{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_68124/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_68124","id":"gutenberg_68124","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/68124","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Category: Travel Writing","Mecca (Saudi Arabia)","Pilgrims and pilgrimages"],"text":"[Illustration: THE HAREM, SHOWING THE KA\u2019BAH, AND THE OTHER SANCTUARIES\nWITHIN THE HAREM.\n\n(_From an old Indian Illustration._)]\n\n\n\n\n  WITH THE\n  PILGRIMS\n  TO MECCA\n\n  THE GREAT PILGRIMAGE\n  OF A.H. 1319; A.D. 1902\n  BY HADJI KHAN, M.R.A.S.\n  (_Special Correspondent of the \u201cMorning Post\u201d_)\n  AND WILFRID SPARROY\n  (_Author of \u201cPersian Children of the Royal Family\u201d_)\n  WITH AN INTRODUCTION\n  BY PROFESSOR A. VAMB\u00c9RY\n\n  LONDON AND NEW YORK\n  JOHN LANE, MDCCCCV\n\n\n\n\n  PRINTED BY W. H. WHITE AND SON\n  THE ABBEY PRESS, EDINBURGH\n\n\n\n\nTO\n\nTHE HONOURABLE OLIVER A. BORTHWICK\n\n            ... OH, NEVER STAR\n  WAS LOST HERE BUT IT ROSE AFAR!\n  LOOK EAST, WHERE WHOLE NEW THOUSANDS ARE!\n\n\n\n\nThe Authors take this opportunity of renewing their acknowledgments of\nall they owe to the Editor of _The Morning Post_, to whose friendly\ninterest and encouragement the success of the serial publication, under\nthe title of the \u201cGreat Pilgrimage,\u201d was in a considerable measure due.\nIn tendering to him their hearty thanks, they feel it would be scarcely\nfair to themselves were they to allow the reader to take this, the\npresent fruit of their respective labours, to be a mere republication.\nIt is something far more than that, one-fifth of the book, and that the\nmost interesting part of all, being absolutely new; while the whole of\nthe remainder has been not only carefully revised, but also recast,\nand, to some extent, rewritten. But the reader owes the new material to\nMr. Dunn\u2019s kindness in relinquishing his right to it in order that it\nmight appear for the first time in the pages of \u201cWith the Pilgrims to\nMecca.\u201d\n\n  _28th April 1904._\n\n\n\n\n            MY OWN EAST!\n    HOW NEARER GOD WE WERE! HE GLOWS ABOVE\n    WITH SCARCE AN INTERVENTION, PRESSES CLOSE\n    AND PALPITATINGLY, HIS SOUL O\u2019ER OURS;\n    WE FEEL HIM, NOR BY PAINFUL REASON KNOW!\n    THE EVERLASTING MINUTE OF CREATION\n    IS FELT THERE.\n\n  ROBERT BROWNING.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\nAmongst the varied and manifold impressions of my long and intimate\nconnection with the Mohammedan world none is more lively and more\ninteresting than my experiences with the Hajees, the dear, pious and\ngood-natured companions on many of my wanderings in Moslem Asia. We in\nEurope can hardly have an idea of the zeal and delight which animate\nthe pilgrim to the holy places of Arabia, not only during his sojourn\nin Mekka and Medina, not only whilst making the Tawaf (procession\nround the Kaaba), not only during the excursion to the valley of Mina,\nwhere the exclamation of \u201cLebeitk y\u00e1 Allah\u201d rends the air round the\nArafat--but long before he has started on his arduous and formerly\nvery dangerous journey to the birthplace of Islam. The Hadj, being one\nof the four fundamental commands of Islam, is looked upon by every\ntrue believer as a religious duty the fulfilment of which is always\nbefore his eyes, and if prevented by want of means or by infirmity he\nwill strive to find a Wekil (representative), whom he provides with\nnecessary funds to undertake the journey and to pray in his name at\nthe Kaaba, and when the Wekil has returned he hands over the Ihram (a\nshirt-like dress in which the pilgrimage is performed) to his sender\nwho will use it as his shroud, and appear before the Almighty in\nthe garb used on the Hadj. The further the Moslem lives from Arabia\nthe greater becomes the passion to visit the holy places of his\nreligion, and if there was a country in which the desire to fulfil\nthis holy command was most fervently cultivated and executed, it was\ndecidedly Central Asia and Eastern Turkestan, where nearly two-thirds\nof the pilgrims formerly perished, partly in consequence of epidemics\nand inclemency of weather, partly also at the hands of robbers or\nthrough thirst in the desert. And yet these Turk or Tartar Hadjees\noften disregard all dangers and perils of a long journey, and begin\nto economise the money necessary for travelling expenses many years\nbefore they have set out, for a man destitute of means is not allowed\nto undertake the Hadj, the same prohibition exists also for a man who\nis not bodily strong enough, or who has to provide for a family left\nback at home. It is true, in accordance with the saying \u201cHem ziaret hem\ntidjaret\u201d (Pilgrimage and Business together), there are people, who\nconnect trade with religion, but their devotion is often criticised,\nwhereas the pure religious intention meets everywhere with the greatest\npraise and veneration, and a successfully accomplished visit to the\nholy places of Arabia makes a Mohammedan respected not only in his\ncommunity but also in the outlying districts of his country. On his\nreturn journey from Mekka and Medina the Hajee gets an official\nreception all along his route. He is met by young and old, by rich and\npoor, everybody tries to rub his eyes or his cheeks to the dress of the\nman, in order to catch an atom of the dust coming from the Kaaba or\nfrom the grave of the Prophet, and if the Hajee is the bearer of some\n_Khaki-Mubarak_ (_i.e._, blessed earth from the grave of Mohammed), or\nif he is in possession of a small bottle of \u201cZemzem\u201d (the holy fountain\nin the precinct of the Kaaba), there is no end and limit to the\npressing throng around him. I have seen people kissing the footsteps\nof such a pilgrim, embracing and petting him, and what struck me most\nwas the scene where Kirghis or Turkoman nomads cried like children on\nseeing one of these Hajees, and when they began to quarrel, nay, to\nfight, for the opportunity to bestow hospitality on a returning Hajee,\nbe he even an Uzbeg or a Tajik, whom they otherwise dislike.\n\nYes, the Haj is a most wonderful institution in the interest of the\nstrength, unity and spiritual power of Islam; it is a kind of religious\nParliament and a gathering place for the followers of the prophet,\nwhere the sacred Hermandad is fostered despite all differences of race\nand colour, and whereas the temple in Jerusalem does often become the\ncockpit of different Christian sects, and the arena of bloody fights,\nwhich would fatally end without the intercession of the Moslem soldiers\nof the Padishah, we meet with perfect peace and concord in the court of\nthe Kaaba, where the four sects have got their separate places without\ninterfering with each other, and where Hanefites, Shafaites, Malekites\nand Hanbalites pay simultaneously their veneration to the founder of\ntheir religion. Even the Shiite Persian is not molested as long as he\ndoes not offend the believers by an ostentatious exhibition of his\nschismatic views, what he rarely does, for _dissimulation_ is not\nprohibited according to the tenets of the Shiites.\n\nThe foregoing remarks about the Haj have been quoted here with the\nintention to realise the importance of this religious custom of Islam,\nand particularly to show how necessary it is to know and to appreciate\nduly the political, social and ethical qualities of this precept\nordained by the prophet.\n\nWell, in order to gain full information on this subject, we have been\nin need of an account of the Haj written by a Mohammedan who is not\nattracted by curiosity, but by religious piety, who had free access\nto every place, who is not hampered by fear of being discovered as\na Christian, and who is besides a shrewd observer. These essential\nqualities I find in Mr. Haji Khan, M.R.A.S., the pilgrim, who calls\nhimself also \u201cHaji Raz\u201d (the mystery Haji). It may be well said that\nChristian travellers like Burkhard, Burton, Maltzan, and others, have\nexhausted the subject relating to the holy places of Islam, but a\nMohammedan sees more and better than any foreigner, and I do not go too\nfar when I say that Mr. Haji Khan, with his thorough English education,\nwould have been more fitted to describe, unaided, the life and the\nmanners of the Haj, than was his Turkish fellow-believer, Emin Effemdi,\nauthor of a Turkish account of the same topic.\n\nI daresay it will be the case with many other subjects relating to\nthe actual and past features of the Eastern life, if natives will be\nonly educated to describe the peculiarities of their own nations and\ncreeds, and for this reason it is desirable that the number of scholars\nlike Mr. Haji Khan should increase, and that this present book,\nwritten in collaboration with Mr. Wilfrid Sparroy, should meet with a\nwell-deserved reception.\n\nGreat credit is due to Mr. Wilfrid Sparroy, to whose high qualities as\na writer, this joint production owes so much. Both Mr. Haji Khan and\nMr. Wilfrid Sparroy are to be congratulated on the results of their\nlabours: they have succeeded in bringing the East nearer to the West.\n\n  A. VAMB\u00c9RY.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n  PART I\n\n  A PERSIAN PILGRIM IN THE MAKING--\n\n                                                      PAGE\n\n  1. THE MESSAGE OF THE PROPHET                         21\n\n  2. CONDITIONS OF PILGRIMAGE                           31\n\n  3. FORBIDDEN VIANDS                                   32\n\n  4. THE WORK OF PURIFICATION                           33\n\n  5. PRAYERS                                            35\n\n  6. ASPECTS OF SOCIAL ISL\u00c1M                            37\n\n  7. STORIES OF THE MUSLIM MOONS                        47\n\n  8. PERSIAN S\u00daF\u00cdISM--PERSIAN SHIAHISM IN ITS\n     RELATION TO THE PERSIAN PASSION-DRAMA              62\n\n\n  PART II\n\n  THE STORY OF THE PILGRIMAGE--\n\n  CHAP. I.    LONDON TO JIDDAH                          81\n\n  CHAP. II.   FROM JIDDAH TO MECCA                     102\n\n  CHAP. III.  WITHIN THE HAREM--SOME REMARKS\n              ON THE ORTHODOX SECTS OF ISL\u00c1M           111\n\n  CHAP. IV.   COMPASSING OF THE KA\u2019BAH                 126\n\n  CHAP. V.    THE COURSE OF PERSEVERANCE               140\n\n  CHAP. VI.   SCENE IN AN EATING-HOUSE--VISIT\n              TO THE KA\u2019BAH                            153\n\n  CHAP. VII.  ON THE ROAD TO ARAFAT                    173\n\n  CHAP. VIII. ON THE ROAD TO ARAFAT (_concluded_)      193\n\n  CHAP. IX.   ARAFAT DAY: NIGHT                        212\n\n  CHAP. X.    ARAFAT DAY: DAYBREAK                     223\n\n  CHAP. XI.   ARAFAT DAY: FORENOON AND\n              AFTERNOON                                234\n\n  CHAP. XII.  THE DAY OF VICTIMS: FROM SUNDOWN\n              TO SUNSET. THE DAYS OF DRYING FLESH      245\n\n\n  PART III\n\n  MECCAN SCENES AND SKETCHES--\n\n  CHAP. I.    THE MECCAN BAZAARS                       255\n\n  CHAP. II.   THE TALISMAN-MONGER                      266\n\n  CHAP. III.  SEYYID \u2019AL\u00cd\u2019S STORY OF HIS REDEMPTION    280\n\n  CHAP. IV.   HEALING BY FAITH                         289\n\n  APPENDIX.   SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE EXISTENCE\n              OF A SLAVE MARKET IN MECCA               299\n\n\n  INDEX.                                               309\n\n\n\n\nLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\n                                                      PAGE\n\n  THE HAREM, SHOWING THE KA\u2019BAH, AND THE OTHER\n  SANCTUARIES WITHIN THE HAREM              _Frontispiece_\n\n  COPIES OF THE KUR\u00c1N WORN _en bandouli\u00e8re_ BY\n  MUSLIMS WHEN TRAVELLING OR ON PILGRIMAGE              39\n\n  A PERSIAN SUF\u00cd OF THE ORDER OF THE LATE\n  SEPHI \u2019AL\u00cd SH\u00c1H                                       65\n\n  A GROUP OF MIXED PILGRIMS                             85\n\n  A PILGRIM \u201cAT SEA\u201d--SUEZ RAILWAY STATION              85\n\n  PREPARING TO EMBARK AT SUEZ                           91\n\n  PILGRIMS EMBARKING AT SUEZ                            99\n\n  BEFORE WEIGHING ANCHOR AT SUEZ                        99\n\n  A MOORISH GENTLEMAN IN MOORISH DRESS                 121\n\n  THE POORER SIDE OF EGYPTIAN MUSLIMS                  143\n\n  PUTTING ON IHR\u00c1M AT JIDDAH                           155\n\n  MUSSAH STREET AT MECCA                               155\n\n  AN EGYPTIAN COFFEE-HOUSE FREQUENTED BY THE POOR      161\n\n  AN EGYPTIAN DONKEY AND ITS DRIVER                    183\n\n  THE MUSICIAN CAMEL CAVALCADE                         201\n\n  WATER-CARRIERS OF MECCA                              207\n\n  (_a_) THE PASHA OF HEJAZ; (_b_) THE AMINUS-SURREH    207\n\n  THE SHER\u00cdF OF MECCA IN HIS UNIFORM                   215\n\n  A LEARNED MUSSULMAN OF INDIA                         229\n\n  PERSIAN PILGRIMS FROM TABRIZ, HAVING TEA ON\n  BOARD THE STEAMER                                    239\n\n  DISEMBARKING AT JIDDAH                               249\n\n  PILGRIMS AT JIDDAH                                   249\n\n  AN EGYPTIAN GROCER                                   267\n\n  A PERSIAN PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY                      291\n\n  AN ARAB SHEYKH OF THE TOWN                           297\n\n\n\n\nPART I\n\n\n\n\nERRATA\n\n\n   Page 22, line 34,          _For_ Jellalu\u2019d-d\u00edn\u2019s \u201cAl Beid\u00e1w\u00ed,\u201d _read_\n                                  Al-Beid\u00e1w\u00ed\u2019s commentary.\n   Page 31, line 10,          _For_ \u201cH\u00e1j\u00ed R\u00e1z,\u201d _read_ Hadji Khan.\n   Page 31, line 11,          _For_ Chapter V., Part III., _read_ Appendix.\n   Page 32, line 12,          _For_ formerly, _read_ formally.\n  {Page 57, line 1,           _For_ 1320, _read_ 1319.\n  {Page 245, line 19,         _For_ 1320, _read_ 1319.\n   Page 69, line 7,           _For_ uncle, _read_ father-in-law.\n   Page 69, lines 29-30,      _For_ too rash and too indiscreet, _read_\n                                  too forbearing and too magnanimous.\n  {Page 72, line 12,          _For_ daughter Fatima, _read_ sister Zainab.\n  {Page 76, line 13,          _For_ daughter Fatima, _read_ sister Zainab.\n   Page 93, line 21,          _For_ Y\u00e1suf, _read_ Y\u00fbsuf.\n   Page 93, lines 22-23,      _For_ Al Beyyid, _read_ Al Beid\u00e1w\u00ed.\n  {Page 115, line 1,          _For_ Tomb of Abraham, _read_ Station of\n                                  Abraham.\n  {Page 130, line 28,         _For_ Tomb of Abraham, _read_ Station of\n                                  Abraham.\n   Page 117, line 9,          _For_ Mer\u00fa, _read_ Merve.\n   Page 134, line 8,          _For_ ordnance, _read_ ordinance.\n   Page 166, line 32,         _For_ mosque, _read_ temple.\n   Page 199, line 19,         _For_ Tabb\u00e1l, _read_ Tabl.\n   Page 237, line 12,         _For_ Kharnum, _read_ Khanum.\n   Page 237, line 12,         _For_ Mrs. Zobeideh, _read_ Lady Zobeideh.\n   Page 251, line 4,          _Omit_ the Merciful and Compassionate.\n   Page 266, line 20,         _For_ God is just, _read_ God is Great.\n\n\n\n\nWITH THE PILGRIMS TO MECCA\n\n\n\n\nPART I\n\nA PERSIAN PILGRIM IN THE MAKING\n\n\nI.--MESSAGE OF THE PROPHET.\n\nThe day before I left England for Persia some seven years ago, I went\nto see my uncle, the author of the \u201cSiege of Metz.\u201d On saying good-bye\nhe made me a present of the Kur\u00e1n. \u201cHere,\u201d said he, \u201cis the thing to\nbe read. It will be the best introduction to the new life awaiting you\nin the East. If you can lay hold of the spirit of this book you will\nnot be alone out there, but among men and brothers, for the Kur\u00e1n is a\nsincere revelation of much that is eternally true.\u201d I never saw George\nRobinson again: in less than a week--before I had left Paris--his\nspirit had passed to the bourne whence all revelations come, and where\ntruth, in its completeness, will be revealed.\n\nNow, it should be the critic\u2019s aim, in dealing with all true books, to\nplace himself on the same plane as the author, and to look in the same\ndirection, fixing the same end. This is more especially true of what\nhis attitude should be towards a message that has been held sacred by\ncountless millions for more than thirteen hundred years. The merits\nof the Kur\u00e1n and the far-reaching reforms of the Prophet of Isl\u00e1m can\nbe appreciated worthily only by such men as have taken the trouble to\nacquaint themselves with the idolatrous superstitions of the Arabians\nin the time of Ignorance, and with the empty logical jangling of the\nrival Syrian Christian sects at the close of the Sixth Century. And the\ncritic having grasped the lifelessness of religious practice before\nthe coming of Muhammad, would be wise to reveal, first of all, what\nthere is of truth, and to spread what light there is in the written\nword of the great reformer, abandoning to the bigot and the purblind\nthe less fruitful occupation of stirring in the cauldron of religious\ncontroversy. To that end, indeed, it were not amiss that he should\ncultivate his imagination, for the imaginative have turned the corner\nof their narrower selves, and theirs is an ever-widening vision. To\nthose who, living by the word of Christ, diffuse darkness, Muhammad\nwill ever be either a charlatan or an unscrupulous man of the sword.\nWell, the Prophet\u2019s followers must take heart of grace. History itself\nas well as the Kur\u00e1n has proclaimed the charges to be false.\n\nThe keynote to Muhammad\u2019s character is sincerity. Sincerity rings\nout clear enough in every word of his book. He was a man in whom\nthe fire-thought of the desert burned so fiercely that he could not\nhelp being sincere. He was so truly sincere, indeed, as to be wholly\nunconscious of his sincerity. Now, of all the stories related of him\nnone affords a more convincing proof of his thorough honesty than\nthe one which shows him to have been, at least once in practice, a\nbackslider from the high ideal of conduct that he preached. This story,\nfrom Al-Beid\u00e1w\u00ed\u2019s commentary, is thus related by Sale:\n\n\u201cA certain blind man named Abdallah Ebn Omm Mact\u00fam came and interrupted\nMuhammad while he was engaged in earnest discourse with some of the\nprincipal Kuraish, of whose conversion he had hopes; but, the Prophet\ntaking no notice of him, the blind man, not knowing that Muhammad was\notherwise busied, raised his voice, and said, \u2018O apostle of God, teach\nme some part of what God hath taught thee\u2019; but Muhammad, vexed at this\ninterruption, frowned, and turned away from him,\u201d for which he was\nreprehended afterwards by his conscience. This episode was the source\nof the revelation entitled \u201cHe Frowned.\u201d \u201cThe Prophet frowned, and\nturned aside,\u201d so runs Chapter lxxx. of the Kur\u00e1n, \u201cbecause the blind\nman came unto him; and how dost thou know whether he shall peradventure\nbe cleansed from his sins; or whether he shall be admonished, and the\nadmonition shall profit him? The man who is wealthy thou receivest with\nrespect; but him who cometh unto thee earnestly seeking his salvation,\nand who fearest God, dost thou neglect. By no means shouldst thou act\nthus.\u201d We are also told that the Prophet, whenever he saw Ebn Omm\nMact\u00fam after this, showed him marked respect, saying, \u201cThe man is\nwelcome on whose account my Lord hath reprimanded me,\u201d and that he made\nhim twice Governor of Medina. And yet many still persist in calling\nMuhammad a charlatan. Surely a prophet who, in reproving others, spared\nnot himself, has won the right to be respected as an honest man. For my\npart I believe him to have been one whose word was his bond, and whose\nhand it had been good to grasp.\n\nAs for his having been a mere victorious soldier, he was in the\nbeginning \u201cprecisely in a minority of one.\u201d Your Napoleon finds in\npatriotism his most successful recruiting sergeant. But the call\nof patriotism had summoned to Muhammad\u2019s standard not a single\nrecruit, because he was despised by the patriotic (if the Kuraish, the\npredominant tribe in Arabia, and the keepers of the Ka\u2019bah, deserved\nto be so called) and was rejected by them. Assuredly Muhammad drew the\nsword; he was driven to draw it in the end. But how did he get the\nsword, and to what purpose did he put it when he had it? Muhammad\u2019s\nsword was forged in the furnace of that passionate, human soul of his,\nwas tempered in the flame of divine compassion, and gave to every\nArab an Empire and a creed. Isl\u00e1m was the sword! The blade of steel\nachieved no miracle, it merely drew blood--sufficiently corrupt. It\nwas the sword of Muhammad\u2019s word which freed the Arab heart from its\nvices and fired it with a wider patriotism and a purer faith. His\nbattle-cry was the declaration of God\u2019s unity; his sword was the faith;\nhis battlefield the human heart and soul; and his enemy idolatry and\ncorruption. \u201cY\u00e1 All\u00e1h!\u201d and \u201cY\u00e1 Muhammad!\u201d carried the Arabian conquest\nfrom Mecca to Granada, and from Arabia to Delhi. The conquering hosts\nfought rather with their hearts and with their souls than with their\nswords and their strong right hands; inculcating in the conquered no\nearthly vanities, as do modern Muhammadan rulers, but the principles of\nliberty, solidarity, unity, equality, and compassion.\n\nForty thousand Arabs, under their famous leader, S\u00e1d Vagh\u00e1s, having\ndefeated five hundred thousand Persians and overthrown the mighty\nPersian Empire, in the battle of Khadasieh, on the plain of Nahavend,\ndeeply rooted their faith in the heart of the alien race, and then left\nher to be ruled by her own people, in accordance with the precepts\nof the new revelation. Omar, perhaps the greatest Caliph, is said to\nhave lived throughout his life on a loaf of barley bread and a cup of\nsour milk a day. And Al\u00ed\u2019 the Prophet\u2019s son-in-law, whom the Persians\nrevere as his true successor, lived for no other purpose than to help\nthe poor and to succour the weak. He was, as Carlyle assures us, a man\nworthy of Christian knighthood. So also was his son, Huseyn, whose\nglorious martyrdom has endeared him to the hearts of the Persian people.\n\nIn the East men are ruled and guided by religious laws and not by\npositive ones, so Muhammad\u2019s aim was to make the Arabians free and\nunited by lessening the sufferings of the poor and by establishing\nequality among the people. That these aims and aspirations cannot be\nconsummated through positive laws alone must be abundantly clear to\nevery man in the civilised West who has watched the gradual rise among\nus of Socialism and the deadly growth of Anarchy. We Western peoples\nmerely pray that God\u2019s will may be done on earth as it is in Heaven.\nWhereas Muhammad, being, as he was, a practical reformer, made it\nincumbent on his followers to contribute to the consummation of the\nDivine Law by bestowing on the poor a fair share of the things that\nthey loved.\n\nThe very core of the Muhammadan faith lies, as I conceive, in three\nbroad principles. First, in the declaration of God\u2019s unity. \u201cSay,\nGod is one God; the eternal God: He begetteth not, neither is He\nbegotten: and there is not one like unto Him.