined in the song an interminable recitative as usual in the minor key and orientals are admirable timists it sounded like one voice the refrain appeared to be la-ya-ha la-ya-ha to which no one could assign a meaning at other times they sang something intelligible for instance Arabic that is to say on the great festival day at Muna I saw my lord I am a stranger amongst you therefore pity me this couplet may have melodies of certain modern and European poets an abstruse and mystical meaning to be discovered when the Arabs learned to write erudite essays upon nursery rhymes the style of salutation called rufayah rivaled the song the dancers raised both arms above their heads brandishing a dagger, pistol or some other small weapon they followed each other by hops on one or both feet sometimes indulging in the most demented leaps whilst the bystanders clapped with their palms a more enlivening measure this I was told is especially their war dance they have other forms which my eyes were not faded to see amongst the Badawan of Al Hijaz unlike the Somali and other African races the sexes never mingle the girls may dance together but it would be disgraceful to perform in the company of men after so much excitement we retired to rest and slept soundly on Friday the 12th Zul Hijaz appeared according to order at early dawn and they were loaded with little delay we were anxious to enter Mecca in time for the sermon and I for one was eager to escape the now pestilential air of Muna literally the land stank five or six thousand animals had been slain and cut up in this devil's punch bowl I leave the reader to imagine the rest the evil might be avoided by building abattoirs or more easily still by digging long trenches and by ordering all pilgrims under pain of Mulkht to sacrifice in the same place unhappily the spirit of Al Islam is opposed to these precautions of common sense Inshallah and Kizmat must take the place of prevention and of cure and at Mecca the headquarters of the faith a desolating attack of cholera is preferred to the impiety of flying in the face of providence and the folly of endeavoring to avert inevitable decrees footnote six note to third edition since this was written there have been two deadly epidemics which began it is reported at Muna the victims however have never numbered 700,000 nor is each pilgrim required to sacrifice one animal at the shrine of Mohammed as we find it in quote cholera prospects by Tilbury Fox M.D. Hardwick and a footnote mounting our camels and led by Masoud we entered Muna by the eastern end and from the litter through the remaining 21 stones I could now see the principal lines of shops and having been led to expect a grand display of merchandise was surprised to find only matte booths and sheds stocked chiefly with provisions the exit from Muna was crowded for many like ourselves were flying from the revolting scene I could not think without pity of those whom religious scruples detained another day and a half in this foul spot after entering Mecca we bathed and when the noon drew nigh we repaired to the harem for the purpose of hearing the sermon descending to the cloisters below the Bob Alziada I stood wonder struck by this scene before me the vast quadrangle was crowded with worshipers sitting in long rows and everywhere facing the central black tower the showy colors of their dresses were not to be surpassed by a garden of the most brilliant flowers and such diversity of detail would probably not be seen massed together in any other building upon earth the women a dull and somber looking group sat apart in their peculiar place the pasha stood on the roof of Zem Zem surrounded by guards in Nizam uniform where the principal Olaima stationed themselves the crowd was thicker and in the more auspicious spots not was to be seen but a pavement of heads and shoulders nothing seemed to move but a few darwashis who censor in hand sidled through the rows and received the unsolicited arms of the faithful apparently in the midst and raised above the crowd by the tall pointed pulpit his guilt-spire flamed in the sun sat the preacher an old man with snowy beard the style of headdress called Te Lassan footnote 7 a scarf thrown over the head with one end brought round under the chin and passed over the left shoulder composes the Te Lassan covered his turban which was as white as his robes footnote 8 as late as Ibn Jabir's time the preacher was habited from head to foot in black and two muazins held black flags fixed in rings on both sides of the pulpit with the staves propped upon the first step end of footnote and a short staff supported his left hand footnote 9 Mr. Lane remarks that the wooden sword is never held by the preacher but in a country that has been won from infidels by the muslims Burkhard more correctly traces the origin of the custom to the early days of al-Islam when the preachers found it necessary to be prepared for surprises and all authors who like Ibn Jabir described the meccan ceremonies mention the sword or staff the curious reader will consult this most accurate of muslim travelers and a perusal of the pages will show that anciently the sermon differed considerably from and was far more ceremonious than the present Qutba end of footnote presently he arose took the staff in his right hand pronounced a few inaudible words footnote 10 the words were peace be upon ye and the mercy of Allah and his blessings end of footnote and sat down again on one of the lower steps while the mu'azin at the foot of the pulpit recited the call to sermon the old man stood up and began to preach as the majestic figure began to exert itself there was a deep silence presently a general amin was intoned by the crowd at the conclusion of some long sentence and at last toward the end of the sermon every third or fourth word was followed by the simultaneous rise and fall thousands of voices I have seen the religious ceremonies of many lands but never nowhere ought so solemn so impressive as this end of chapter 31 recording by Thelma Meyer Brooklyn, New York