\u201d This short chapter, as\nis well known, is held in particular veneration by the Muhammadans,\nand declared, by a tradition of the Prophet, to be equal in value to\na third part of the whole Kur\u00e1n. It is said to have been revealed\nin answer to the Kuraish, who had asked Muhammad concerning the\ndistinguishing attributes of the God he invited them to worship. For\nMuhammad held that all the prophets from the creation of the world have\nbeen Unitarians; that as Moses was a Unitarian so also was Christ; that\nChristianity, as practised in Syria, was a break in God\u2019s revelation\nof Himself as One, and that he, Muhammad, had been specially chosen by\nGod to re-admonish mankind of this fundamental truth.\n\nAs this ground idea satisfies the Oriental\u2019s reason, so the second,\nIsl\u00e1m, that is, resignation from man to God, responds to the inner\nvoice of his soul, and seems to lead his heart warmly to embrace\nthe third principle of the Muhammadan faith, which, in the golden\nage of the Muhammadan Era, was the means of establishing equality\namong the people--I mean the principle of charity, of alms-giving,\nof compassion from man to man. Unswerving obedience to the spirit\nand the letter of these three laws carried with it the obligation of\nunswerving loyalty to the Prophet. When we pray, we Christians, we say\n\u201cGive us this day our daily bread.\u201d The Muhammadans, under penalty of\neverlasting torment, are obliged to sacrifice, to the poor and needy,\na due proportion of the things that they love--not merely of their\nsuperfluity--with the result that each man among them, by that fact\nalone, constitutes himself, as it were, a willing instrument of God\u2019s\nwill that His Kingdom of Heaven shall reign on earth. Another fact that\nproves Muhammad to have been something far more than a man of the sword\nis that to this day Muhammadans hail one another on meeting with the\nword \u201cSal\u00e1m\u201d (have peace). Indeed, peace being an essential condition\nof undertaking the sacramental Pilgrimage to Mecca, it is unlawful to\nwage war during the three months\u2019 journeying of the Muslim lunar year,\nnamely, in Shavv\u00e1l, Z\u00fa-\u2019l-ka\u2019dah, and Z\u00fa-\u2019l-hijjah.\n\n\u201cContribute out of your subsistence towards the defence of the religion\nof God,\u201d says Muhammad, \u201cand throw not yourself with your own hands\ninto perdition [that is, be not accessory to your own destruction\nby neglecting your contributions towards the wars against infidels,\nand thereby suffering them to gather strength], and do good, for God\nloveth those who do good. Perform the Pilgrimage of Mecca, and the\nvisitation of God; and if ye be besieged send that offering which shall\nbe the easiest, and shave not your heads until your offering reacheth\nthe place of sacrifice. But whoever among you is sick, or is troubled\nwith any distemper of the head, must redeem the shaving of the head by\nfasting, by alms, or by some offering [either by fasting three days, by\nfeeding six poor people, or by sacrificing a sheep]. But he who findeth\nnot anything to offer shall fast three days in the Pilgrimage, and\nseven when he be returned: these shall be ten days complete. This is\nincumbent on him whose family shall not be present at the Holy Temple.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Pilgrimage must be performed in the known months (_i.e._, Shavv\u00e1l,\nZ\u00fa-\u2019l-ka\u2019dah, and Z\u00fa-\u2019l-hijjah); whosoever therefore purposeth to go\non Pilgrimage therein, let him not know a woman, nor transgress, nor\nquarrel in the Pilgrimage. The good which ye do, God knoweth it. Make\nprovision for your journey, but the best provision is piety, and fear\nme, O ye of understanding. It shall be no crime in you if ye seek an\nincrease from your Lord by trading during the Pilgrimage. And when\nye go in procession from Arafat [a mountain near Mecca] remember God\nnear the holy monument, and remember Him for that He hath directed\nyou, though ye were before this of the number of those who go astray.\nTherefore go in procession from whence the people go in procession, and\nask pardon of God, for God is gracious and merciful. And when ye have\nfinished your holy ceremonies, remember God, according as ye remember\nyour fathers, or with a more reverend commemoration. Yea, remember\nGod the appointed number of days [three days after slaying the\nsacrifices], but if any haste to depart from the Valley of Mina in two\ndays it shall be no crime in him. And if any tarry longer it shall be\nno crime in him--in him who feareth God. Therefore, fear God and know\nthat unto Him ye shall be gathered.... They who shall disbelieve and\nobstruct the way of God, and hinder men from visiting the Holy Temple\nof Mecca, which we have appointed for a place of worship unto all men:\nthe inhabitant thereof and the stranger have an equal right to visit\nit: and whosoever shall seek impiously to profane it, we will cause\nhim to taste a grievous torment. And proclaim unto the people a solemn\nPilgrimage; let them come unto thee on foot, and on every lean camel,\narriving from every distant road, that they may be witnesses of the\nadvantages which accrue to them from visiting this holy place, and may\ncommemorate the name of God on the appointed days [namely, the first\nten days of Z\u00fa-\u2019l-hijjah, or the tenth day of the same month, on which\nthey slay the sacrifices, and the three following days] in gratitude\nfor the brute cattle which he hath bestowed on them. Wherefore eat\nthereof, and feed the needy and the poor. Afterwards let them put an\nend to the neglect of their persons [by shaving their heads, and the\nbody from below the neck, and cutting their beards and nails in the\nvalley of Mina, which the pilgrims are not allowed to do from the time\nthey become Muhrims, and have solemnly dedicated themselves to the\nperformance of the Pilgrimage, till they have finished the ceremonies,\nand slain their victims]; and let them pay their vows [by doing the\ngood works which they have vowed to do in their Pilgrimage], and\ncompass the ancient house [_i.e._, the Ka\u2019bah, which the Muhammadans\npretend was the first edifice built and appointed for the worship of\nGod]. This let them do. And whoever shall regard the sacred ordinances\nof God: this will be better for him in the sight of his Lord. All\nsorts of cattle are allowed you to eat, except what hath been read\nunto you, in former passages of the Kur\u00e1n, to be forbidden. But depart\nfrom the abomination of idols, and avoid speaking that which is false:\nbeing orthodox in respect to God, associating no other god with him;\nfor whosoever associateth any other with God is like that which falleth\nfrom heaven, and which the birds snatch away, or the wind bloweth to a\nfar distant place. This is so....\u201d\n\nOne of the benefits of this Pilgrimage, and, perhaps, the greatest of\nall, if we regard the sacrament either from the political and social\nor from the religious standpoint, was, and is, the gathering together\nin Mecca of Muhammadans of every race and of every sect. There, and in\nthe city of Medina, they first saw the dawn of their religious faith\nand their political power; there their hearts were drawn together\nin unity and strength; and there, in the early days of the Caliphs,\nthey discussed their latest achievements, the glory of their future\nconquests, and studied the wants and needs of their co-religionists.\nWithin the walls of the Holy of Holies they wept and prayed that God\nmight renew within them a cleaner spirit through faith; and there,\ntoo, they strove with all earnestness to raise themselves to the full\nheight of the Prophet\u2019s conception of manhood, which encouraged such\nvirtues as hospitality, generosity, compassion, heroism, courage,\nparental love, filial respect, and passive obedience to the will of\nGod. Thus Mecca, in the days of Pilgrimage, might be looked upon as an\nimmense club or a university where Muhammadans, from every quarter of\nthe globe, meet and discuss their political and social problems, and\nprostrate themselves in prayer to the one and only Divinity.\n\nAnother effect of this Pilgrimage--an effect which has grown less\nmarked with the increased facility and comfort of travelling--is that\nit kindled energy and courage in such people as would never have left\nthe safe seclusion of their harems had it not been for the rewards\nwhich the undertaking is said to gain for them hereafter. For the\nOriental nations, be it remembered, are not as a rule of a roving\nspirit; they are far more inclined by nature to a life of ease and\nsecurity than to one of danger and privation. \u201cTravel,\u201d says an Arab\nproverb, \u201cis a portion of hell-fire,\u201d and so, perhaps, nothing save the\nhope of paradise or the dread of perdition would ever have induced the\nmeditative Oriental to brave the trials and the hardships of the long\nroad to Mecca.\n\nIn our hearts we believe the proof of the Divine Spirit using any\nreligion is that it does not deteriorate. The chief objection to\nWelsh Calvinism, which, like Muhammadanism, is based on the theory\nof Predestination, is that it grows worse. It was once simply\nand sincerely religious: it is now mainly political spite. Has\nMuhammadanism deteriorated beyond recognition--say, in the eyes of the\nstudent of the Kur\u00e1n, or does it still hold tight by \u201cthe cord of God\u201d?\nDo the Sunn\u00eds hold themselves aloof from the Shi\u2019ahs, or do they dwell\ntogether, within the Holy Temple, in brotherly love and concord? Their\ndaily salutation of \u201cSal\u00e1m,\u201d is it sunk to a mere empty form, or is\nit still the expression, as it once undoubtedly was, of a hearty wish\nto bring about the Prophet\u2019s single aim? And of all the nationalities\ncongregated yearly in the city of concourse--the Arabians, the\nPersians, the Afghans, the Egyptians, the Muhammadans of India and\nChina--which among them all is the most worthy to be commended for\nits enlightenment and progress? All these questions, and many more\non the social and religious life of the East, will be answered in\nthe course of the second and third parts of this volume. And in the\nmeanwhile, I cannot do better than gather into focus the preliminary\nnotes of my literary partner, beginning with the customs incidental\nto the pilgrimage; for the main thing now is to leave nothing unsaid\nwhich would enable the reader to enter into the spirit and the form of\nthe sacred journey. And henceforward, though I shall always express\nmyself in my own words, the personal pronoun, whenever used, will\napply, throughout this work, to my collaborator, Hadji Khan, with the\nexception of the contents of the Appendix.\n\n\nII.--CONDITIONS OF PILGRIMAGE.\n\nThat being understood, the conditions must be mentioned which, in\ntheory, though not necessarily in practice, limit the number of\nMuhammadans that go on the pilgrimage. First, the Muhammadan must\nbe of age--that is, he must have completed his fifteenth year when,\naccording to the Muhammadan Law, a boy becomes a man. Secondly, he\nmust be of a sound constitution in order to endure the fatigue of the\njourney. Thirdly, he should have no debts whatever, but should be\nsufficiently well-to-do to defray his own travelling expenses, after\nhaving distributed one-fifth of his property among the Seyyids, given\none-tenth of the remainder in alms, and made provision during his\nabsence for the support of the family and the servants he leaves behind\nhim. Fourthly, he should support both the mosque in which he prays\nand the fund of the saint he adores the most by making his religious\nadviser a present in proportion to his means. Fifthly, he must be\neither a virtuous or a sincerely penitent man, for he cannot legally\nundertake the pilgrimage unless his wealth has been gained in a lawful\nmanner. Strictly speaking, a thief, for example, cannot be a pilgrim,\nnor can the money earned by accepting bribes be used to cover the\nexpenses of the journey. The best money to use for the purpose is that\nwhich has been gained from the produce of the soil, or else that which\nhas been bequeathed by a virtuous father. Sixthly, the Muhammadan who\nwould be a H\u00e1j\u00ed must start with an absolutely clean conscience: he must\nlook to it that the friends he leaves behind him shall have no just\ncause to be offended with him. Though he need not heed the slander of\nthe malignant, he must formally repent of his sins, bidding his friends\nand acquaintances good-bye with the words, \u201cHal\u00e1l\u00e1m kun\u00edd.\u201d Seventhly,\na woman should be accompanied by one of her Meharem, that is by one of\nthe men who are privileged to see her unveiled--namely, by her father,\nher husband, her brother, her uncle, her born slave, or her eunuch.\nIn short, the pilgrims should be really good Muslims, adhering firmly\nto all the laws laid down in the Kur\u00e1n, and following religiously the\nspecial teaching of their chosen directors, whose prescriptive right to\nregulate the minor details of the rites and observances of the Faith,\nhas resulted in their wielding a tremendous power over their flocks\neven in political matters.\n\n\nIII.--FORBIDDEN VIANDS.\n\nFrom the little that has been said of the influence of the Persian\nclergy you will understand that the priests require their pilgrims\nto adhere strictly to the letter of the laws appertaining to the\nprohibition and recommendation of certain articles of food. They must\nreckon as prohibited and, therefore, impure, twelve things, among\nwhich may be counted pork, underdone meat, the blood of animals, and\nwines. Though a digression, it will not be out of place to mention here\nthat the wine, of which Omar Khayy\u00e1m and the S\u00faf\u00eds in general sing,\nis more likely to be the juice of the grape than the interpretation\nput on it by such commentators as see in it a symbol of God\u2019s love.\nFor the effect produced on the brain by the forbidden drink is in\nitself something of a mystery, as it were, a divine afflatus, more\nparticularly is it so considered by a people of such a temperate habit\nas the Persians. Some of the higher classes, no doubt, drink hard,\nand even drink to get drunk, but upon the whole the Muhammadans, and\nespecially the Persians, are, in comparison with the majority of\nEuropean peoples, extremely sober, bearing their griefs without seeking\nthe consolation of the bottle.\n\n\nIV.--THE WORK OF PURIFICATION.\n\nNow, purifications must be made either in flowing water, or in about\nhalf a ton of stagnant pure water. When the nose bleeds it must be\ndipped three times, after being well washed. Strange to say, the sweat\nof the camel--the animal that bears the pilgrim to Mecca--is said to\nbe unclean to the touch and its pollution must, like the handling of\ndogs, pigs, and rats, be cleansed away by the customary purifications.\nAblutions, called _wuz\u00fa\u2019h_ should precede every prayer that is _farz_\nor incumbent, and _wuz\u00fa\u2019h_ consists first in washing the hands three\ntimes by pouring water from the right hand over the left hand and\nrubbing them together, next in washing the face three times with the\nright hand, then in pouring the water with the right hand over the\nleft elbow and rubbing down the forearm, and last of all in repeating\nthe process with the left hand over the right forearm. After this\n_maseh_ must be performed by dipping the right hand in water and\nrubbing it over the front portion of the head, and also by rubbing over\nthe right foot with the wet right hand, and the left foot with the wet\nleft hand. If the hands or the feet be sore or wounded then clay takes\nthe place of water, and this particular kind of purification is called\n_tyammom_. The devout before reading the Kur\u00e1n, or before entering the\nshrine of a saint or the court of a mosque, should perform _wuz\u00fa\u2019h_ or\n_tyammom_, and in doing so they should resolve within themselves to\nrecite such and such a prayer. This is called _Niyyat_, or Declaration\nof Intention.\n\nAccording to a Shi\u2019ah traditionalist, Im\u00e1m Huseyn has laid down twelve\nrules to be observed at meal times. The first four are essential to the\nsalvation of all true Muslims. They should remember to say \u201cBismillah\u201d\nbefore tasting each dish, and refrain from eating of the forbidden\nviands; they should also assure themselves that the food laid before\nthem has been bought with money obtained from a legal source, and\nshould end by returning thanks to God. The second four, though not\nuniversally obeyed, are admitted by all to be \u201cgood form,\u201d and consist\nin washing the hands before meat, in sitting down inclined to the left,\nin eating with the thumb and the first two fingers of the right hand,\nwhich hand must be kept especially clean for the purpose. The last\nfour rules deal with matters of social etiquette. They are kept by\nmost Muhammadans in polite society, and are as follows: One should not\nstretch across the tablecloth, but should partake only of such dishes\nas are within one\u2019s reach; one should not stuff the mouth too full, nor\nforget to masticate the food thoroughly; and one should keep the eyes\ndowncast and the tongue as silent as possible.\n\nIt is a tradition that the washing of hands before meals will\nmaterially help the true Muslim to grow rich, and be the means of\ndelivering him from all diseases. If he rub his eyes immediately after\nthe ablution they will never be sore. The left hand must not be used in\neating unless the right be disabled.\n\nAll true Muslims when eating are advised to begin with salt and finish\nwith vinegar. If they begin with salt they will escape the contagion of\nseventy diseases. If they finish with vinegar their worldly prosperity\nwill continue to increase. The host is in etiquette bound to be the\nfirst to start eating and the last to leave off. Tooth-picking is\nconsidered an act of grace, for Gabriel is reported to have brought a\ntooth-pick from heaven for the use of the Prophet after every meal. The\npriests recite certain passages of the Kur\u00e1n before and after lunch and\ndinner, and also before drinking water at any hour of the day.\n\n\nV.--PRAYERS.\n\nAll Muslims must say five prayers every day, and the following six\nthings should be observed before the prayers are acceptable to God:\n(1) _wuz\u00fa\u2019h_ or _tyammom_, (2) putting off dirty clothes, (3) covering\none\u2019s body and head and doffing the shoes, (4) keeping the appointed\ntime, (5) determining the exact position of Mecca, and (6) assuring\none\u2019s self as to the purity of the place in which the prayers are said.\nBefore beginning one must say within one\u2019s self what prayers one is\nabout to recite, and for what purpose one is going to recite them, and\nat the end one must raise the hands to Heaven, saying, \u201cMay peace\nbe with Muhammad and with his disciples.\u201d For prayer was by Muhammad\ndeemed so urgent an act of reverence that he used to call it the pillar\nof religion and the key of paradise, declaring \u201cthat there could be no\ngood in that religion wherein was no prayer.\u201d It behoves every pilgrim,\ntherefore, in his sacred habit, to pray at least five times every\ntwenty-four hours; (1) in the morning before sunrise, (2) when noon\nis past and the sun begins to decline from the meridian, (3) in the\nafternoon before sunset, (4) in the evening after sunset and before day\nbe shut in, and (5) after the day is shut in and before the first watch\nof the night. Besides these, there are certain other prayers which,\nthough not expressly enjoined, are commended as a special act of grace,\nmore particularly perhaps to the pilgrims in ihr\u00e1m. Among these may be\nmentioned the separate prayers generally said at night (_i.e._, the\nnam\u00e1z-i-tahajjud and the vitr), and the extra prayers not prescribed\nby law, the nav\u00e1fil and the nam\u00e1z-i-mustahabb. The positions of the\nbody are as follows: (1) kiy\u00e1m, that is, standing erect, with the hands\ndown by the sides; (2) takb\u00edrguft\u00e1n, declaring God\u2019s greatness, on\nraising the hands on either side of the face, with the thumbs under\nthe lobes of the ears, and the fingers extended; (3) ruk\u00fa, inclining\nthe body from the waist and placing the hands on the knees; (4) kun\u00fat,\nstanding with the head inclined forward and the hands on either side of\nthe face; (5) d\u00fa z\u00e1n\u00fanishast\u00e1n, kneeling, the hands lying flat on the\nthighs; and (6) sijdah, prostration, in which the forehead must touch\nthe ground, or the lump of unbaked clay that is known by the name of\n\u201cmohre.\u201d A full prayer is made up of five \u201crakats\u201d or prostrations,\nduring which not a word save the prayer as prescribed should be\nuttered. Part of the prayer is said aloud and part in a whispering\ntone. The greatest care should be taken to pronounce each word with\nthe correct Arabic accent, since ill-pronounced words, unless the\nresult of a natural defect, are said to be unacceptable to the Creator.\nThe pilgrim should say special prayers on Friday, and every time he\nhas recourse to the Kur\u00e1n before deciding on any course of action\nwhatsoever. A special prayer is said by the devout about one hour after\nmidnight. This is called the midnight prayer, and is, of course, a\ntedious task. Hence it is sometimes said sarcastically of a man with a\nloose belief in the Faith: \u201cHe says midnight prayers!\u201d The prayers most\nreadily answered are the prayers said in Mecca. Thus when a pilgrim\nsets out on his journey he is requested by his friends to pray for them\nat the House of God. The name of the person for whom one prays should\nbe uttered, otherwise the prayer will have no effect. Every pilgrim\nmust take with him a rosary, the square piece of unbaked clay called\n\u201cmohre,\u201d and a copy of the Kur\u00e1n, for a passage of the Kur\u00e1n must be\nread after every prayer.\n\n\nVI.--ASPECTS OF SOCIAL ISL\u00c1M.\n\nIt is now time to give the reader, in as terse and as condensed a\nform as possible, a general idea of the part played by religion in\nthe workaday lives of the children of the Faith, beginning with their\ntoilet, that is, with their dressing and bathing, with the combing of\ntheir hair and the cutting of their nails.\n\nA pious Persian Muslim, before wearing any new article of clothing,\nperforms his ablutions and prostrates himself twice in prayer. A man\nof a less devout, but a more superstitious, trend of mind contents\nhimself with consulting the _taghv\u00edm_ or the _estakhhareh_[1] muttering\nto himself, ere he dons the garment, \u201cIn the name of God the Merciful\nand Clement!\u201d His friends on seeing the new apparel cry out, \u201cMay it be\nauspicious!\u201d The rewards of a man who says his prayers before putting\non a new suit of clothes will be in proportion to the number of threads\nin the cloth. Hence it has come to be a practice to preserve the\nmaterial from the blight of the Evil Eye by besprinkling it with pure\nwater over which a prescribed passage of the Kur\u00e1n has been read.\n\n[1] For fuller particulars of the _taghv\u00edm_ and the _estakhhareh_, see\npage 289 \u201cHealing by Faith.\u201d\n\nIt is unlucky for a Muslim to sit down before taking off his shoes.\nWhen drawing them on it is equally unlucky for him to stand up. The\ncustom, in the first instance, is to rise, doffing first the left\nshoe and then the right one. The procedure must be reversed in every\nparticular when putting them on. The universal belief in omens is\ntraditional, and extends, among other things, to precious stones. By\nfar the luckiest of these is the flesh-coloured cornelian, which is\na great favourite with the men. It owes its popularity to the fact\nthat the Prophet himself is said to have worn a cornelian ring set in\nsilver on the little finger of his right hand. It grew still more in\nfavour at a later period, because Jafar, the famous Im\u00e1m, declared\nthat the desires of every man who wore it would be gratified. And\nthenceforward its property to bless has been regarded as axiomatic by\nthe superstitious to whom I am referring.\n\n[Illustration: COPIES OF THE KUR\u00c1N WORN _EN BANDOULI\u00c8RE_ BY MUSLIMS\nWHEN TRAVELLING OR ON PILGRIMAGE.]\n\nThe Shiahs have the name of one of the twelve Im\u00e1ms engraved on the\nstone; others make use of it as a seal bearing their own names. Hardly\nless lucky are the turquoise and the ruby, which are believed to have\nthe effect of warding off poverty from those who are fortunate\nenough to possess them. This is why they are treasured by the fair sex,\nthe ruby being, perhaps, the more dearly loved of the two.\n\nEvery bath has generally three courts. On entering each one of these\nthe devout say the prayers prescribed for the occasion, but the\ngenerality of Muslims, unless they intend to perform the religious\npurifications, consider it sufficient to greet the people who are\npresent with the word \u201cSal\u00e1m!\u201d It is considered inauspicious to brush\nthe teeth in the baths, but certain portions of hair must be removed by\na composition of quicklime and arsenic, called nureh, and the nureh,\nthough efficacious enough, no matter when it may be used, is said to\nadd immeasurably to a man\u2019s chance of salvation by being laid on either\non a Wednesday or on a Friday.\n\nThe application of the juice of the marsh-mallow as an emollient\nfor the hair is strongly recommended by the saints. Their object in\nbequeathing this advice to the consideration of their flock was not to\ninculcate vanity. They had a higher aim than that. Their desire was to\nstave off starvation from the fold, for that, in their opinion, would\nbe the result of using the lotion on an ordinary day of the week; while\nrubbing the head vigorously with the precious juice on the Muslim\nSabbath would be certain to preserve the skin from leprosy and the mind\nfrom madness. To the use of a decoction of the leaves of the lote-tree\na divine relief is attributed, for the mere smell of it on the hair of\nthe most unregenerate has on Satan an effect so disheartening that he\nwill cease from leading them into temptation for no less than seventy\ndays.\n\nThe pressure of the grave will be mitigated by a skilful and untiring\napplication of the comb in this life. The blessing of the comb is\nsaid to have been revealed to Im\u00e1m Jafar. Women are not excluded from\nthe spiritual benefits derived from the comb. But, remember, the hair\nmust not be done in a frivolous, much less in a perfunctory fashion.\nFar from it. On no account whatever must the hair be neglected, for\nSatan is attracted by dishevelled locks. They are, as it were, a net in\nwhich he catches the human soul. Therefore, since the priests and the\nmerchants of Isl\u00e1m shave their heads in most parts of the Muslim world,\nspecial attention should be paid by them to their beards and eyebrows.\nA pocket-comb made of sandal-wood is often carried by the true\nBelievers, who, it may be hoped, turn it to good account in moments of\nspiritual unwillingness on the part of the natural man.\n\nA Mull\u00e1\u2019s beard is an object of veneration to his flock. He may trim\nit lest it should grow as wild as a Jew\u2019s, but he is forbidden by\ntradition to shave it. Even the scissors must be plied sparingly and to\nthe accompaniment of prayer. Perhaps the orthodox length of this almost\ndivine appendage of the true Muslim is the length of the wearer\u2019s hand\nfrom the point of the chin downwards. This is known as a ghabzeh or\nhandful. A priest may be allowed to add the length of the first joint\nof his little finger, otherwise his power to awe might grow lax. The\nsoul is in danger every time he forgets to cut his sharib, that is, the\ntip of his moustache, which should be reduced to bristles once a week.\nOnce on a time a faithful follower of the Prophet asked one of the\nIm\u00e1ms what he should do to increase his livelihood. The Im\u00e1m answered\nunhesitatingly: \u201cCut your nails and your sharib on a Friday as long as\nyou live!\u201d\n\nAgain, according to a Shi\u2019ah traditionist, if a Muslim gaze into\na looking-glass, before saying his prayers, he will be guilty of\nworshipping his own likeness, however unsightly it may appear in his\neyes. The hand must be drawn across the forehead, ere the hair or the\nbeard be adjusted, or else the mirror will reflect a mind given over\nto vanity, which is a grievous, if universal sin. The new moon must\nbe seen \u201con the face\u201d of a friend, on a copy of the Kur\u00e1n, or on a\nturquoise stone. Unless one of these conditions be observed, there is\nno telling what evil might not happen.\n\nThe devout who are most anxious to vindicate tradition perform two\nprostrations on beholding the new moon, and sacrifice a sheep for the\npoor as an additional safeguard against her baneful rays. The Evil\nEye more often than not has its seat in the socket of an unbeliever.\nTherefore, the Muslim who, on being brought face to face with a\nheretic, should not say the prayer by law ordained must look to his\ncharms or suffer the inevitable blight. A cat may look at a king; a\nking may shoot a ferocious animal; and a thief may run away with the\nspoil. But a true Believer must guard his faith against aggression\nevery time he sees a thief, a ferocious animal, or a king. For very\ndifferent reasons, he must recite a prescribed formula of prayer\non the passing of a funeral procession, and also on his seeing the\nfirst-fruits of the season and its flowers. The dead, it is said, will\nhear his voice if, on crossing a cemetery, he cry aloud: \u201cO ye people\nof the grave, may peace be with you, of both sexes of the Faithful!\u201d\n\nAs the sense of sight gives rise to devotional exercises, so also does\nthe sense of hearing. The holy Muslim should lend a prayerful ear to\nthe cries of the muezzin during the first two sentences of the summons,\nand when the call to prayer is over he should rub his eyes with his\nfingers, in order to produce the signs of weeping--a mark of contrition\nand of emotional recrudescence in the matter of piety. The true\nBeliever, whenever he hears the Sureh S\u00fajdeh read in the Kur\u00e1n, should\nprostrate himself and repeat the words after the reader. If he hear\na Muslim sneeze he should say, \u201cMay peace be with thee!\u201d and if the\nsneeze be repeated, \u201cMayest thou be cured!\u201d But, if a Kafir sneeze, the\nresponse must be expressed in the wish to see him tread \u201cthe straight\npath.\u201d\n\nEvery child of Isl\u00e1m, before going to bed, should perform his ablutions\nand say his prayers. If he wish to be delivered from nightmare and\nall its terrors let him say to Allah: \u201cI take refuge in Thee from the\nevil of Satan,\u201d and if he is afraid of being bitten by a scorpion let\nhim appeal to Noah, saying, \u201cMay peace be with thee, O Noah!\u201d One\nday Eshagh-ben-Ammar asked Im\u00e1m Jafar how he could protect himself\nagainst the attack of that malignant arachnidan. The Im\u00e1m replied:\n\u201cLook at the constellation of the Bear; therein you will find a small\nstar, the lowest of all, which the Arabs call Sohail. Fix your eyes in\nthe direction of that star, and say three times, \u2018May peace be with\nMuhammad and with his people: O Sohail, protect me from scorpions,\u2019 and\nyou will be protected from them.\u201d Eshagh-ben-Ammar goes on to relate\nthat he read the formula every evening before going to bed, and that it\nproved successful; but one evening he forgot to repeat it, and, as a\nconsequence, was bitten by a black scorpion.\n\nPrayers are also said against mosquitoes and other insects. This\ncleanses the conscience of the irate Muslim, if it fail in preserving\nhis skin. The Eastern peoples in general and the Muhammadans in\nparticular are early risers. Sleep after morning prayers, which are\nsaid before sunrise, is sure to cause folly; sleep in the middle of\nthe day is believed to be necessary and suitable to work; while sleep\nbefore evening prayers has precisely the same effect as after the\ndevotions of the early morning. A traditionist says that the prophets\nslept on their backs, so as to be able to converse with the angels at\nany hour of the night; that the faithful must sleep on their right\nsides, and the Kafirs on their left; and that the deves take their rest\non their stomachs.\n\nUsury, though interest on money was strictly prohibited by the Prophet,\nis among the Muslims of the present day a common practice. They evade\nthe letter of the law by putting what the Persians call \u201ca legal cap\nover the head\u201d of the usurious transaction. The money-lender picks up\na handful of barley and says to the borrower, \u201cGive me the rate of\ninterest as the cost of this grain, which I now offer to sell to you\nat that price;\u201d and the borrower replies that he accepts the bargain.\nAlso, a merchant must know all the laws appertaining to buying and\nselling. Im\u00e1m \u2019Ali is said to have made a daily round of the bazaars of\nKufa crying out the while, \u201cO ye merchants and traders, deal honestly\nand in accordance with the laws of your Prophet. Swear not, neither\ntell lies, and cheat not your customers. Beware of using false weights,\nand walk ye in the paths of righteousness.\u201d\n\nA high priest in Mecca assured me that to enjoy a derham of interest is\nas bad as taking the blood of seventy virgins. The admonitions of \u2019Al\u00ed\nthe Just, though sometimes read, are less often followed. On leaving\nhis house a merchant must say \u201cBismillah,\u201d and then blow to his left\nand his right and also in front of him, so as to clear the way to good\nbusiness.\n\nThe pious recite, on entering the bazaar, a prayer ordained for the\noccasion. When the bargain is clinched the seller should cry out, \u201cGod\nis great! God is great!\u201d But there should be no dishonest bargaining\nover the purchasing of these four things: the winding sheets for the\ndead, the commodities to be distributed in charity, the expenses on\nthe journey to Mecca, and the price of a slave\u2019s ransom. In all these\ntransactions the buyer and seller must act according to the dictates of\nfair play. The man who buys a slave should lay hold of him by a hair of\nhis head and say the prescribed prayer; after which, if guided by Im\u00e1m\nJafar, he must change the name of his purchase. Slaves are treated with\nevery consideration, so much so indeed that in the household of Eastern\npotentates, whose treatment of their dependents is extremely arbitrary,\nthe slaves lord it over the servants.\n\nIt is said, in the traditions, that a true Muslim should marry\nneither for money nor for beauty, but should be guided by the woman\u2019s\nmoral worth and spiritual endowments. His choice is referred to the\narbitrament of the _estakhhareh_. \u201cA chaste maiden will make a good\nwife; for she will be sweet-tempered to her husband, and mild but\nfirm in the treatment of her children.\u201d This saying is attributed to\nthe Prophet. \u201cA bad wife, a wicked animal, and a narrow house with\nunsociable neighbours, those are the possessions which try a man\u2019s\ntemper,\u201d cried one of the Im\u00e1ms, himself a saintly man. \u201cThe best woman\nis she who bears children frequently, who is beloved by her relatives,\nwho shows herself obedient to her husband, who pleases him by wearing\nher best clothes, and who avoids the eyes of men who cannot lawfully\nsee her.\u201d These words were uttered by Muhammad, if we are to believe\ntradition.\n\nThe wedding must not take place when the moon is under an eclipse, nor\nwhen she is in the sign of Scorpio. The best time is between the 26th\nand the end of the lunar month. Muhammad recommended festivals to be\ncelebrated on five occasions: on wedding and nuptial days, on the birth\nof a child, on the circumcision of a child, on taking up one\u2019s abode\nin a newly-purchased house, and on returning from Mecca. Only persons\nof unblemished reputation should be invited to the marriage or the\nnuptial feasts.\n\nTo the man who brings him news of the birth of a male child the father\nshould give a present. The nurse should lose no time in singing the\nfirst chapter of the prescribed prayer in the baby\u2019s right ear, and\nwhat is called the standing prayer in its left one, and if the water\nof the Euphrates be procurable it should be sprinkled on the baby\u2019s\nforehead.\n\nOn the seventh day after the child\u2019s birth the ceremony of the Aghigheh\nis performed in Persia. This consists in killing a fatted sheep, in\ncooking it, and in distributing the flesh among the neighbours or among\nthe poor who come to the door. In memory of the occasion a cornelian\nengraved with a Kur\u00e1n text, and sometimes surrounded with precious\nstones, as in the cover-design to the present volume, is fastened to\nthe baby\u2019s arm by means of a silk band, and is worn perhaps to the end\nof its life. Not a single bone of the Aghigheh sheep should be broken;\ncertain prayers should be read before the sheep is killed; and the\nparents should not take part in the feast.\n\nThe baby is not often weaned until it is two years old, Muhammad\nbelieving that the mother\u2019s milk is the best and acts beneficially on\nthe child\u2019s future character and temperament.\n\n\nVII.--STORY OF THE MUSLIM MOONS.\n\nThe twelve Muhammadan months are lunar, and number twenty-nine and\nthirty days alternately. Thus the whole year contains only three\nhundred and fifty-four days; but eleven times in the course of thirty\nyears an intercalary day is added. Accordingly, thirty-two of our\nyears are, roughly speaking, equal to thirty-three Muhammadan years.\nThe Muhammadan Era dates from the morning after the Hegira, or the\nflight of the Prophet from Mecca to Medina, that is, on the 16th of\nJuly, A.D. 622. Every year begins earlier than the preceding one, so\nthat a month beginning in summer in the present year will, sixteen\nyears hence, fall in winter. The following are the names of the months,\nwhich do not correspond in any way with ours: 1, Muharram; 2, Safar; 3,\nRab\u00edu-\u2019l-avval; 4, Rab\u00edu-\u2019s-s\u00e1n\u00ed or Rab\u00edu-\u2019l-\u00e1khir; 5, Jum\u00e1d\u00e1u-\u2019l-\u00fal\u00e1;\n6, Jum\u00e1d\u00e1u-\u2019s-s\u00e1n\u00ed or Jum\u00e1d\u00e1u-\u2019l-\u00e1khir; 7, Rajab; 8, Sha\u2019b\u00e1n; 9,\nRamaz\u00e1n; 10, Shavv\u00e1l; 11, Z\u00fa-\u2019l-ka\u2019dah, or Z\u00ed-ka\u2019d; 12, Z\u00fa-\u2019l-hijjah,\nor Z\u00ed-hajj. Many stories of these months were told to me by the priests\nand the pilgrims whom I met at Mecca, and it is therefore my intention\nto tell over again the stories of the most cherished months of the\nMuslim year. These are Rajab, Sha\u2019b\u00e1n, Ramaz\u00e1n, Shavv\u00e1l, Z\u00fa-\u2019l-ka\u2019dah,\nZ\u00fa-\u2019l-hijjah, and Muharram.\n\nOn the Day of Judgment, the Holy Muezzin, sitting on the Throne, will\ncry out, ere he pass judgment on the Faithful, saying: \u201cO moons of\nRajab, Sha\u2019b\u00e1n, and Ramaz\u00e1n, how stands it with the deeds of this\nhumble slave of ours?\u201d The three moons will then prostrate themselves\nbefore the Throne, and answer: \u201cO Lord, we bear witness to the good\ndeeds of this humble slave. When he was with us he kept on loading his\ncaravans with provisions for the next world, beseeching Thee to grant\nhim Thy divine favour, and expressing his perfect contentment with the\nfate that Thou hadst sent unto him.\u201d After them their guardian-angels,\nmeekly kneeling on their knees, will raise their voices in praise of\nthe pious Muslim, crying: \u201cO Lord God Almighty, we also bear witness\nto the good deeds of this humble slave of Thine. On earth his eyes,\nhis ears, his nose, his mouth, and his stomach were all obedient both\nto whatsoever Thou hast forbidden and also to whatsoever Thou hast made\nlawful. The days he passed in fasting, and the nights in sleepless\nsupplication. Verily he is a good doer!\u201d Then Allah will command his\nslave to be borne into Paradise on a steed of light, accompanied by\nangels, and by all the rewards of his piety on camels of light, and\nthere he will be conducted to a palace whose foundation is laid in\neverlasting felicity, and whose inmates never grow old. The moon of\nRajab is the month of Allah. It is said that there is a stream of that\nname in Paradise, whose water is white, and more wholesome than milk\nand sweeter than honey. The first to welcome the new arrival will be\nthis stream, which will straightway wend its course round his palace.\nTo Salim, one of his disciples, Muhammad is reported to have said: \u201cIf\nyou keep fast for one day during the month of Rajab you will be free\nfrom the terror of death, and the agony of death, from the percussion\nof the grave, and the loneliness thereof. If you keep fast for two days\nthe eight doors of Paradise will be opened unto you.\u201d\n\nThe authoritative tradition goes that a crier will make himself heard\nfrom between the earth and the sky, summoning the pious who observed\nthe prayers and the privations of the moon of Rajab: \u201cOh, ye Rajabians,\ncome forth and present yourselves before your Creator.\u201d Then the\nRajabians, whose heads will be crowned with pearls and rubies, and\nwhose faces will be bathed in the universal light, will arise and stand\nbefore the Throne. And each one among them will have a thousand angels\non his right hand and a thousand on his left, and they will shout with\none accord, saying: \u201cO, ye Rajabians, may ye be deserving of all the\nholy favours ye are about to receive!\u201d And last of all, Allah, in his\nmercy, will say to them: \u201cO my male and female slaves, I swear by my\nown magnanimity, that I will give you lodgings in the most delightful\nnooks of my Paradise, namely, in the palaces around which flow the most\nrefreshing streams of purest water.\u201d\n\nA baby is to the Muslim a symbol of purity: and so a man who worships\nGod in the month of Rajab will become like unto a new-born child,\nalways provided that he repent of the sins which he has committed, and\nfollow the law of the Prophet. Not until then will the pious Rajabian\nbe in a fit state, in his character of new-born babe, to start life\nafresh. The Muhammadans, in so far as duty and obedience are concerned,\nput on pretty much the same footing the relation of the slave to his\nmaster, of the wife to her husband, of the child to its parent, and of\nthe guest to his host. The parallel between the last-mentioned and the\npreceding is complete because the guest must acquiesce in his host\u2019s\nwill, which is supreme. In the matter of repentance, that of Nessouh is\nexemplary among the Muhammadans.\n\nNow, this man Nessouh was in his face and his voice so like a woman\nthat his wicked nature persuaded him to wear skirts that he might\nadd to his experience of the opposite sex by mixing freely among\nits members. Soon, his curiosity growing in ratio with his acquired\nknowledge, we hear of him as an attendant in the hammam of the royal\nseraglio, where he might have pursued his studies in peace and in\nrapture had not one of the Royal Princesses, who had lost a ring, cast\nsuspicion on every servant in turn. The seed of Nessouh\u2019s repentance\nwas sown when the decree went out that all the attendants of the baths\nwere to be searched. The fear lest his sex should be discovered yielded\nso swiftly to repentance for having veiled it, that Almighty Allah\ndespatched an angel from Paradise to discover the missing treasure\nbefore the decree took effect; and thenceforward Nessouh, out of\nthe gratitude of his heart, renounced his studies of human nature in\npetticoats, and vied with the most rigid disciplinarians in prayer and\nin fasting. His virtues grew so conspicuous in male attire that his\nrepentance has come to be accepted as worthy of imitation by every true\nBeliever.\n\nAccording to tradition it was on the first day of God\u2019s moon that\nNoah, having taken his seat in the Ark, commanded all the men and\njinns and beasts that were with him to keep fast from sunrise to\nsunset. On the evening of the same day, when the sun was going down,\nthe Ark, riding over the flood, would have heeled over had not Allah\nsent seventy thousand of his angels to the rescue. It is interesting\nto note that the number of all the traditional rewards of virtue, as\nwell as that of such of the heavenly hosts as lend their assistance in\ncases of distress, is always a multiple of seven. A Meccan priest added\nthe following to my collection of \u201crewards\u201d: God will build seventy\nthousand cities in Paradise, each city containing seventy thousand\nmansions, each mansion seventy thousand houris, each houri surrounded\nby seventy thousand beautiful serving women, for the pilgrim--mark\nthis--who shall say his prayers with the best accent on the H\u00e1jj\nDay. The Mull\u00e1 in question was himself a perfect Arabic scholar; his\nenunciation in reciting the forthcoming bliss was faultlessly correct;\neach syllable seemed to pay his lips the tribute of a kiss for the\npleasure it had derived from listening to the mellifluous sound of its\npredecessors. This learned priest will be in his element on all scores\nshould the Paradise of his invention be materialised.\n\nAs Rajab belongs to Allah so Sha\u2019b\u00e1n is held sacred to the Prophet.\nFor we read in the history of Isl\u00e1m that Muhammad, who entered Medina\non the first day of the gracious moon, commanded the muezzins to make\nit known to his people that the good actions which they might perform\nduring the month would help both himself and them to gain salvation;\nwhereas their evil actions would be committed against his apostleship,\nand would on that account be the more severely punished hereafter.\n\nOnce a year, on the approach of Ramaz\u00e1n, the precincts of Paradise, and\nall its gardens and palaces, are illuminated, festooned, and decorated,\nand a most tuneful wind, known in Arabic by the name of Meshireh,\nmakes music in the trees. Now, no sooner do the houris hear this sound\nthan they rush out from their seclusion, and cry aloud: \u201cIs there any\none to marry us through the desire to perform a good deed towards the\ncreatures of God?\u201d Then, turning to Rezvan, the guardian of Paradise,\n\u201cWhat night is this?\u201d they ask; and Rezvan answers, \u201cO ye fair-faced\nhouris, this is the eve of the holy moon of Ramaz\u00e1n. The gates of\nParadise have I ordered to be opened unto the fast-keepers of the Faith\nof the Faithful.\u201d Then Allah, addressing the angel who has the charge\nof Hell, says to him: \u201cO M\u00e1lik, I bid thee to close thy gates against\nthe fast-keepers of the faith of my Apostle.\u201d And next, summoning the\nArchangel of Revelations, He gives command, saying: \u201cO Gabriel, go\nforth in the earth and put Satan in chains, and all his followers,\nthat the path of my chosen people may be safe.\u201d So, on the first day\nof Ramaz\u00e1n, Gabriel swoops down on the earth accompanied by hosts of\nangels. He has six hundred wings, and opens all of them except two. In\nhis hands he bears four green banners, emblems of the Muslim creed.\nThese he plants on the summit of Mount Sinai, and on the Prophet\u2019s tomb\nat Medina, and in the Harem of Mecca. His army of angels bivouacs on\nthe plains round about the Holy City and on the surrounding mountains.\nOn the eve of the day of reward, which is called Ghadre, the angels\nare ordered to disperse throughout the Muslim world, and every true\nBeliever seen praying during that night is embraced by one of them,\nand his prayer meets with an angelic Amen. At the dawn of Ghadre day\na heavenly bugle recalls the angels to Mecca. When Gabriel returns to\nHeaven it is to say to Allah, \u201cMy Lord, all the true Believers have I\nforgiven in Thy name save those who have been constant wine-bibbers, or\nincurred the displeasure of their parents, or indulged in abusing their\nfellow Muslims.\u201d\n\nThe various sects of the Muhammadans disagree a good deal as to the\ndate of Ghadre day. Some say it is on the 19th, some on the 21st, and\nothers on the 23rd of the Muslim Lent; but all agree in believing it to\nbe the day on which the books of deeds, good and evil, are balanced,\nand on which the angels make known to Muhammad the predestination of\nhis followers for whom he intercedes. All Shi\u2019ahs who would win a\nreputation for piety must keep Ahia, that is, pass the three nights\nabove-mentioned in fasting and holy devotions--a penance of untold\nseverity in that every day of the month must be similarly spent from\nsunrise to sundown. Through most ardent prayers on the 21st of Ramaz\u00e1n\nthe devout Mussulman may win the privilege of becoming a H\u00e1j\u00ed in the\nfollowing year. The 7th is the anniversary of Muhammad\u2019s victory\nover the Kuraish in the battle of Badre, and is a great day with\nall Islamites. For the rest, the Arabs follow the example of their\nProphet in breaking their fast on dates and water; special angels\nare appointed to plant heavenly trees, and to build divine palaces\nin readiness for such of the Muslims as should neither neglect their\nreligious purifications nor forget to behave themselves as \u201cAllah\u2019s\nguests.\u201d Many Muslims, unquestionably, adhere strictly to all the rites\nand observances of the occasion; not a few, on the other hand, though\nthey may fast during the day, devote the night to feasting. Indeed, in\nevery capital of Isl\u00e1m, in Teheran, in Constantinople, and in Cairo,\nthe darkling hours are given up by certain people to amusements and\nsometimes to vicious pursuits.\n\nThe heavenly hosts under the Archangel Gabriel, with his five hundred\nand ninety-eight wings wide open, and his green banner flying over the\ngate of the Ka\u2019bah,--the heavenly hosts, I say, dispersing through the\nMuslim world on the eve of Ghadre will prevail on the ghosts of the one\nhundred and twenty-four thousand prophets to kiss the Muslims that are\npiously engaged at night, delivering them from the danger of drowning,\nof being buried under ruins, of choking at meal times, and of being\nkilled by wild beasts. For them the grave will have no terror, and on\nleaving it a substantial cheque on the keeper of Paradise, crossed and\nmade payable to bearer, will be placed in the hands of each one of them.\n\nOn the first day of the moon of Shavv\u00e1l, the fast of Ramaz\u00e1n being\nover, all true Muslims are supposed to give away in charity a measure\nof wheat, barley, dates, raisins, or other provisions in common use.\nThe guests who stay over the preceding night are entitled to receive\na portion of the alms distributed by the master of the house next\nmorning; and hence only the poor and needy are invited to accept\nhospitality on the occasion of the Zikat-\u00e9-Fetre--that is, the festival\nof alms-giving. The fulfilment of the law is believed not only to\nproduce an increase of wealth in the forthcoming year, but also to\ncleanse the body of all impurities. So much for the rewards as a\nstimulus to honesty. Now for the penalty as a deterrent from greed.\nIn the third S\u00fara of the Kur\u00e1n it is written: \u201cBut let not those who\nare covetous of what God of His bounty hath granted them imagine that\ntheir avarice is better for them; nay, rather it is worse for them. For\nthat which they have covetously reserved shall be bound as a collar\nabout their necks on the day of the resurrection: and God is well\nacquainted with what ye do.\u201d Shiahs are reluctant to get married in the\ninterval between the first of Shavv\u00e1l and the tenth of Z\u00fa-\u2019l-hijjah,\nbecause the Prophet is said to have married Aishah, the enemy of \u2019Al\u00ed,\nabout that time. On the other hand the Sunnis, who reverence that\nbrilliant woman, commemorate her wedding day by solemnising their own\nduring this season, unless they are performing the pilgrimage of Mecca.\n\nThe most sacred day of the following month--the moon of\nZ\u00fa-\u2019l-ka\u2019dah--is the twenty-fifth. On that day Adam was created;\nAbraham, Ishmael, and Jesus were born, and the Shiah Messiah, the\nconcealed Im\u00e1m, will come again to judge the world. A Muslim, if he\nkeep fast on the twenty-fifth of Z\u00fa-\u2019l-ka\u2019dah, will earn the rewards\nof a man to whom Allah in his mercy should grant the privilege and the\npower of praying for nine hundred years. On the first of Z\u00fa-\u2019l-hijjah,\nwhich is the month of pilgrimage, Abraham received from God the title\nof Al-Khal\u00edl, or the Friend of Allah. It is accounted a good deed\nto fast from the first to the tenth day of this the last journeying\nmonth; it is also wise to do so, for it is not every month in the\nyear that the Mussulman can win, by nine days of fasting, the fruits\nof a whole lifetime of self-denial. Another tradition deserving of\nmention in connection with this month is that Jesus, in the company\nof Gabriel, was sent to earth by God with five prayers, which he was\ncommanded to repeat on the first five days of the pilgrims\u2019 moon; but\nthe two holiest days of the moon of Z\u00fa-\u2019l-hijjah are the ninth and\nthe tenth. On the ninth, after morning prayer, the pilgrims, in olden\ntimes, departed from the Valley of Mina, whither they had come on the\nprevious day, and rushed in a headlong manner to Mount Arafat, where a\nsermon is preached, and where they performed the devotions entitling\nthem to be called H\u00e1j\u00eds. But nowadays they pass through Mina to Mount\nArafat without stopping on the outward journey; and at sunset, after\nthe sermon is over, they betake themselves to Muzdalifah, an oratory\nbetween Arafat and Mina, and there the hours of the night are spent in\nprayer and in reading the Kur\u00e1n.\n\nOn the tenth, by daybreak, the holy monument, or _al Masher al har\u00e1m_,\nis visited, after which the pilgrims hasten back, on the rising of the\nsun, to the Valley of Mina, where, on the 10th and the two following\ndays, the stoning of the Devil takes place, every pilgrim casting a\ncertain number of stones at three pillars. This rite is as old as\nAbraham, who, being interrupted by Satan when he was about to sacrifice\nhis son Ishmael, was commanded by God to put the tempter to flight\nby throwing stones at him. Next, still on the same day, the tenth of\nZ\u00fa-\u2019l-hijjah, and in the same place, the Valley of Mina, the pilgrims\nslay their victims, and when the sacrifice is over they shave their\nheads and trim their nails, and then return to Mecca in order to take\ntheir leave of the Ka\u2019bah. All these ceremonies will be described in\ndetail in the forthcoming narrative. Meanwhile, by way of further\nintroduction, a few words must be said as to the animals sacrificed.\nThe victims should be camels, kine, sheep, or goats. The camels and\nkine should be females and the sheep and goats males. In age the camels\nshould be five years and not less; the cows and goats in their second\nyear; and the sheep not younger than six months. All should be without\nblemish, neither blind nor lame: their ears should not have been cut,\nnor their horns have been broken. The males should be complete, and all\nbe well fed. They were woefully lean, however, in the year 1319 of the\nFlight. The camels are sacrificed while standing, the fore and hind\nlegs being tied together. A single blow is delivered where the head\njoins the neck, the name of God being uttered the while. The victim\nmust face the Kiblah, and the butcher or the pilgrim, as the case may\nbe, stands on the right of the animal he is going to slay. If the\npilgrim be too tender-hearted to deal the blow, he should catch hold\nof the butcher\u2019s wrist, so as to take part in the act of sacrifice.\nAll the other victims--namely, the kine, the sheep, and the goats--are\nmade to lie on their sides facing Mecca, all four legs being securely\nfastened, then their throats are cut with a sharp knife, without,\nhowever, severing the head from the body.\n\nThe custom of sacrificing a camel on the tenth day of Z\u00fa-\u2019l-hijjah\nprevails among the Shiahs in most of the towns of Persia and of Central\nAsia. The ceremony varies with the locality; but the one we witnessed\nwas so picturesque that we cannot refrain from describing it. For the\nfirst nine days the camel, richly caparisoned, is led through the\nstreets of the city; half a dozen Dervishes, intoning passages of\nthe Kur\u00e1n, swing along at the head of the procession; at every house\nthe camel is made to halt, and subscriptions are raised towards its\npurchase-money and its maintenance. The victim, goaded on from street\nto street and from square to square, ends at last by collecting alms\nfor its tormentors. On the eve of the Day of Sacrifice the camel is\nstripped of its gaudy trappings, and its body is, as it were, mapped\nout into portions with red ink, one portion being allotted to every\nquarter of the city. The place of sacrifice is usually outside the city\nwalls, and early in the morning each district arms its strongest men to\ngo and claim its share of the carcase. Each group may contain as many\nas twenty men, bristling from head to foot with uncouth weapons, and a\nband of drummers adds to the barbaric display the sounds of discordant\nmusic. One man in each group rides on horseback and wears a cashmere\nshawl; it is he who receives into his hands the sacrificial share\nof the parish he represents. Prayers are said, and then, at a given\nsignal, the butcher prepares his knife, and the cutters appointed by\nthe respective quarters make ready to hack the victim in pieces. The\ncamel, bare of covering, and marked all over with the red lines, turns\nits supercilious eyes on the eager cutters, and they, in their turn,\nwatch the butcher. The wretched victim may or may not be conscious of\nits fate. I believe it to be conscious; but, whether it is or not,\nthere is no sign of terror in its eyes, only the customary look of sly\ndisdain. No sooner does the butcher plunge the knife into the camel\u2019s\nwindpipe than the cutters vie with one another as to who shall be the\nfirst to finish carving the still animate body, each allotted part of\nwhich is handed warm and well-nigh throbbing with life, to the horseman\nof the quarter to which it belongs. He takes it in procession to the\nhouse of the magistrate, who distributes it among the poor.\n\nThe prayer most acceptable to God is that of Nodbeh, which must be\nsaid by the pilgrims on Mount Arafat, with tears pouring from their\neyes. The Prophet rose to a noble conception of the next life. He not\nonly believed that the pure-hearted will see God, he also proclaimed\nthat blessing to be the height of heavenly bliss. The Muslim Paradise,\ntherefore, in its material aspect unalloyed, is the invention of the\ntradition-mongers. According to the orthodox among them, it is situated\nabove the seven heavens, immediately under the Throne of God. Some say\nthat the soil of it consists of the finest wheat flour, others will\nhave it to be of the purest musk, and others again of saffron. Its\npalaces have walls of solid gold, its stones are pearls and jacinths,\nand of its trees, all of which have golden trunks, the most remarkable\nis the Tree of Happiness, T\u00faba, as they call it. This tree, which\nstands in the Palace of Muhammad, is laden with fruits of every kind,\nwith grapes and pomegranates, with oranges and dates, and peaches and\nnectarines, which are of a growth and a flavour unknown to mortals. In\nresponse to the desire of the blessed, it will yield, in addition to\nthe luscious fruit, not only birds ready dressed for the table, but\nalso flowing garments of silk and of velvet, and gaily caparisoned\nsteeds to ride on, all of which will burst out from its leaves. There\nwill be no need to reach out the hand to the branches, for the branches\nwill bend down of their own accord to the hand of the person who\nwould gather of their products. So large is the T\u00faba tree that a man\n\u201cmounted on the fleetest horse would not be able to gallop from one\nend of its shade to the other in a hundred years.\u201d All the rivers of\nParadise take their rise from the root of the Tree of Happiness; some\nof them flow with water, some with milk, some with wine, and others\nwith honey. Their beds are of musk, their sides of saffron, their\nearth of camphire, and their pebbles are rubies and emeralds. The most\nnoteworthy among them, after the River of Life, is Al-K\u00e1wthar. This\nword, Al-K\u00e1wthar, which signifies _abundance_, has come to mean the\ngift of prophecy, and the water of the river of that name is derived\ninto Muhammad\u2019s pond. According to a tradition of the Prophet, this\nriver, wherein his Lord promised him abundance of wisdom, is whiter\nthan milk, cooler than snow, sweeter than honey, and smoother than\ncream; and those who drink of it shall never be thirsty.\n\nThe blessed, having quenched their thirst in Muhammad\u2019s pond, are\nadmitted into Paradise, and there they are entertained to dinner by the\nSupreme Host. For meat they will have the ox Bal\u00e1m and the fish N\u00fan,\nand for bread--mark this--God will turn the whole earth into one huge\nloaf, and hand it to His guests, \u201cholding it like a cake.\u201d When the\nrepast is over they will be conducted to the palaces prepared for them,\nwhere they will dwell with the houris they have won by their good deeds\non earth. They will fare sumptuously through all eternity, and without\nloss of appetite, eat as much as they will: for all superfluities will\nbe discharged by sweat as fragrant as musk, so that the last morsel of\nfood will be as comforting as the first.\n\nThe imagination of the tradition-mongers is not less extravagant\nwhen it busies itself with the holy festivals of the faith. The\nA\u2019y\u00e1de-Shadir, perhaps the most important of these feast-days, falls\non the eighteenth of Z\u00fa-\u2019l-hijjah. Books might be written--nay,\ntomes innumerable have been filled--to do honour to the attributes\nof that day. In fact, Oriental exaggeration in general, and the\nShiah superstition in particular, reach the climax of fancy in the\ndescription of the events that are supposed by the devout Shiah to have\nhappened on the A\u2019y\u00e1d of Ghadir. For was it not on the eighteenth of\nZ\u00fa-\u2019l-hijjah that Muhammad mounted a camel, and, raising \u2019Al\u00ed in his\narms, appointed this chivalrous cousin and son-in-law of his to be his\nlawful successor? This righteous act on the part of the Prophet is the\ncorner-stone of the Shiah faith, and so it is not unnatural, perhaps,\nthat it should have been made the source of unnumbered traditions. We\nread, among other inventions, that it was on that day that God chose\nto humiliate Satan by ordering an angel to rub his nose in the dirt;\nthat the Archangel Gabriel, along with a host of angels, came down\nfrom heaven in the evening, bearing a throne of light, which he placed\nopposite to the Ka\u2019bah, and from which he preached to his companions a\nstirring sermon in praise of Isl\u00e1m and its Prophet; that Moses had made\nhis will in favour of Aaron and that Jesus had selected Simon Peter to\ngo and preach to the Jews on the same day in their own lives.\n\nThe waters that acknowledged \u2019Al\u00ed to be the Prophet\u2019s successor became\n\u201csweet\u201d or fresh on the eighteenth of Z\u00fa-\u2019l-hijjah. The rest either\nremained salt or turned brackish. The birds that accepted \u2019Al\u00ed as\nMuhammad\u2019s heir were taught to sing like a nightingale or to talk like\na parrot. Those that denied him were stricken deaf and dumb. For the\nangels who delighted to honour him a sumptuous palace was built with\nslabs of gold and silver in alternate order. Two hundred thousand domes\ncrowned this edifice, and half of them were made of red rubies, and\nhalf of green emeralds. Through the courtyard flowed four rivers: one\nwith water, one with milk, another with honey, and a fourth with wine.\nTrees of gold, bearing fruits of turquoise, grew along the banks, and\non the branches were perched the most marvellous birds. Their bodies\nwere made of pearls, their right wings of rubies, and their left wings\nof turquoises. All the hosts of heaven gathered together, praising God.\nThe birds dived, singing, into the streams. The angels clapped their\nhands and shouted. The houris joined in the chorus. Then, with one\naccord, they all raised their voices in homage of \u2019Al\u00ed and his wife,\nthe Prophet\u2019s daughter, Fatima. Lovers should remember to strengthen\nthe bond of affection by exchanging rings. The men should kiss each\nother frequently whenever and wherever they meet. The servants should\nkiss their master\u2019s hands, and the children those of their parents. If\na Muslim smile on his brother-Muslim on this holy a\u2019y\u00e1d, God will smile\non him on the day of the resurrection. If he die, he will receive the\nrewards of a martyr of the faith. If he call on a true believer, he\nwill be visited in the grave when he draws his last breath by seventy\nthousand angels. If he neglect neither the ordained prayer nor the\nprescribed purification, he will be entitled to rank with the man to\nwhom God has granted the rewards of one hundred thousand pilgrimages\nto Mecca. And a week later, on the 25th of Z\u00fa-\u2019l-hijjah, the angel of\nrevelations brought down from heaven to the Prophet the chapter of the\nKur\u00e1n, entitled Man, and told Muhammad that God congratulated him on\nthe virtues of his family.\n\n\nVIII.--PERSIAN S\u00daF\u00cdISM; AND PERSIAN SHIAHISM IN ITS RELATION TO THE\nPERSIAN PASSION-DRAMA.\n\nSince the narrative which follows this introduction is written rather\nfrom the Persian and Shiah than from the Turkish and Sunni point of\nview, it is necessary for us to dwell briefly on two more important\nsubjects in connection with Persian thought:--(_a_) on the love of\nmetaphysical speculation which vindicates the claim of Aryan thought\nto be free, and which has given rise to the doctrines of S\u00faf\u00edism,--our\nimmediate consideration; and (_b_) on the growth of Shiahism, the State\nreligion, and more particularly in its relation to the Passion-Drama,\nwhich is the outcome of the Muharram celebrations in honour of Huseyn\u2019s\nmartyrdom.\n\n(_a_) _Persian S\u00faf\u00edism._\n\nNow the S\u00faf\u00eds, who are split up into numerous sects, with slightly\nvarying doctrines, speak of themselves as travellers, for they regard\nlife as a journey from their earthly abode to the spiritual world. The\nstages between them and their destination are reckoned as seven. Some\ncall them seven regions, and others seven towns. Unless the traveller\nget rid of his animal passions and pass safely through these seven\nstages he cannot hope to lose himself in the ocean of Union, nor slake\nhis thirst for immortality in the unexampled wine of Love. The first\nregion before the traveller, the region of Aspiration, can only be\ntraversed on the charger of Patience. Though a thousand temptations\nbeset him on the road he must not lose heart, but must seek to cleanse\nhis mind from all selfish desires. Other-worldliness should alone\nabsorb his thoughts, and to that end the gates of friendship and of\nenmity should be closed against the people of the world. Only thus can\nhe find his way into the heart of the realm, wherein every traveller is\na lover in search of the True Beloved.\n\nOne day Majn\u00fan, whose love for Laili has inspired many a Persian\npoet, was playing in a little sand heap when a friend came to him and\nsaid--\u201cWhy are you wasting your time in an occupation so childish?\u201d \u201cI\nam seeking Laili in these sands,\u201d replied Majn\u00fan: whereat his friend,\nall lost in amazement, cried--\u201cWhy, Laili is an angel, so what is the\nuse of seeking her in the common earth?\u201d \u201cI seek her everywhere,\u201d said\nMajn\u00fan, bowing his head, \u201cthat I may find her somewhere.\u201d\n\nAnd so the traveller, on this stage of his pilgrimage, should regard\nno earthly abode as too humble a shrine for the spirit of the True\nBeloved. He should eat, but only to live; he should drink, but only\nto love; and, though all worldlings should be shunned, he should keep\nin touch with the hearts of his fellow-travellers lest, peradventure,\nhe might lose a guide to his destination. Now, if he find in this\nregion some sign from the Unsigned, and trace the lost Beloved, he\nwill pass forthwith into the limitless bourne of Devotion, and see\nthe setting of the sun of Inspiration, and watch in rapture the dawn\nof Love. At this time the crops of Wisdom are burnt in the fire of\nAffection, and the traveller loses all consciousness of self; he knows\nneither knowledge nor ignorance; he recognises neither certainty nor\ndoubt; but, turning his back on the dusk of perplexity, he rides breast\nforward on the charger of Pain and Endurance, drawing ever nearer to\nthe light of salvation. In this Kingdom of the Soul, he will know\nnothing but tribulation unless he strive strenuously to escape from\nhimself on the wings of self-renunciation. \u201cOh, traveller, if thou\nwouldst gaze on the Joseph face of thy Beloved turn not away from the\nEgypt of Love! And wouldst thou attain to divine truth, oh learn the\nway of friendship from the grate, consuming thyself for the sake of the\nTrue Beloved! For the love that thou wouldst find demands the sacrifice\nof self to the end that the heart may be filled with the passion to\nstand within the Holy of Holies, in which alone the mysteries of the\nTrue Beloved can be revealed unto thee. This is so.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: A PERSIAN SUF\u00cd OF THE ORDER OF THE LATE SEPH\u00cd \u2019AL\u00cd SH\u00c1H.]\n\nAnd thenceforward the traveller, his heart aglow with the sacred\nfire of Love, tears aside the curtain of earthly passions, and wins\nhis way into the Kingdom of Knowledge. He has passed by slow degrees\nfrom doubt into certainty and from darkness into light. Seeing with\nclearer eyes he is now quick to discern wisdom in ignorance and in\noppression justice. Then, on ascending hopefully the ladder of Wisdom,\nhe rises higher and higher above the ocean of being, and enters into\ncloser communion with the spirit of the one he seeks. The arc of truth\nbecomes an almost perfect round, and he is drawn irresistibly towards\nthe centre, where dwells the object of his quest. After traversing the\nrealm of knowledge, which is the last stage of fear, the traveller\nenters the first City of Union, and drinks deep from the bowl of its\nspirit: and the next thing he does is to enter the chamber of the True\nBeloved. As all the shine of the sea and its shade are reflected in the\nheart of a single pearl, so now the infinite splendour is manifested\nwithin the traveller\u2019s soul. Looking round him with the eyes of Unity\nhe recognises his true identity in that of his host, and reads the name\nof the Beloved in his own name. The circle of his aspirations will soon\nbe complete, for the sun of divine grace is seen to rise equally on\nall creatures; and he is prepared in spirit to advance one step nearer\nthe end. And soon, on the breeze of godly independence, which blows\nfrom the spirit\u2019s flame and burns the curtain of poverty, the traveller\nis borne into the City of Freedom. There he will know no sorrow, but\nwill pass through the gates of joy, and, though he be on the earth,\nwill ride the heaven of power, and quench his thirst in the wine of\nlove. The sixth stage on the road to immortality is that of Amazement.\nSometimes he will notice perfect poverty in riches, and sometimes\nperfect wealth in poverty. His surprise will grow at every step. Each\nsecond will bring a fresh revelation. Now he will dive into the ocean\nof divine omniscience, and now be carried to the crest of omnipotence\ndivine.\n\nThe traveller passes swiftly from this stage into the region of\nabsolute poverty and nothingness, which is the true forgetfulness of\nself in the love of the Beloved. He is now as a pearl in the sea of\nthe infinite splendour: poor in the things created, but rich beyond\ncounting in the things that are spiritual and pure. And thus, casting\naside the burden of consciousness for ever, he becomes one with the\nBeloved and enters the Kingdom of Immortality. The renunciation of\nself, therefore, is the Alpha and Omega of the S\u00faf\u00ed doctrine: the\nlover, in other words, must turn the Beloved, otherwise he can never\nhope to gain admittance into the Chamber of Love. \u201cOne came to the\nBeloved\u2019s door and knocked. And a voice from within whispered, \u2018Who\nis there?\u2019 And the lover answered, saying, \u2018It is I.\u2019 Then the voice\nsaid, \u2018There is not room in this house for thee and me,\u2019 and the door\nwas not opened unto him. So the lover went back into the desert and\nfasted and prayed. And at the end of a year he returned once more to\nthe Beloved\u2019s door and knocked. And the voice from within said again,\n\u2018Who is there?\u2019 And this time the lover, having learned the lesson of\nself-renunciation, answered, \u2018It is thyself,\u2019 and the door was opened\nunto him.\u201d\n\n(_b_) _The Shiah Faith in its Relation to the Persian Passion Play._\n\nThe Shiah faith is as old as \u2019Al\u00ed; for, on the feast of Ghadir, he is\nsaid to have been selected by Muhammad as his successor. In the ages\nimmediately succeeding the Prophet, it spread itself East and West. The\nMuslim colonies, in various parts of the Empire, embraced its political\nteaching. It took root even in Mecca and Medina; but it was in Persia\nalone that it grew, in the Ninth Century, to be the State religion,\nwaning and waxing in its hold on the people during the dynastic\nchanges to which the country subsequently submitted itself; until,\nin the declining years of the Fifteenth Century, under the Safav\u00ed\nKings, it re-established its grip, this time for good, on the national\nconscience. The mourning celebration of the month of Muharram, in which\nthe whole country, with the exception of the Sunnis, takes part to\nthis day, was founded in the Tenth Century by Ahmad Muizz-u\u2019d-Dawlat.\nIn order to appreciate the depth of feeling underlying this yearly\ncommemoration, the reigns of the early Caliphs must be reviewed. For,\nin the story of the family of the Tent, lies the _raison d\u2019\u00eatre_ of the\nMuharram celebration.\n\nWhen Muhammad died he was succeeded by his father-in-law, Ab\u00fa Bekr, a man\nof great prudence and sincere piety. His rule was accepted by all the\nProphet\u2019s companions, if we except the Hashemites, who, under the\nleadership of \u2019Al\u00ed, declined at first to take the oath of fidelity. But\nthe death of Fatima, the wife of \u2019Al\u00ed, so subdued the spirit of her\nhusband that he made his peace with the aged Caliph, who died after\na reign of two years, bequeathing his sceptre to the iron hand of\nthe incorruptible Omar. In the twelfth year of a reign of unexampled\nglory Omar was assassinated, and his successor was elected by six of\nhis most trustworthy lieutenants. Othman, the man chosen by them, had\nbeen Muhammad\u2019s secretary: he was not a successful ruler. His helpless\ncharacter and resourcelessness of mind succumbed to the burden of his\nresponsibilities; his subjects rose in arms throughout his Empire, and\nthe treachery of one of his secretaries hastened his downfall. The\nbrother of Ayeshah is believed to have led the assassins, and Othman,\nwith the Kur\u00e1n on his knees, was pierced with a multitude of wounds.\nHe died in the year 655 A.D., in the eleventh year of his reign. The\ninauguration of \u2019Al\u00ed put an end to the anarchy that ensued; but,\nwith all his bravery and all the brilliancy of his endowments, \u2019Al\u00ed\nwas alike too forbearing and too magnanimous to cope successfully with the\ndifficulties of his position. He was not so much a politician as a\npoet turned knight-errant, a religious enthusiast turned soldier. The\nfirst Caliph would have secured the allegiance of Telha and Zobeir,\ntwo of the most powerful of the Arabian chieftains, by gifts. Omar,\nthe second Caliph, would have insured his authority and checked their\nlawlessness by casting them into prison. Whereas \u2019Al\u00ed, from purely\nchivalrous motives, left them to their own devices without, however,\nin his contempt for what he had condemned in another as self-seeking\ngenerosity, bribing them to keep the peace. And so Telha and Zobeir\nescaping from Medina, fled, and raised the standard of revolt in\nAssyria. The Prophet\u2019s widow, Ayeshah, the implacable enemy of \u2019Al\u00ed,\naccompanied them, and was present at the battle in which the Caliph,\nat the head of twenty-nine thousand men, defeated the enemy, and in\nwhich the rebel leaders were slain. This battle was called the Day of\nthe Camel: for, \u201cin the heat of the action, seventy men, who held the\nbridle of Ayeshah\u2019s camel, were successively killed or wounded; and the\ncage or litter in which she sat was struck with javelins and darts like\nthe quills of a porcupine.\u201d Ayeshah was reproached by the victorious\n\u2019Al\u00ed, and then sent under escort to Medina where she lived to the end\nof her days at her husband\u2019s tomb.\n\nMeanwhile, Moawiyah, the son of Ab\u00fa Sophian, had assumed the title\nof Caliph and won the support of the Syrians and the interest of the\nhouse of Ommiyah, and against him \u2019Al\u00ed now marched. Mounted on a\npiebald horse, and wielding his two-edged sword with terrific effect,\nhe literally ploughed his way through the ranks of the Syrians, crying\nout at every stroke of the blade, \u201cGod is victorious.\u201d In the course\nof the night in which the battle raged he was heard to repeat \u201cthat\ntremendous exclamation\u201d four hundred times. Nothing save flight would\nhave saved his enemies, had not the crafty Moawiyah exposed on the\nforemost lances the sacred books of the Kur\u00e1n, thus turning the pious\nzeal of his opponents against themselves; and \u2019Al\u00ed, in the face of\nhis followers\u2019 awe, was constrained to submit to a humiliating truce.\nIn his grief and anger he retreated to Kufa; his party was dejected;\nthe distant provinces of Persia, of Yemen, and of Egypt acclaimed his\nstealthy rival; and he himself, in the mosque of his city of refuge,\nfell a victim to a fanatic\u2019s knife.\n\nMoawiyah, after the death of \u2019Al\u00ed, brought about the abdication of the\nlatter\u2019s son Hasan, who, retiring without regret from the Palace of\nKuf\u00e1, went to live in a hermit\u2019s cell near the tomb of the Prophet, his\ngrandfather. There he was poisoned, and, as many believe, by his wife.\nBut Huseyn, his younger brother, was not set aside so easily. In every\nway worthy to inherit the regal and sacerdotal office, he added to\nHasan\u2019s benevolence and piety, no insignificant measure of his father\u2019s\nindomitable spirit, having served with honour against the Christians\nin the siege of Constantinople. So that, when Moawiyah proclaimed\nhis son Yazid, who was as dissolute as he was weak-minded, to be the\nCommander of the Faithful and the successor of the Apostle of God,\nHuseyn, who was living in Medina at the time, scorned to acknowledge\nthe title of the youth, whose vicious habits he despised. One hundred\nand forty thousand Muslims of Kuf\u00e1 and thereabouts professed their\nattachment to Huseyn\u2019s cause, and a list of these adherents of his was\ntransmitted to Medina. Against the advice of his wisest friends, he\nresolved to traverse the desert of Arabia, and to appear on the banks\nof the Euphrates--a river held sacred to this day by every Shiah. He\nset out with his family, crossed the barren expanse of desert, and\napproached the confines of Assyria, where he was alarmed by the hostile\naspect of the country and \u201csuspected either the ruin or the defection\nof his party.\u201d His fears were well founded. Obeidullah, the Governor\nof Kuf\u00e1, had quelled the rising insurrection; and Huseyn, in the\nplain of Kerbela, was surrounded by a body of five thousand horse,\nwho cut off his communication with the city and the river. Rather\nthan retreat to a fortress in the desert and confide in the fidelity\nof the tribe of Tai he proposed to the chief of the enemy the choice\nof three honourable courses of action--that he should be allowed to\nreturn to Medina, or be stationed in a frontier garrison against the\nTurks, or safely conducted to the presence of Yazid. He was informed\nthat he must surrender unconditionally or accept the consequences of\nhis rebellion. \u201cDo you think to terrify me with death?\u201d he replied, and\nto his sister Zainab, who deplored the impending ruin of his house,\nhe said: \u201cOur trust is in God alone. All things, both in heaven and in\nearth, must perish and return to their Creator. My brother [Hasan], my\nfather [\u2019Al\u00ed], my mother [Fatima], were better than I am; and every\nMussulman has an example in the Prophet.\u201d His little band of followers\nconsisted only of thirty-two horsemen and forty foot soldiers. He\nbegged them to make good their own escape by a hasty flight; but they\nheld firm to their allegiance, refusing to desert him in his straits.\nIn return he prayed that God might accept his death as a propitiation\nfor their sins; they vowed they would not survive him, and the family\nof the Tent, as Huseyn and his fellow-martyrs are lovingly called by\nthe Shiahs, passed the night in holy devotions.\n\nThe last hours of their lives cannot be more tersely told, and\ntherefore more suitably to our purpose, than in the words of Gibbon:\n\n \u201cOn the morning of the fatal day, Huseyn mounted on horseback, with\n his sword in one hand and the Kur\u00e1n in the other; his generous band\n of martyrs were secured in their flanks and rear, by the tent-ropes\n and by a deep trench which they had filled with lighted faggots,\n according to the practice of the Arabs. The enemy advanced with\n reluctance, and one of their chiefs deserted, with thirty followers,\n to claim the partnership of inevitable death. In a very close onset,\n or single combat, the despair of the Fatimites was invincible; but\n the surrounding multitude galled them from a distance with a cloud\n of arrows, and the horses and men were successively slain: a truce\n was allowed on both sides for the hour of prayer; and the battle at\n length expired by the death of the last of the companions of Huseyn.\n Alone, weary, and wounded, he seated himself at the door of his tent.\n As he tasted a drop of water he was pierced in the mouth with a dart;\n and his son and nephew, two beautiful youths, were killed in his\n arms. He lifted his hands to heaven; they were full of blood, and he\n uttered a funeral prayer for the living and the dead. In a transport\n of despair his sister issued from the tent, and adjured the general\n of the Cufians that he would not suffer Huseyn to be murdered before\n his eyes; a tear trickled down his venerable beard; and the boldest of\n his soldiers fell back on every side as the dying hero threw himself\n among them. The remorseless Shamer, a name detested by the Faithful,\n reproached their cowardice; and the grandson of Mahomet was slain\n with three and thirty strokes of lances and swords. After they had\n trampled on his body, they carried his head to the castle of Kuf\u00e1, and\n the inhuman Obeidullah struck him on the mouth with a cane. \u2018Alas!\u2019\n exclaimed an aged Mussulman, \u2018on these lips have I seen the lips of\n the Prophet of God!\u2019 In a distant age and climate the tragic scene of\n the death of Huseyn will awaken the sympathy of the coldest reader. On\n the annual festival of his martyrdom, in the devout pilgrimage to his\n sepulchre, his Persian votaries abandon their souls to the religious\n frenzy of sorrow and indignation.\u201d\n\nThe date of Huseyn\u2019s death was the tenth of Muharram. The month is\none of mourning throughout the Shiah world, every man and every woman\nwearing black, and Passion plays based on the tragedy of the Tent\nbeing performed in all the chief cities and even in the more important\nvillages of Persia, while the day itself is made the occasion of a\nyearly outburst of grief, of rage, and of fanaticism, which is as\nunbridled as it is sincere. On this the Day of Cutting, processions\nbearing banners draped in black pass weeping through the streets; the\nMuslim Friars, or, to give them their true title, the Seyyid R\u00fas\u00e9\nKh\u00e1ns, lead the way, rending their naked breasts with knives or with\nneedles, and swelling the shouts of \u201cY\u00e1-Huseyn! Y\u00e1-Hasan!\u201d with the\nrefrains of their wildest hymns. The flow of blood drives the populace\nbeside itself. In every thoroughfare men of the lower classes run to\njoin the ranks of the mourners, laying bare their right shoulders and\nbreasts to the weapons they carry. And soon every ward of every city\nin the country echoes and re-echoes, not less to the curses showered\non the head of Omar, than to the cries in lamentation of \u2019Al\u00ed\u2019s\nassassination, of Hasan\u2019s murder, and of Huseyn\u2019s martyrdom. The\nuniversal mourning animates the collective body of the nation as with\none soul. If it is mixed with a mean hatred for a man of unrivalled\nintegrity and force of character, it is still, as the expression of the\nnation\u2019s love for its chosen hero, a sentiment of loyal devotion and\nenduring compassion. The noise of the grief over Huseyn\u2019s remote death\nmay ring discordant, unphilosophic, and almost barbaric, in these days\nof the lukewarm enthusiasms and uninspiring scepticism which sap the\nenergies of the more cultured of mankind; but it rings all the more\nmoving to those who can hear and understand. For \u201cit is the noise of\nthe mourning of a nation\u201d mighty in its grief, as Lionel Tennyson has\nit.\n\nSo true and so deep is this outburst of sorrow that every Englishman\nwho believes the Persian people to be corrupt should weigh well his\nevidence before he passes a sentence so sweeping and so unjust. The\nnobility of a nation is dependent, not so much on ends which consist\nin \u201cimmediate material possession\u201d of European means and methods of\ntransport, as \u201con its capability of being stirred by memories,\u201d on its\nfaculty to animate an alien creed with the breath of its own spirit,\nor on the courage of its conscience to remain incorruptible in the day\nof persecution and death. These tests, though they be of the spirit\nand as such unworthy of the consideration of a trading nation and a\ncommercial age, would, if applied to Persia, raise that distressful\ncountry to the rank of the first eminence. The power of steam, though\nit rules the waves and devours distance, has its limits as a civilising\ninfluence, among mankind. It cannot fill the hungry heart, though it\nmay be the means of overloading the belly; much less, if less may be,\ncan it inspire in the soul by its achievements the passion whereof\nthe religious drama of Persia is the embodiment. The incorruptibility\nof the Persian\u2019s outlook on spiritual truth has been vindicated in\nthe blood of countless martyrs, and out of his susceptibility to be\ninspired by the heroism of the mighty dead, or, to put the proposition\nmore particularly, out of his unfeigned devotion to the memory of the\nfamily of the Tent, has sprung the Shiah Passion-drama, as from the\ndepth of a whole Empire\u2019s sorrow. Were it not so, the growth of the\nMiracle-play, that passionate outcry of the Aryan spirit in the Persian\nMuslim, would be a miracle indeed.\n\nThe truth is, the Shiah religious drama makes a most touching appeal\nto the best qualities of the heart and the mind. In its pathos, the\nepisode of the Tent recalls the tragedy of Calvary, and the virtues\nof the members of the House of Hashem might have been modelled on\nthose of the twelve Apostles of Christ. The sublime figure of Huseyn\nstands out among them as the redeemer of his people. As the Founder of\nChristianity was tempted of the devil in the wilderness to forego His\nlofty mission that He might gain a worldly kingdom, so Huseyn, in the\nscene on the plain of Kerbela, rejects the assistance offered to him by\nthe King of the Jinns on purpose to atone for the sins of his people\nby death. On the Cross Christ\u2019s heart forsook him--once, and only\nonce. It was when He cried: \u201cMy God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken\nme?\u201d In like manner the heroic Huseyn, within sight of Kuf\u00e1, having\nto baffle the attack of Yaz\u00edd and his hosts by turning aside from the\ndirect road leading to his city of refuge, and seeing the exceeding\nanguish of his beloved sister Zainab, had felt the sting of his own\ndestiny: \u201cYe crooked conducted spheres,\u201d he had cried, \u201chow long will\nye tyrannise over us? How long will ye act thus cruelly to the family\nof God\u2019s Prophet?\u201d Then, nerving himself to the trial, he prophesied\nhis death on the morrow, and said, with his customary fortitude, that\nthe sacrifice of himself and his companions was not a cause for grief,\nsince it would work for the salvation of his grandfather\u2019s people; and\nthenceforward his resolution to meet the fate he had chosen for himself\nnever swerved; not even when the very angels of heaven sought to save\nhis life from sheer love of a soul so dauntless and so incorruptible.\n\nThe reward of his martyrdom is won in the last scene of all, which\nrepresents the resurrection. The Prophet, failing to save his followers\nfrom punishment, notwithstanding the united efforts of himself, of\n\u2019Al\u00ed, and of Hasan, throws away his rod, his cloak, and his turban,\nin his disappointment. Nor is he in the least pacified until Gabriel\nmakes it clear to him that Huseyn, who \u201chas suffered most,\u201d must lend\nhim the assistance he requires. The compassionate heart of the man is\nwrung, so that when Huseyn makes his appearance it is to receive from\nhis magnanimous grandsire the key of intercession. The Prophet says to\nhim: \u201cGo thou, and deliver from the flames every one who hath in his\nlifetime shed a single tear for thee, every one who hath in any way\nhelped thee, every one who hath performed a pilgrimage to thy shrine,\nor mourned for thee, and every one who hath written tragic verses to\nthee. Bear each and all with thee to Paradise.\u201d And this being done,\nall the sinners redeemed by their mediator enter into heaven, crying:\n\u201cGod be praised! by Huseyn\u2019s grace we are made happy, and by his favour\nwe are delivered from destruction.\u201d\n\nOne word more. Among the sinners whom Muhammad commanded Huseyn to\nrescue from hell-fire, as the reader will have read, perhaps with a\nsmile, were those who had written tragic verses in praise of the martyr\nof the Tent. His smile may, possibly, ring out in a laugh when we\ninform him that the Seyyid R\u00faz\u00e9 Kh\u00e1ns, the Shiah friars, are said to\nhave been the originators of the Passion-drama. The foresight of the\nauthors in thus securing for themselves an entrance into Paradise and\nfor their fellow-writers the yearly prayers of the endless generations\nof mankind, was it not ingenuously artful?\n\n\n\n\nPART II\n\n\n\n\nPART II\n\nTHE STORY OF THE PILGRIMAGE\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nLONDON TO JIDDAH\n\n\nOn bidding good-bye to the mighty capital of the world I reminded her\nthat though her sombre stone mansions and teeming streets--and shall\nI say her epic atmosphere?--have for me an unspeakable charm, I was\nglad to be on my way to the city of great concourse, towards which\nI had so often turned my face in prayer, and in which the hearts of\nmany millions of people are deeply rooted. Indeed, so certain are the\nmajority of finding salvation within her sacred walls that it would be\nno exaggeration to declare their highest aspiration to be to see Mecca\nand die. Ah, well, I for one shall pray to see London again, for how\ncould I ever forget the least of her gifts to me? Dear Alma Mater, _au\nrevoir_!\n\nWhile I was thus meditating the train puffed out of the station, and\nthe shore of the English Channel was reached. The weather was mild,\nthe sky was clear; even the worst sailor might feel sure of having a\ndelightful passage, and I, praise the Powers, am a good sailor. And\nso it was: we reached the neighbouring shore without the slightest\nqualm, and arrived in Paris at six o\u2019clock in the morning. Many people\nwere already on the move--unlike London, where hardly anybody is seen\nabout at that time of the day, except, perhaps, the loitering scum that\nbegins to rise from the excess of the previous night\u2019s libations. On\nthe way from the Gare du Nord to the Gare de Lyon I noticed signs of\nthe festivities in connection with the Centenary of Victor Hugo, and I\ncould not help admiring the new statue raised this year to commemorate\nthe strenuous genius of that great man. One short hour in Paris, then\nour train sped southward in brilliant sunshine, which seemed to draw me\nnearer to that burning Arabian land whither I was bound.\n\nOn my arrival at Marseilles I booked a berth on board the steamer\n_Rewa_, belonging to the British India Steam Navigation Company, as it\nproved to be the only one that would enable me to reach Port Said and\nto proceed thence to Suez by rail in time to catch the connection by\nboat to Jiddah.\n\nI shall neither tax the reader\u2019s patience nor trespass on my space by\nrelating the trivial incidents of a voyage that presented little of\ninterest to a travel-worn mind. It will be enough to say that the wind,\nwhich was as fair as one could desire till we reached the Straits of\nMessina, was bent afterwards on making another and an angrier sea. The\ndiscomfort of the passengers, most of whom were Britains bound for\nIndia, was betrayed by their seclusion from the open air. The nearer\nwe approached the East, the more kindly grew the elements, until,\non the seventh day, about seven o\u2019clock in the morning, Port Said\nhove in sight. An hour later I had packed my kit and was ready for a\nhearty landing. Steaming slowly into the canal we passed the pier,\nwhich was still in course of construction, saluted the statue of de\nLesseps, and raised a shout of surprise on counting not less than five\nRussian warships before we had reached our moorings. Those guardians of\nRussian prestige had come from Chinese waters, had remained five days\nat Suez, and were now coaling at Port Said, where they had arrived on\nthe previous day. Not one single British man-of-war was to be seen. I\nhad my breakfast at eight, after which I bade farewell to the captain\nand my travelling companions, going ashore in one of the boats that\nsurrounded our steamer.\n\nTwo trains start from Port Said to Suez every day, one in the forenoon\nand one in the evening. The line as far as Ismailia is a narrow tramway\nhaving a gauge of 2ft. 8in.; the cars are consequently both narrow\nand uncomfortable, and take about three hours to do the journey. On\nmy bidding good-bye to the dragoman I had engaged, he assured me\nthat he was far too devout a Muslim to fleece so pious a pilgrim as\nmyself, and he would not accept a centime more than five francs for\nthe boat, the carriage, and his special services. It was from him that\nI first heard of the outbreak of cholera in Arabia--a report that was\nunfortunately confirmed at Suez, whither I journeyed in the discomfort\nof a dust-storm and a hot easterly wind. We arrived at Ismailia at one\no\u2019clock, or thereabouts, having left Port Said at a quarter to ten\no\u2019clock. This place, when the canal was being cut, was the headquarters\nof the workmen; but now it has sunk in importance, many of the\nbuildings having actually fallen in ruins. Some of the managers of the\ncompany, however, are still living there, and the best houses in the\ntown are at their disposal. Employment is provided on the canal for\nsome hundred and twenty pilots, most of whom are Greeks and Frenchmen,\nthough a few Englishmen have been recently added to the staff. The\nrailway from Cairo to Suez, which belongs to the Egyptian Government,\npasses through Ismailia and picks up the passengers for Suez who have\ntravelled so far by the Canal Company\u2019s toy line. Henceforward the\njourney was made in comfort, for the line, though a single one, is\na standard British gauge and the train provided with an excellent\nwaggon-restaurant. Nearly all the passengers on board were Arabs and\nlow-class Europeans in the third-class compartments. We stopped at\nthree stations on the way, and every time it happened we were greeted\nby a weird chorus of Arab song, of which the burden was the \u201cWondrous\nnames of God and the virtues of His Prophet.\u201d I was somewhat amused\nto hear the words, \u201cNot I, by God!\u201d in reply to my inquiry as to\nwhether or not a certain Arab would be good enough to fetch a bottle\nof soda water for me. For I, being unused to the climate, had suffered\ntortures from thirst in the scorching heat and driving dust-clouds,\nthe intervals between the stages being extremely long and tedious--in\nfact, it took the train seven hours and a quarter to cover the hundred\nmiles that separate Port Said from Suez. Nor was the prospect of a\nsort to slake the thirst of the weary pilgrim. All along the line hugs\nthe right bank of the canal, and nothing is to be seen except the soft\nwhite sand of the glowing desert, unless it be an occasional patch of\ngreen grass or a cluster of date trees, irrigated by the fresh-water\ncanal newly cut in order to conduct the much-needed water from a spot\nnear Cairo to Port Said and Suez, the latter a place which stands in\nsore want of the cleansing and refreshing element.\n\n[Illustration: A PILGRIM \u201cAT SEA\u201d--SUEZ RAILWAY STATION.]\n\n[Illustration: A GROUP OF MIXED PILGRIMS.]\n\nOn my arrival at the station a dragoman, one of the plagues of Egypt,\njoined himself to my suite, informing me with glib mendacity that\nhe carried both Arabia and the Land of the Pyramids in his pocket,\nwhereas, as a matter of fact, he had not once left his native town.\nHowever, as I could not shake the fellow off, I made the best of a\nbad bargain by taking him out shopping with me. First, I bought a deep\ncrimson fez with a long black silk tassel and a straw lining. Though\nit looked both cool and fanciful, and was therefore pleasing to my\nOriental eye, I am not certain that a turban would not have been more\nin keeping with the complete Arab suit which I subsequently purchased.\nThis consisted of a thin linen shirt, a pair of trousers, and two long\nand graceful robes. The shirt was worn as long as a night-shirt, it\nhad no collar, and the roomy sleeves were left open at the wrists.\nThe trousers were more interesting, and of a curious shape and an odd\nmaterial, being made of thin white calico, and so cut that whereas an\nelephant\u2019s thigh could scarcely fill the ample width of the uppermost\npart, one had the greatest difficulty in slipping the feet through\nthe lower ends which clung tightly round the ankles. As for the two\nrobes, which were long enough to cover the nether garments, the inner\none was made of the finest silk, striped in successive colours of red,\nyellow, and green, and was left entirely open in front, but the left\nbreast overlapped the right, to which it was buttoned from the armpits\ndownwards. The outer habit of a blueish colour served as a cloak to\nthe inner one, was made of the same material, and cut in precisely the\nsame way. No socks were worn, and the shoes were not unlike ordinary\nslippers, with this exception, that they were turned up at the toes.\n\nOn donning this picturesque attire I returned to the H\u00f4tel d\u2019Orient by\nway of the narrow and filthy bazaars, where my attention was attracted\nby a band of dancers who were drawing together a crowd of sightseers\nof every nationality. While one man was cutting his capers in the\nskin of a Polar bear, a second, tambourine in hand, powdered his face\nto imitate a European, while a third, got up in guise of a Negro,\nplayed with a lively monkey in chains, and three dancing girls with\nhuge artificial moles on their faces completed the company. All these,\nincluding the monkey, pranced up and down to the tune vociferated by\nthe women and accompanied on the tambourine by the man with the white\nface, repeating at intervals the shrill cry of \u201cHull\u00e1-hee-h\u00e1-h\u00e1.\u201d\n\nAs I sat within the courtyard of the Hotel, listening to the voice\nof the Greek prima donna who sang nightly to the assembled guests, I\ncould not refrain from smiling within myself at the transformation\nin my appearance and demeanour which recalled to my memory a line of\nObaid Zakani\u2019s satire of \u201cThe Mouse and the Cat,\u201d which runs: \u201cBe of\ngood cheer, comrades, the cat has become pious.\u201d These glad tidings\nwere spread abroad by a little mouse that, having hidden itself under\nthe altar of a mosque at Kirm\u00e1n, overheard the cat reading aloud the\npassage of repentance, meekly kneeling on its knees. Unfortunately the\ncat, the symbol of vicious cunning, broke its vows a little time after,\nand I wondered how far and how long I should succeed in keeping mine.\n\nNext morning I came across a blind Arabian priest patiently waiting on\nthe landing-stage for the departure of the steamer, and in the evening\nhe was still in the self-same spot, kneeling on his prayer-rug and\nsinging aloud the verses of the Kur\u00e1n in a deep original Arab melody,\nrosary in hand. His young son was kneeling by his side, listening with\ndowncast eyes to the never-ceasing chants of his father, who knew by\nheart every word of the sacred book, to say nothing of the saddening\nelegies of the Arabian traditionists. Like most of the singers of the\nEast, who pour out their rhapsodies all day long in an ever-flowing\ntorrent of melody, he was extremely monotonous, and so I sought to stem\nthe current of his song by entering into conversation with him. On\nhearing from me that he would be obliged to descend into the hell of\nthe Turkish quarantine and to remain there five days before he could\nhope to ascend into the pilgrim\u2019s paradise of Mecca, a look of keen\ndistress swept like a cloud over his enraptured countenance. Rising\nslowly to his feet, he raised his sightless eyes, saying: \u201cGod, if\nit please Him, will provide me with a swift means of transport to\nHis city. We shall meet again.\u201d So confident was his tone that my\nown misgivings yielded to the hope that I should yet overcome the\ndifficulty of the quarantine. And soon after I was informed that all\nthe first-class passengers on board the last pilgrim boat would be\nallowed to proceed to their destination without let or hindrance,\nbut the unfortunate deck passengers would have to conform to the\nregulations. Never was the privilege of wealth and the curse of poverty\nbrought home to the hearts of the weary in a more convincing fashion.\nThe next best thing to being wealthy, I told myself, is to have the\nprerogatives of wealth thrust upon one.\n\nHaving had my passport _vis\u00e9d_, I booked a berth and went on board\nthe Khedivieh steamer, which completed the distance between Suez and\nJiddah--some six hundred and forty-five nautical miles--in about eighty\nhours. At ordinary times these steamers are simply employed on the mail\nservice, one of them leaving Suez for Jiddah every week--generally on\nThursday--and another leaving Jiddah for Suez on the same day. Though\nthey practically belong to a British syndicate, they go under the name\nof Khedivieh steamers. The captain and the chief officers are English,\nwhereas the crew are Egyptians and Lascars. During the pilgrimage\nsteamers run frequently between the two ports, and in the year 1902\nnot less than two hundred thousand pilgrims, I was told, had landed at\nJiddah, the majority of whom embarked at Suez. Among these numbers\nmust be reckoned the eighty thousand Russian subjects from the Caucasus\nand Central Asia, who, for the first time since they came under the\nRussian rule, had been granted the privilege of undertaking the ancient\npilgrimage. Rumour credited them with being the main cause of the\ncholera that year. If only the half of what I heard about them were\ntrue their pollution would still beggar description.\n\nThe cruise in the Red Sea is not so interesting as that in the\nMediterranean. Save an occasional ragged rock rising from the yellow\nwaters, or a flight of white birds over the steamer, nothing was to be\nseen from hour to hour.\n\n[Illustration: PREPARING TO EMBARK AT SUEZ.]\n\nWhen we sighted the port of Jiddah, which I shall describe by-and-by,\nwe were told to put on our ihr\u00e1m, or sacred habit, before entering\nthe holy territory on our way to Mecca. As a preliminary, I at once\nremoved my Arabian costume, washed my hands, up to the elbow, and my\nfeet, up to the knees; I afterwards shaved the upper lip, leaving the\nfresh-grown, unsightly beard to its own fate. Then, having performed\nthe prescribed ablution of the head, I closed my eyes and expressed,\nwith the tongue of my heart, the earnest desire to cast off the garb of\nunrighteousness and pride and to put on the winding-sheet of humility\nand of passive obedience to God\u2019s will. Last of all, that I might be\nworthy to visit His house, I prostrated myself on the prayer-rug and\nsaid aloud the following formula of devotion: \u201cO Almighty God, Thou art\nwithout a mate; I praise Thy sovereign grace with all my heart; Thou\nart pure and everlasting;\u201d then I repeated three times: \u201cO Lord, Thou\nart without a mate,\u201d adding, \u201cI praise, O Lord, Thy apostle Muhammad\nand his disciples and his family; in like manner, I also praise our\nfather Abraham and his house.\u201d The next thing I said was: \u201cSend down\nupon me, O Lord, the healthful spirit of Thy satisfaction; open unto\nme, I beseech Thee, the gates of Paradise, and shelter me from the fire\nof Hell.\u201d And this petition I also repeated three times. I was then\nready to don the sacred habit.\n\nNow, my ihr\u00e1m, which I had bought at Suez, consisted of two thin\nwoollen wrappers and a pair of sandals. One wrapper was tied about the\nmiddle and allowed to fall all round to the ankles, while the other\nwas thrown over the shoulders, leaving my head and the forearms bare.\nBoth wrappers were spotlessly white, and had neither seam nor hem. The\nsandal was a kind of shoe, consisting of a sole fastened to the foot by\nmeans of a tie which passed between the large toe and the first toe of\nthe foot; it left uncovered both the instep and the heel. This sacred\nhabit was worn by all pilgrims during the four days preceding the H\u00e1jj\nDay. While they have it on they must neither hunt nor fowl, though they\nare allowed to fish--a doubtful privilege in a dry land. This precept,\naccording to Ahmad Ebn Y\u00fbsuf, is so strictly observed that nothing will\ninduce pilgrims to kill so much as a flea. We are told by Al Beid\u00e1w\u00ed,\nhowever, that there are some noxious animals that they have permission\nto kill during the pilgrimage, such animals, for instance, as kites,\nravens, scorpions, mice, and dogs given to bite. Pilgrims must keep\na constant watch over their words and their actions so long as they\nwear the sacred habit. Not a single abusive word must be uttered; all\nobscene discourse and all converse with women must be avoided; and not\na single woman\u2019s face must be seen, save that of a wife, a sister, or a\ncousin-german, _i.e._, a sister\u2019s or a brother\u2019s daughter. The men, as\nI have said, must now doff their sewn clothes and must keep both their\nfaces and their heads uncovered; but the woman must be, as it were,\nhermetically sealed in their stitched cloaks and veils. The only part\nof their bodies that they have the right to expose, if they like, is\nthe palms of their hands. For the rest, they must not travel alone, but\nmust be accompanied by a man who may lawfully see them unveiled.\n\nPoor pilgrims! They suffered from right and left. First came the\nblood-suckers\u2019 passport picnic. Here the pilgrim was plagued to death\nwith questions that the most cursory perusal of his safe-conduct had\nrendered unnecessary. \u201cWhere do you come from? When did you leave? How\ndid you get here? What are your intentions? Why this? How that? When\nthe other?\u201d The poorer pilgrims complained that they were positively\nfleeced on the most frivolous pretexts. \u201cYour passport is not properly\nwritten; you must pay forty-eight piastres,\u201d and so on.\n\nThen the customs\u2019 authorities emerged. \u201cWill you walk into my parlour?\u201d\nthese mosquitoes said to the pilgrims. To the imaginative mind the\nbuzzing which filled the room spelt the word _bakhsh\u00edsh_. Woe betide\nthe pilgrim who did not so interpret the sound! All these officials, as\na Persian would say, had arms longer than their legs--in other words,\nthey reached out an itching palm to every pilgrim, and, casting an\nappealing smile on him, seemed as though they would ask him to tickle\nit with the counter-irritant of a \u201ctip.\u201d They opened my kit-bags\nand turned everything topsy-turvy before I had time to bridle their\nofficial zeal in the customary way. Among the contents were an English\nnewspaper and a novel, and these were promptly confiscated for no other\nreason than that I had read them both. I cannot say that I made them a\npresent of my purse by way of pouring coals of fire on their heads. It\nwas otherwise in my case. I tied my purse-strings a little tighter,\nand responded to their _bakhsh\u00edsh_-coveting smiles with a smile equally\n_bakhsh\u00edsh_-coveting. It is wise, when you know the ropes, to husband\nyour resources till you reach the interior, for there your comfort in\ntravelling will depend on your having a purse well lined. By following\nthis rule, I was not so ill-prepared as I might otherwise have been to\nmeet the claims on my charity of the professional beggars who waylaid\nmy every step in the quaint old city of Jiddah.\n\nSuch a scene! Crowds of Arabs were lying on the filthy ground, which,\ndespite the heat, seemed strangely damp. Some were praying, some were\nsnoring, others were smoking, many were wrestling in the mud, but by\nfar the greater number of them merely dreamed away the passing hours,\ntoo idle even to open their eyes. You might stay from sunrise to sunset\nby the side of the more meditative among them without their showing the\nleast signs of life. How differently constituted are these loafers from\nthe free-born Arabs of the desert! The women held themselves somewhat\naloof from the men, and sat smoking their pipes, or chatting like\nmagpies, in groups of three or four. The sight of a new face seemed\nto have lost its attraction for them, or perhaps they had grown weary\nof criticising the gait and the appearance of the incoming pilgrims.\nHaving now seen a good many of them, however, as it were by stealth,\nI think I may say with confidence that among the Arabs of Hejaz the\nmen are far better-looking than the women. This is mostly the women\u2019s\nown fault, for they ruin the beauty of their faces by tattooing their\nchins. Were it not for this unsightly custom, peculiar to the Arabs,\nthe womenfolk, though corpulent, might be regarded as comely. The men,\non the other hand, are fairly handsome, being tall and lean, and having\nhigh-bridged noses, flashing black eyes, and lofty foreheads. I am\nspeaking more especially of the wild Arabs of the desert and not of\nthe townsmen, whose faces, however handsome they may be, are too often\nmarred by an expression of cupidity and cunning.\n\nJiddah, though dirty, is a very picturesque city. It has narrow\nserpentine streets which are rarely more than seven or eight feet wide,\nand is surrounded by five turreted walls of great antiquity rising to\na height of twelve feet or so. Of these walls the northern measures in\nlength about seven hundred and thirty-one yards, the southern seven\nhundred and sixty-nine, the eastern five hundred and eighty-five, the\nwestern six hundred and twenty-four, and the south-eastern some three\nhundred and seventy-nine. There are about three thousand houses in the\ncity, most of which are built of limestone and shut out from the street\nby walls which sometimes conceal the roofs of the houses within. Here\nand there a small window in the surrounding walls affords ventilation\nto the house. It is only a few years since a big well was dug at a\nplace called Bashtar, some two miles distant from the city, the water\nof which is conducted by means of underground passages. This well bears\nthe name of the reigning Sultan of Turkey. Pure drinking water being\nscarce, sakk\u00e1s or water-carriers are seen about the streets carrying\nthe precious liquid on their backs in big leathern bags. Of recent\nyears several mosques and caravanserais and one steam mill have been\nerected outside the city walls. The governor\u2019s residence, together\nwith the post-office and almost all of the more modern buildings, lies\noutside the walls, facing the Red Sea. The shops, raised not more than\na foot above the ground, are about two yards and a half in width and\nsome three yards deep in the interior. Butchers, grocers, fruiterers,\nand linen drapers are crowded together much as they are in an English\nstreet. The babble within the bazaar is beyond description. Your first\nconjecture is that a free fight is about to begin between the tradesman\nand his customer; but, on making ready to intervene in the cause of\npeace, you find to your pleasure or your chagrin that the vociferous\ncouple shake hands, first by touching the right hand and then by\nraising both hands to the right eye, after which the shopkeeper makes\ntender inquiries as to his customer\u2019s health, and then the bargaining\nbegins. It took me over an hour to buy a few yards of cloth. The\nancient draper was too lazy to reach out for the stuff himself, so he\nordered his boy to bestir himself in my interests. The cloth being\nhanded to him, the draper fingered it caressingly, saying: \u201cThe cloth\nis soft to the touch, its splendour dazzles the eyes! Such an exquisite\nmaterial has not been seen in this market for years!\u201d The cloth was\nto my liking, and so I made haste to ask the price of it. The draper\nshook his head reprovingly. Then he said: \u201cHurry and haste belong\nto Satan: I usually sell this cloth at thirty piastres a yard to my\ncustomers, but to you I will sell it for twenty-five, because you have\nfound favour in my sight.\u201d I made him a counter-bid of five piastres a\nyard in order to cut the barter short. Whereupon the draper, nodding\nin admiration of my guile, gazed around him for close on five minutes.\nWhen he opened his mouth at last it was to say in his most winning\nvoice: \u201cMy good sir, since you are looking so well, so handsome, and so\ndistinguished, I will part with this priceless material at the trifling\ncost to yourself of fifteen piastres a yard.\u201d \u201cNot so,\u201d I replied.\n\u201cSince you are a bright old man I will increase my favour in your sight\nby adding a piastre to my last bid; in other words, I now offer you\nsix piastres a yard.\u201d The draper raised his hand to Heaven. \u201cThat is\nimpossible! I ask pardon of God.\u201d I now turned on my heel and walked\naway. He called me back at once. \u201cSir,\u201d he said, \u201cI would not have you\nleave me in displeasure. Give whatever you like, the cloth is yours. I\nam your sacrifice.\u201d I retraced my steps. \u201cNonsense,\u201d I returned; \u201chow\nis it possible for me to give what I like for the stuff, since you\nare the tradesman and know its proper value?\u201d The old man smiled, and\nsaid, \u201cHonoured sir, the lowest price I can possibly accept for this\nmaterial is ten piastres a yard.\u201d It was now my turn to smile. \u201cSir,\u201d I\nreplied, \u201cI have no wish to offend you by leaving your shop, and so I\nwill buy the cloth from you for seven piastres a yard instead of going\nto your rival yonder, who has offered to sell me some at six and a half\npiastres.\u201d\n\nThe draper then handed me a stool, and said, smiling, \u201cYou are not easy\nto deal with. Come, sit down, and smoke this hukah, and we shall not\npart in anger.\u201d So I sat down in front of the shop, and while I sucked\nmeditatively at the pipe he handed to me, the stuff was measured, cut,\nand folded, the tacit understanding between us being that we would\nmeet half-way, namely at eight piastres and a half. By the time I had\nfinished my smoke the material was ready for me, and so I lost no time\nin returning to the hotel.\n\nThe harvest season of the shopkeepers is during the journeying months.\nTheir most striking characteristic in the eyes of a Persian pilgrim is\nthat they all wear white beards. The reason of this probably is that\nyoung shopkeepers would stand not a ghost of a chance of competing\nsuccessfully with their elderly rivals. Moreover, all greybeards in the\nMuhammadan religion are entitled to receive special veneration from the\nyoung. Another reason is that nearly all the young men are employed by\nthe pilgrims as guides, as servants, and as drivers.\n\n[Illustration: PILGRIMS EMBARKING AT SUEZ.]\n\n[Illustration: BEFORE WEIGHING ANCHOR AT SUEZ.]\n\nEverything moves slowly in these Arab towns. You will break the laws\nof good breeding if you walk fast there. Consider the camel of the\ndesert, how he walks; he hurries not, neither does he make a sound: so\ntake this finnikin creature as your model and form your gait on the\ncamel\u2019s. All Orientals pin implicit faith in the doctrine of \u201cslow but\nsure,\u201d and when they give you some work they recommend you to be \u201cslow\nover it,\u201d believing that a thing done smartly is not often done well.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nFROM JIDDAH TO MECCA\n\n\nThe time at my disposal being limited, I went at once in search of a\nguide, who should accompany me to Mecca and thence to Arafat, and put\nme in the way of performing the rites and mysteries of the H\u00e1jj. The\nmen who officiate in that capacity are called _moghavems_. The pick\nof them had fallen to the lot of the early-comers who had flocked to\nJiddah in great numbers; but with my customary luck, I chanced upon\na Persian _moghavem_, whose knowledge of the ceremonies and the holy\nplaces of the Pilgrimage was seasoned with the waggish conceits of\na singularly original mind. His sceptical witticisms were the more\npiquant in that he gloried in the name of Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed. For the rest,\nhe had travelled far and wide, had sat down and laughed beside the\nwaters of Babylon, had wandered on foot as far to the East as Benares,\nand had undertaken the Pilgrimage of Mecca half a dozen times. I\ncongratulated him on his globe-trotting habit, whereupon he showed a\ngleam of white teeth, raising himself on the tips of his toes, and\nstroked his unkempt beard complacently. Then he aired his knowledge of\ngeography. \u201cY\u00e1-Moulai,\u201d he said with unexpected gravity, \u201cAllah has\nhad me in His keeping, may He be praised! He has revealed to me the\ninnermost secrets of the world, and shown to me the whole creation.\nI have been everywhere except in Hell, and even that experience will\nnot be withheld from me, I trust, when I come to die. True it is,\ny\u00e1-Moulai, that this life is a riddle; we solve it when we give up the\nghost--perhaps. Anyhow, my one desire in this world is to go to Europe\nthat I may see China and study the philosophy of that wonderful land.\u201d\nI had to avert my head lest he should detect the struggle between\namusement and politeness which convulsed every feature of my face.\n\n\u201cAh,\u201d said he, \u201cyour Excellency is fortunate to have met me: the H\u00e1jj\nSeason is far advanced: _moghavems_ are scarce: and I am one of the\nmost reasonable of men. If you will burst from the bonds of economics\nin the matter of salary, you will find in me a pleasant travelling\ncompanion and a lettered guide.\u201d\n\n\u201cWill two dollars a day content you?\u201d I asked. The offer was a liberal\none, and on the spur of a grateful impulse he clinched the bargain\nwithout a moment\u2019s hesitation. This trait of character endeared him to\nme, and so I treated him on a footing of social equality so long as he\nwas my cicerone.\n\nNow, the day was the sixth day of the moon: a distance of some\nforty-six miles lay between us and the Holy City: and, furthermore,\nsince the Pilgrims had to leave Mecca on the 8th for the hill of\nArafat, it followed that we had not a single moment to lose in making\npreparations for our journey. With many words Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed staked his\nwages that, by hiring asses and riding alone, we could cover the\nroad in eleven hours. \u201cOf course,\u201d said he, \u201cwe must run the risk of\nbeing attacked by Bedouins who lie in wait for stragglers. Indeed,\nonly two days ago, so the rumour runs in the bazaars, a caravan of\nforty Persian pilgrims was robbed on leaving Heddah for Mecca: and\neverybody we meet--depend upon it--will do his utmost to terrify us\nwith blood-curdling stories of Arab lawlessness and violence. However,\nlet us pin our faith not in firearms and bravado, but in our cool heads\nand our stout hearts. And, in the meanwhile, I will take you to a\ncaravanserai, where we shall find an acquaintance of mine, who is the\nowner of a drove of the fleetest asses in Hejaz. His name is Nassir,\nand he owns allegiance to the fighting clan of Harb. From him we will\nhire three donkeys: one for your Excellency, one for the effects we\nhave with us, and a third for myself. Nassir will accompany us on foot,\nand be a protector to us in the wilderness. Let us hasten lest his\nservices be engaged.\u201d\n\nAfter bartering with Nassir, it was settled that I should pay him\ntwo dollars for the use of each animal (two-thirds to be paid in\nadvance and one-third on alighting in Mecca), while he himself was to\nreceive, in return for his services, a _bakhsh\u00edsh_ in proportion to his\nusefulness on the road.\n\nIn appearance he was a typical representative of his race, both in\nbearing and in dress, as well as in accoutrements and in strength.\nTall and lean, he had the appearance of a man that had been baked in\nan oven: his skin was as brown and as wrinkled as a walnut-shell, his\nfeatures seemed to leap out of the face, while his eyes declared the\nnobility of a virile though savage nature. He wore a long yellow shirt,\nreaching below the knees, with a red cotton belt round the waist, in\nwhich was stuck an ugly-looking dagger. Slung crosswise over his back a\nBedouin generally carries an old-fashioned flint rifle, having a barrel\nsome two yards in length, with a bow-shaped stock covered all over with\nsmall square chips of white shells. For this ungainly weapon Nassir\nsubstituted a stout Arab club, which was a fortunate thing for Seyyid\n\u2019Al\u00ed, perhaps, inasmuch as wordy wars between the two men came to be of\nhourly occurrence.\n\nAbout five o\u2019clock in the evening, after having smoked a pipe of peace\nat a coffee-house in the bazaars, we mounted our asses, Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed\nand myself, while the fleet-footed driver, go as hard as we might,\nkept pace with us, without so much as turning a hair. We rode through\nthe Mecca gate, and then bore off in a north-easterly direction in\norder that I might have an opportunity of visiting Eve\u2019s Tomb. This\nexcursion, because it took us a little out of our way, was not to\nthe liking of our Harbi warrior, who, in his anxiety to reach Mecca\nby sunrise, was bent on sparing both his own breath and his beasts\nof burden. But I, having made up my mind to pay my respects to the\nresting-place of our common mother, was not to be gainsaid; and I\ncontrived to convict my opponent of churlishness by making a point of\nreaching my destination within half an hour--that is in less than half\nthe time he had said it would take.\n\nAssuredly, Arabia is the cradle of credulity. In that land of legend\nthe historian catches his breath. He is ill at ease, alternately\nbewildered and sceptical, as might be expected of a man, who, reaching\nout for truth, lays hold of a myth at every step. Thus, on gaining\nadmittance to the enclosure, I was amazed to notice the exceeding\nlength of the Tomb, and on measuring the low walls believed to define\nthe outlines of Eve\u2019s body, I found that they were one hundred and\nseventy-three yards long, and about twelve feet broad. In the centre\na low dome is conspicuous; it is said to crown Eve\u2019s navel. \u201cWhat a\nmonster!\u201d I cried, laughing, \u201ceasy lies the head of our common mother.\u201d\nThe guide corrected me, saying, \u201cThe Well of Wisdom is mistaken. The\ntomb was not long enough to contain her blessed head. It is well known\nthat only the trunk and limbs of her lie here.\u201d Rising to my full\nheight, five feet nine in my sandals, I asked him to account for the\ndwindling in the size of man. \u201cThe Fountain of Learning must remember,\u201d\nhe replied, \u201cthat Eve, our Mother, fell, and with her fell the stature\nof the human race.\u201d The explanation found a crack in the armour of\nmy credulity, and so, turning back into the direct road, we resumed\nour journey, joining a caravan of about thirty pilgrims of mixed\nnationalities, Egyptians, Syrians, Caucasians, Indians, and Malays.\n\nInstead of refreshing breezes, which would have come as a positive\ngodsend, the wind, blowing from the south-west, spread abroad an\nabominable vapour, and caused the sand to rise and fall like the bosom\nof the ocean. Sand-heaps twelve feet high might be scattered at any\nmoment in these whirlwinds; but, fortunately, though our asses often\nsunk over their fetlocks, we reached in safety the Hill of Gaem (the\nfirst stage for caravans), where, according to a local superstition,\nthe Messiah will first appear. A small booth here made ample amends for\nthe scarcity of water, and I could not remember ever having tasted more\nfragrant and delicious coffee.\n\nSlowly but surely the ground now began to rise, and the sand to grow\nfirmer. A caravan of camels glided stealthily by, bells tinkling,\npilgrims reciting the Kur\u00e1n, and the drivers singing to their camels a\ndeeply melodious song called _Hodi_, which has on them the effect of a\ngoad, urging them on to a brisk unchanging pace. To this accompaniment\na camel will cover a great distance without stopping, the general\nbelief being that the camel gets drunk with the sweet burden of the\n_Hodi_ song.\n\nOvernight, long after sunset, my Harbi driver himself began to sing\naloud in the gathering darkness, asking God to protect him from the\ngoblins of the wilderness, and always in a lugubrious minor key, as if\nhe was going to weep. But ever and anon we heard an original song set\nto the music of the desert, wild as the wastes, elusive as the winds,\nas revealing and obscure as the tuneless solitudes from whose heart\nit would seem to spring--a song that broke through melody, and added\nits tameless burden to the music of the spheres. On cultured Europeans\nthese untutored outbursts would have an uncanny effect, causing the\ncenturies to roll back to the days of their barbarian ancestry, and\nawakening within them, perhaps, one of those haunting dream-memories of\nbirth far back in the misty past, of an anterior existence in keeping\nwith the strains of incoherent minstrelsy when men, labouring under\nthe burdens of consciousness, sang as the spirit moved them, knowing\nnothing of the laws of counterpoint and harmony. Such a song was sung\nby Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed as we left Heddah, a song written by a famous Suf\u00ed\nwriter--\n\n  \u201cMy sorrow is Sorrow; my companion is Sorrow; my mate is Sorrow;\n  Where\u2019er I go there\u2019s none to care for me but Sorrow;\n  My Sorrow does not let me sleep alone at night;\n  Well done, my mate! bravo, my mate! hurrah, my Sorrow!\u201d\n\nThe surrounding hills caught the intonation in their ragged arms\nand flung it back into the dim-lit sea of eddying sand, echoing and\nre-echoing the word \u201cSorrow!\u201d Then my own Arab driver, carried beyond\nhimself, raised his voice in the self-same song, and soon the whole\ncaravan burst out, crying, \u201cWell done, my mate! bravo, my mate! hurrah,\nmy Sorrow,\u201d the hills repeating the last word. Wagner, the one master\nwho has given us the music of the sea and the stars, of the winds and\nthe streams, and of all the vague yearnings that torment the human\nheart, would have understood us, would perhaps have played the part\nof echo on his return to civilisation, would certainly have joined in\nthe chorus of that wild Arabian air attuned to Arabia\u2019s barren though\nluminous solitudes.\n\nHere, at Heddah, a more than usually serious quarrel arose between\nSeyyid \u2019Al\u00ed and Nassir on the subject of the national virtues of\ntheir respective countries. It would certainly have ended in a free\nfight, had not I, awaking from a snooze at the uproar, turned to the\npugnacious Arab, who had accused the Persian of hypocrisy, and said\nin a tone of gentle reproof: \u201cY\u00e1 Nassir, is it true that a Persian\nis double-faced?\u201d For the space of a minute he eyed the supercilious\nSeyyid, deliberating; then he turned to me. \u201cI wish he were only\ndouble-faced,\u201d he replied, \u201cfor then I should know how to deal with\nhim. But Satan has given him as many as two thousand faces, and it is\nbeyond the power of any one man to see them all in his lifetime.\u201d I\npursued the inquiry, saying, \u201cOh, Nassir, supposing you were asked to\ndescribe the Persian character, how would you sum it up?\u201d This time\nhe turned his flashing eyes on me. \u201cCharacter comes from conscience,\u201d\nhe answered; \u201cbut a Persian has none.\u201d My guide spat derisively on\nthe sand, muttering, \u201cCourtesy is unknown to these people;\u201d then he\naddressed me in his own language, saying: \u201cBut, y\u00e1-Moulai, there\u2019s\ntruth in what the burnt-father said, the Almighty Mason having put so\nmany constituents into the clay of a Persian that it is very difficult\nto analyse it. Our countryman has as many coils and colours as a\nserpent. He is the essence of politeness and native refinement. He is\nthe personification of jealousy and envy. Conceit and hypocrisy are\nembodied in him, and so also are generosity and _amour propre_.\u201d\n\nThe mere sound of the mellifluous Persian drove Nassir beside himself.\nRaising his stout Arab club, which the Persians call H\u00e1j\u00ed Yem\u00fat or\nthe Pilgrim Slayer, he vowed that he would teach the guide a lesson\nin courtesy; and then, suddenly bethinking himself that any act of\nviolence on his part would be sure to affect his pocket in the matter\nof _bakhsh\u00edsh_, he turned a contemptuous back upon his adversary,\nand said to me, smiling all over his face: \u201cThis club of mine has\nmany qualifications. It is useful in urging my ass to mend its pace,\nit gives me support when I am tired, and shelter from the sun when\nI am sleepy\u201d--here he stuck it in the sand, and tied at the top a\nstrip of cloth on a crossbar--\u201cit serves as a line on which to dry my\nwashed clothes, as an altar when it is the hour for me to pray, as a\nleaping-pole when a mountain torrent stems my path; and, may Allah\nbe praised, it is my surest defence against all my enemies, be they\nmen or beasts, and so, when I die, God forbid, I will leave it as an\ninheritance to my son.\u201d\n\nMidnight saw us again on the way, and, in the course of our ride over\nthe gravelly ground that rose ever higher the nearer we approached the\nmountains, we overtook a big caravan that was preceded by a couple\nof heralds, who bore aloft the green banner of the Faith, whereon\nwas inscribed the Muhammadan watchword. \u201cThere is no God but God,\nand Muhammad is His Messenger.\u201d Then came the cavalcade of pilgrims,\nthe rear being brought up by a string of camels, and other beasts of\nburden, heavily laden with tents and water-skins, or mashks, with\nkitchen utensils and provisions. Like ourselves, these men were\nlatecomers, but being overburdened they were soon left far in the rear\nby us, indeed they could not hope to reach Mecca before noon on the\nfollowing day, whereas we were bent on sighting the Holy City ere the\nrising of the sun.\n\nAt the last resting-house, I struck up acquaintance with a Persian\npilgrim, seated on a coarse mat; he declared the Arabs to be cowards,\nwhile I defied him to justify this charge. \u201cWhat!\u201d he cried, \u201canything\nwill frighten them; they are so superstitious. For instance, if a\nrabbit spring up at their feet and run away from them they will\npursue it until it is lost to sight. But if the rabbit comes towards\nthem, they will lose heart, turn on their heels and scuttle as fast\nas they can lay their legs to the ground, the timid creature in hot\npursuit at their heels. However, I will admit that they hold fast\ntogether, that they are staunch and true to one another, that they will\nsacrifice their lives to protect their comrades against the strangers\nat their gates.\u201d He then began to scratch himself vigorously, giving\nvoice the while to an impromptu verse. Said he; \u201cFrom sunset to early\ndawn there\u2019s a merry-making in the kingdom of my body. The mosquitoes\nare the flutists, the fleas the dancers, and I\u2019m the harpist\u201d--that\nis, the scratcher, the same word being used in Persian. I left the\nquaint fellow playing the accompaniment to the dance of the frolicsome\nfleas and humming mosquitoes, and rode on my way, singing. The ground\nrose higher and higher. On passing Mount Sh\u00edn\u00ed the road takes a\nnorth-easterly direction, and leads to the tomb of Sheykh Mahmud, a\npriest who is held in special veneration by the Arabs, though the\ndilapidated state of his grave would scarcely confirm this attitude\ntowards him. And then, at last, on pursuing the way a little further,\nthe minarets of the City of God rise, with the sun, before the\npilgrim\u2019s eyes. \u201cOh, would that I, having beheld its domes, might fall\nand die,\u201d is now the true Muslim\u2019s devoutest wish.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nWITHIN THE HAREM--SOME REMARKS ON THE ORTHODOX SECTS OF ISL\u00c1M\n\n\nThe first thing I did before entering Mecca was to perform my ablutions\nand say my prayers, according to the custom; and then I rode to the\nencampment on the outskirts of the city where I hoped to find two\nPersian friends of mine who, in accordance with a previous arrangement\nbetween us, had been good enough to take along with them the camp\nequipment which they had bought for me at Cairo. When I had discovered\ntheir whereabouts, I dismissed Nassir, giving him a liberal present,\nand then sat down to breakfast, my friends congratulating me upon my\nsafe arrival.\n\nThe meal over, Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed took me under his wing, urging me to\naccompany him to the Harem of the House of God without loss of time,\nthat we might perform the initial ceremony--namely, the compassing of\nthe Ka\u2019bah--in the cool of the early morning. So bidding my friends\ngood-bye, I set out with my guide, who was in sore straits to cloak\nhis native mirthfulness in the folds of his \u00edhram. Do what he would\nto conceal his natural character, he could not wholly restrain it\nwithin the limits of decorum incumbent on every pilgrim wearing that\nwinding-sheet of humility.\n\nThe streets were crowded with tents, camels, mules, asses, horses,\npariah dogs, and a motley crowd of pilgrims. The din the dogs made in\nthe small hours of the day was indescribable. A pack of jackals would\nbe quiet in comparison. Through even the narrowest lanes must pass the\nlordly Sher\u00edf and his suite, the sun-baked Sheykhs on horseback, the\nladies of the harem sitting astride of mules led by their servants, the\npeasant pilgrims on foot, and every kind of beast of burden heavily\nladen with water-skins and provisions. Accidents were consequently of\nhourly occurrence in the press of the throng. On reaching the holy\nprecincts, my guide turned to me and said, in a cautious undertone,\npointing to the Ka\u2019bah in the middle of the Harem: \u201cWhat need have I of\nthe Ka\u2019bah? it is only four walls; the Ka\u2019bah round which I hop is the\nface of my Beloved.\u201d\n\nNow, the word Harem which is used to designate the courtyard of every\nMuhammadan mosque, means \u201choly place;\u201d and thus the famous mosque of\nMecca or, more correctly, the open court in the middle of which the\nHouse of God is situated bears the name of Harem. The same expression\nis used by the Turks to denote the inner apartments of their houses,\nsince the women who dwell there are held sacred to the family. The\nHarem of the Holy City is an imperfect rhomboid in shape, its opposite\nsides being not quite equal. The length extends from east to west and\nthe breadth from north to south. The northern side is one hundred and\nseventy-eight yards long, and the southern one hundred and eighty,\nwhile the western side is one hundred and eighteen yards broad, and the\neastern one hundred and seventeen. Of the twenty-two gates that give\nadmittance to its precincts, eight are on the northern length, four\non the eastern breadth, seven on the southern length, and three on the\nwestern breadth. The most sacred of these gates are the Gate of Peace\n(Sal\u00e1m) and the Gate of Purity (Saf\u00e1). The Gate of Peace, through which\nthe pilgrims must enter, taking care to say the prescribed prayer on\nits threshold, leads into the extreme north-eastern end of the Harem;\nwhile the Gate of Saf\u00e1 is the one in the centre of the southern length,\nthrough which the pilgrims must pass out in order to say their prayers\non the platform beyond, from which platform, indeed, the gate takes its\nname of Purity. There are no doors to these gates, and from every one\na flight of steps conducts the Faithful down to the Harem, the surface\nof which lies about twelve feet below that of the streets, dipping\ngradually another three feet towards the centre, where the Ka\u2019bah\nstands; and on the walls of each gate are inscribed the names of the\nfour Caliphs, Ab\u00fa Bekr, \u2019Omar, \u2019Othm\u00e1n, and \u2019Al\u00ed. The Shiahs, having\nrubbed their hands on the name of the fourth Caliph, raise them to\ntheir faces, and say: \u201cMay peace be with Muhammad and with his people.\u201d\n\nTo the best of my reckoning, there are some five hundred and\nseventy-five pillars in the colonnade that runs round the four sides\nof the Harem. But the Muhammadans, in general, have a prejudice\nagainst counting them, and the Meccans, in particular, declare them\nto be \u201cinnumerable.\u201d The eastern side of the Harem is enclosed by a\nsingle row of columns, while the other sides have columns three deep.\nThese columns, roughly speaking, measure about two feet in diameter\nand twenty feet in height. Some of them bear Arabic inscriptions that\nare scarcely legible now, and others are strengthened by means of\niron bands or by iron shafts running from top to bottom. Every third\ncolumn is round, standing between two octagonal pillars, some four\nfeet apart; every second column supports a pointed arch; and every\nfourth column a dome that is whitewashed from without, and painted from\nwithin in stripes of blue, red, and yellow. The front of the arches\nare coloured in the same gaudy fashion, as are also the greater number\nof the seven beautiful minarets from which the muezzins raise the\nvoice of the Faith calling the pilgrims to prayers. There are three\nof these minarets along the northern length, one at each corner of\nthe opposite side, a sixth along the eastern breadth, and a seventh\nat the thither end of the cloister attached to the northern side of\nthe Harem. The columns, with the exception of a few on the northern\nand eastern sides, said to have been brought from Egypt, reflect no\nartistic taste whatever on the part of the sculptors that carved them.\nThose that are made of marble or of porphyry are in one piece--huge\nblocks rough-hewn by unskilful hands--and the others are made of\ngranite or of sandstone from the neighbouring mountains, and composed\nof three slabs, shaped, dressed, and then cemented together. At least\na dozen raised pavements--called Farsh-ul-Hajar--of varying widths,\nlead to and from the gates of the Ka\u2019bah, the broadest being from the\nZaideh gate to the House of God. The floor of the colonnades is paved\nall round, but the granite slabs are put together in a very rough and\nready fashion. The inner path immediately round the Ka\u2019bah is a few\ninches below the general surface, itself some fifteen feet below that\nof the streets without; but beyond the iron pillars, from which are\nhung the glass lanterns that light up the precincts of the House of\nGod by night, rises a second paved way, somewhat higher than the inner\none, about five yards broad, while a third, on a still higher level, is\neven wider. Bordering on this pavement from without are the Megh\u00e1m\u00e9\nIbrah\u00edm, the Station of Abraham, the B\u00e1b\u00e9 Shaibeh, the Arch of Peace, and\nthe four Megh\u00e1ms belonging to the four Sunni orthodox sects, behind\nwhich runs the gravelled expanse of the Harem. Dozens of sweepers are\nengaged daily in cleaning the floors and pavements, but their efforts,\nin face of the crowd all too careless of the laws of cleanliness, are\nvain.\n\nOf the four Megh\u00e1ms above-mentioned the Megh\u00e1m\u00e9-Hanefi is the largest,\nand is situated to the east of the Ka\u2019bah, some twelve yards from it.\nIt rests on twelve pillars, is open on all sides, and has a small upper\nchamber, whence the muezzins call the Hanefites to prayer. These are\nknown as \u201cthe followers of reason,\u201d and owe their origin to Ab\u00fa Han\u00edfa\nal N\u00f3m\u00e1n Ebn Th\u00e1bet. He was born at Cufa in the eightieth year of the\nHegira, and died in the hundred and fiftieth in prison at Bagdad, where\nhe had been confined because he refused to be made a k\u00e1di or judge.\nThe reason he gave for refusing to officiate in that capacity may be\ngiven in his own words. \u201cIf I speak the truth, they\u2019ll say I am unfit;\nbut if I tell a lie a liar is not worthy to be a judge.\u201d He is said\nto have read the Kur\u00e1n no less than seven thousand times during his\nimprisonment. His doctrine brought into prominence by Ab\u00fa Y\u00fas\u00faf, Chief\nJustice under the Caliphs al H\u00e1di and Har\u00fan ur Rashid, now prevails\ngenerally among the Turks and Tartars. In the time of Ignorance the\nKuraish used to hold their councils where the Megh\u00e1m\u00e9-Hanefi now\nstands. The Maleki pulpit, to the south-west of the Ka\u2019bah, is a small\nbuilding open on all sides, and resting on four pillars. The learned\ndoctor who founded the sect of the Malekites was called Malek Ebn Ans.\nHe was born at Medina in the year ninety of the Hegira, and there he\nalso died at the age of eighty-seven. His teaching is based on the\ntraditions of the Prophet. On his death-bed he said to a friend who\nfound him in tears: \u201cHow should I not weep, and who has more reason\nto weep than I? Would to God that for every question decided by me\naccording to my own opinion I had received so many stripes, then would\nmy accounts be easier. Would to God I had never given any decision of\nmy own.\u201d His followers are scattered over Africa, mainly in Barbary.\nThe Sh\u00e1fe\u00eftes have their Megh\u00e1m on the top of the cupola-crowned\nbuilding which covers the Zem-Zem well, whence the criers call to\nworship, but the congregation pray round the Ka\u2019bah itself. The author\nof this, the third orthodox sect, went by the name of Muhammad Ebn\nEdris al Sh\u00e1fe\u00ed. His birthplace is uncertain. Some say he was born at\nCaza, others at Ascalon, in Palestine, on the very day that Ab\u00fa Hanifa\ndied in the year one hundred and fifty of the Hegira. At the age of\nseven he was taken to Mecca, where he was educated. He is said to have\nbeen the first Muhammadan to reduce the science of jurisprudence into a\nsystematic method, and he was undoubtedly a man of great learning, of\nsincere piety, and of calm, deliberate judgment. Two sayings attributed\nto him throw a light on his character: \u201cWhoever pretends to love the\nworld and its Creator at the same time is a liar;\u201d \u201cI am considering\nfirst whether it be better to speak or to hold my tongue.\u201d This was\nsaid to a man who, having asked his opinion and received no reply,\ndemanded an explanation of this silence. The doctrine of this sect,\nlike that of the Malekites, is founded on the traditions of Muhammad,\nand is now embraced by a good many people in Arabia and by a few in\nPersia as well.\n\nThe Megh\u00e1m of the fourth orthodox sect, that bears the name of\nHanbal\u00ed, is situated not far from the Zem-Zem well, opposite the Black\nStone--which is itself embodied in the south-eastern wall of the\nKa\u2019bah--and is of the same structure as that of the Sh\u00e1fe\u00eftes. It is\nthere that the Sher\u00edf and many of the other dignitaries perform their\nworship. It is divided into two compartments by means of a canvas wall,\nthe men occupying the front, and the women the back part, at evening\nprayers. There are two traditions as to the birthplace of Ahmed Ebn\nHanbal, who founded this school of religious thought. Those who believe\nhim to have been born at Merve, in Khoras\u00e1n, the native city of his\nparents, assure us that his mother brought him thence to Bagdad when he\nwas still at the breast; while others declare that he was born after\nhis mother\u2019s arrival in that city, in the year of the Hegira 164. He\nwas an intimate friend of al Sh\u00e1fe\u00ed, who was also his master, and was\nso well instructed by him in the traditions of the Prophet that it is\nsaid he could repeat over a million of them. On his return from Egypt\nhe refused to acknowledge the Kur\u00e1n to be created, and was consequently\nscourged and cast into prison by order of the Caliph al Mutasem. On the\nday of his death no fewer than twenty thousand Christians, Jews, and\nMagians embraced the Mussulman faith, and he was followed to his grave\nby eight hundred thousand men and sixty thousand women. This sect soon\nbecame extremely powerful, so much so indeed that in the year 323 H.,\nin the Caliphate of al R\u00e1di, they burst from all restraint in their\niconoclastic zeal, breaking into people\u2019s houses in Bagdad, spilling\nany wine they found, chastising the singing women they came across,\nand smashing their musical instruments in bits. A severe edict had the\neffect of bridling their undisciplined fervour, so that the Hanbalites\nare not very numerous nowadays outside the boundaries of Arabia. The\nfollowers of these four men worship together in the evening, but at\nother times they pray in the order of their seniority. The four pulpits\nwere erected, in 973 of the Hegira, by Sult\u00e1n Suleym\u00e1n, who also\nfounded, outside the Harem, a school for fifteen students under a head\nmaster and a preacher for each one of the orthodox sects, allotting to\nevery school a portion of the floor of the Harem as a place of worship.\nThese schools are said to be still flourishing, and are subsidised from\nthe funds of the Ka\u2019bah.\n\nBefore the time of the Prophet the ground on which the Harem is now\nsituated belonged to several landlords of the tribe of Kuraish, who\nlaid great store by the property on account of its proximity to the\nHouse of God. To Omar, the second Caliph, the idea of extending the\nHarem first occurred, and it was he who built the walls round it. The\ngates were erected by Abdullah Zobair. Thenceforward every Caliph and\nevery Sult\u00e1n made a point of beautifying the sacred enclosure until\nit came at last to wear its present appearance. However, considering\nthe enormous sums contributed by the quick and the dead on purpose to\nkeep it in repair it is being shamefully neglected in this year of the\nFlight. How the priests who batten on the fund can find it in their\nconsciences to watch the decay of their surroundings without loosening\ntheir purse-strings in order to check it is a source of wonder to many\na child of Isl\u00e1m. They are \u201cresigned,\u201d these unrighteous stewards, for\nno other reason than because theirs is a bed of roses. \u201cAfter us the\nDeluge\u201d is their motto, and it cannot be denied that of all the sacred\nplaces of the Faith that of the Harem, situated as it is in the gap of\nthe surrounding cliffs and dipping as it does towards the centre where\nthe Ka\u2019bah stands, is the best adapted to be a target to the winds and\nthe rain. For the floods, when they descend, rush down the flights of\nsteps of the gateways and inundate the open sanctuaries, and that is\nwhy the Ka\u2019bah has been so often destroyed and rebuilt in the course\nof the centuries. These priests of the Harem may be as wise as serpents\nwhere their own interests are involved, but they are not so harmless as\ndoves where those of the Faithful in general clamour for redress.\n\nTalking of the Deluge reminds me of the pigeons that strut about the\nfloor of the Harem or wing their flight above its sacred buildings.\nThey are the prettiest birds imaginable, and so tame that they will\ncome and perch on the pilgrims\u2019 shoulders and feed out of their hands.\nIn colour they are of a blueish brown, with deeper spots of the same\ncolour on their breasts and backs. They have grey rings round their\nnecks, and their wings are streaked with black lines. A traditionist\nsays that to feed one of these birds is to ensure to one\u2019s self a\nsumptuous palace in heaven; whereas to kill one of them is as bad as\ncommitting homicide, and meets with the same punishment hereafter.\nThe consequence of this belief is that there are crowds of women\nwhose business it is to sell grain to the pilgrims for the Harem\npigeons, about twenty grains of wheat in a box costing not less than\none piastre. The tradition was that the pigeons never alighted on the\ndomes and minarets of the Harem, but hovered above them, like guardian\nangels. The fact that the sanctuaries now stand in frequent need of\nwhitewashing is taken to be a proof of the growing wickedness of the\npeople, and a certain sign that the Day of Judgment is at hand.\n\n[Illustration: A MOORISH GENTLEMAN IN MOORISH DRESS.]\n\nOn entering the Harem all men are equal, all privileges of rank must be\nwaived. The most despotic Oriental ruler has no power over his fellows\nthere. Even the Hereditary Sher\u00edf of Mecca must be as courteous to his\nservants or his slaves as he would be to the Sultan of Turkey were he\npresent. Everybody is come to worship his Creator, the Ruler Supreme\nover empires and republics, and so all distinctions of rank are laid\naside. The Prophet, wise in his generation beyond all men, was the\nfirst to protect the helpless against despotism by ruling the conduct\nof human affairs through the principle of religious equality. But for\nhis laws the lower classes of the East would have been at the mercy of\ntheir co-religionists of the higher castes. If the Prophet alternately\ncajoled and coerced the superstitious to be virtuous and meek by the\npromise of a material Paradise and by the fear of a material Hell, what\nthen? He sought merely to achieve his end through the weaknesses of the\nnatural man, knowing that there is nothing that men covet more than the\npermanent pleasures which satiate human passions, and nothing that they\nhad rather shun than a punishment which endures for ever. The spirit of\nhis teaching and his laws, however, was anything but material. It made\nfor unity and fraternity and equality, and the consequence was that in\nthe early days of the Faith his followers were inspired by the noblest\naspirations of the mind and heart. And as for the corporeal joys of\nParadise they knew that these were not the highest their Prophet had\npromised to them, for they hoped to attain to that most blessed degree\nof heavenly felicity which is reserved for the Faithful who are found\nworthy to behold God\u2019s face from the rising of the sun till the going\ndown of the same. The case is otherwise with the majority of the\nMuhammadans of to-day. For their country and their countrymen they\ntake too little thought, each one of them beseeching God to shower His\nfavours on himself or herself alone. The priests of the Golden Age of\nthe Faith sat on a camel or stood on a high hill and preached, not\non form but on spirit. Their watchword was unity--unity of religion\nunder the banner of faith and charity. To-day, on the contrary, the\nMull\u00e1s of Mecca mount a pulpit and air their erudition, that is,\ntheir knowledge of the traditions, as they interpret them according\nto their respective schools, and end with a few wandering, lifeless\nsentences in condemnation of all heretics, in contempt of this life,\nand in praise of the world to come. A philosopher would consider their\nsermons ridiculous. The freethinkers of the times of \u2019Omar and \u2019Al\u00ed had\nno sound excuse for raising their voices against the priests, who were\nthen the guides of the mind as well as those of the conduct. But the\nwonder now is that a Faithful can be found to obey the behests of these\ntradition-ridden miracle-mongers, who do nothing to lessen the breach\nbetween the sects, but leave the more enlightened laymen to lead the\nway to reunion.\n\nMuhammad set these miracle-mongers a good example. For we read that\nwhen Muaz was appointed Governor of Yemen he was asked by the Prophet\nby what rule he would be guided in the administration of the province.\n\u201cBy the law of the Kur\u00e1n,\u201d said Muaz. \u201cBut if you find no direction\ntherein?\u201d \u201cThen I will act according to the example of the Prophet.\u201d\n\u201cBut if that fails?\u201d \u201cThen I will exercise my own judgment.\u201d Muhammad\nnot only approved of the answer of his follower, but also advised his\nother representatives to follow the same rule of conduct. That rule\nought to be written over the door of every mosque in Isl\u00e1m. My Meccan\nexperiences prove this, that the faith of the priest is stagnant\nfrom the want of the breath of reason. In its decadence Isl\u00e1m is\npriest-begotten and priest-ridden. In its purity it was full of the\nspirit of the Holy Ghost, a religion simple and sincere, whereof such\nmen as \u2019Al\u00ed and \u2019Omar were made. The founder would be the first to\ncleanse the minds of his present-day disciples of the false traditions\nthat have been ascribed to him. He would bid them look up, facing the\nlight, and setting their thoughts free to soar. In his lifetime he,\nbelieving \u201cGod to be more loving to His servants than the mother to\nher young,\u201d fought strenuously and with a patience almost sublime to\novercome the corrupt and idolatrous practices of his fellow-countrymen\nof the time of Ignorance. Not otherwise would he fight to-day in order\nto free his co-religionists from the ever-permeating spread of the\npriestly misinterpretations of his message. His voice would be raised\nto proclaim the right of every man to reject what is unreasonable in\nthe dictations of the priests. \u201cKnowledge,\u201d said he on one occasion,\n\u201cis our friend in the desert, our companion when friendless, our\nornament among friends, our armour against our enemies.... To listen to\nthe words of the learned and to inculcate the lessons of science is of\nmore value than religious exercises.\u201d\n\nNow, a religion which is lively to-day chiefly through the appeal\nit can make to what is corporeal and comfortable, as is undoubtedly\nthe case with Isl\u00e1mism at the present time, stands in sore need of a\nspiritual reformer, the more so because its spirit is still alive,\nin the pages of the Kur\u00e1n and in the memory of the mighty dead. Many\nMuslims still seek the name, and are diligent in seeking it, but they\nless often try to find the object, forgetting that the moon is not in\nthe stream but in the sky. \u201cHe, God, is the Enduring, and all else\npasseth away\u201d--all except such futile traditions as, heaven knows, are\ndead enough to have earned a decent burial, and the arbitrary ruling of\nthe priests, to whose pernicious influence there would appear to be no\nlimit. The hearts of these unrighteous stewards deserve to be branded\nwith the two matchless odes, admirably translated by Professor Browne,\nof Cambridge University, which are inscribed on the tomb of H\u00e1fiz, in\nan orange garden at Sh\u00edr\u00e1z, the two first lines of which run:\n\n    \u201cWhere is the good tidings of union with Thee? for I will rise up\n           with my whole heart;\n     I am a bird of Paradise, and I will soar upwards from the snare of\n           the world.\u201d\n\nAnd again:\n\n    \u201cO heart, be the slave of the King of the World, and be a king!\n     Abide continually under the protection of God\u2019s favour!\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nCOMPASSING OF THE KA\u2019BAH\n\n\nWhen we reached the outer gateway of the B\u00e1b\u00e9 Sal\u00e1m, which leads into\nthe vestibule, it was to bow humbly and then to prostrate ourselves\ntwice on the threshold, kissing its sacred dust. After this we rose,\nsaying aloud, with closed eyes and outstretched hands:\n\n \u201cO God, this city is Thy city and this temple Thy temple. I am come\n hither in search of Thy compassion, and in perfect obedience to Thy\n commands. O Lord, I am submissive to Thy power, I am in passive\n contentment with Thy chastisements, I seek the fulfilment of all my\n desires from Thee and from none but Thee. Oblige me with Thy divine\n compassion, O God, and fling open to me the gates of Paradise.\u201d\n\nWe then passed into the vestibule, and, no sooner did our eyes behold\nfrom the inner gateway the surface of the Harem than we stretched out\nour hands once more to the sky and closed our eyes in prayer, saying:\n\n \u201cO Lord, this harem is Thy harem and the harem of Thy apostle.\n Therefore, since I am here in response to Thy command, preserve\n my flesh and blood from the fire of Hell and deliver me from Thy\n punishments on the Day of Judgment.\u201d\n\nThen, advancing the left foot, we said:\n\n \u201cO God, grant me Thy protection from the temptations of the devil--may\n he be accursed! I praise Thy prophet, O Lord, and also his disciples;\n O, forgive me my sins and open on me the gates of Thy mercy.\u201d\n\nNext, when we walked through the inner gateway, and went down the\ndouble flight of steps leading to the colonnades, whence the Ka\u2019bah\ntwinkled on us its dusky, square face, we bowed reverently to the House\nof God and forthwith recited the prayer, which being interpreted, runs:\n\n \u201cIn the Name of the great Lord who is alone. There is no god like unto\n Him. O God, I visit this Thy temple, praising Thee, and glorifying Thy\n name. Nothing can be done save through Thee, for Thine is the power,\n and Thine the will alone.\u201d\n\nThen I paused awhile, and my eyes took in the impressive scene.\n\nThe open Harem, surrounded on a higher level by the colonnades that\nare surmounted by the crescented domes, was packed with pilgrims\nfrom every quarter of Isl\u00e1m. In the middle is the Ka\u2019bah, hemmed in\non three sides of its solid cubic walls by the semi-circular row of\ncolumns already described. Now, facing the gold Spout, on the outer\nside of the pillared enclosure, stands the station of the Hanifites.\nThere, in front of the pulpit, were grouped in the space between the\npaved ways and in every attitude of worship the followers of reason.\nSome were standing erect, their hands folded on their breasts, others\nwere kneeling on their prayer rugs, and many were bowed to the lump\nof clay. Opposite to them were praying the Hanbalites before the\npavilion-shaped pulpit that forms the extreme limit of the enclosure on\nthe side nearest to the Black Stone. Priests and peasants, merchants\nand princes, all had come from far and near to render unto God their\nhearts and minds in accordance with the law of the Prophet. Those\nliving people clothed in the garments of the dead, there they were,\nin the very centre whence had sprung the Faith that flashed forth its\nrays over the East, there they were, and why? To do homage to Him whom\nMuhammad had made manifest and had delighted to honour thirteen hundred\nand twenty years ago. It must be conceded, even by the sceptical and\nthe scoffer, that the voice of the \u201cilliterate\u201d Prophet has still\nthe power to work wonders. Hark, his followers are shouting their\nallegiance to his watchword. Up go their voices to the burning sky\noverhead: \u201cThere is no god but God! Muhammad is the Messenger of God!\u201d\n\nFew could remain silent on hearing the cry of Faith within the columned\nsquare of the Harem. It rang out like a trumpet-call, filling the heart\nwith an emotion never felt before. Sincere and true, it drowned the\nrambling eloquence of the priest haranguing the Malekites out there\nto the west. It gathered in volume as it passed from lip to lip until\nthe very pillars of the Harem seemed to shake. And then from time\nto time was sung the Talbih, which might be called the song of the\nwinding-sheet, so frequently was it repeated by the pilgrims in \u00edhr\u00e1m:\n\n    Labbaik, Allahomma, Labbaik!\n    Labbaik, la Sherika lak Labbaik!\n    Labbaik, enal-hamda, vanahmeta lak Labbaik!\n    Labbaik, la Sherika lak Labbaik!\n\nIt swelled ever higher, my guide and I joining in the chorus of praise\nand thanksgiving, since it was our bounden duty so to do on setting\nfoot inside the sacred precincts. Having fulfilled the law of the\nProphet or of tradition in that particular, we were about to direct\nour steps to the Ka\u2019bah through the old gate of Beni-Sheybeh, which is\nsimilar in shape to a triumphal arch, when my guide, standing suddenly\nstock-still, turned on me a countenance of such antic self-reproach\nthat I was more than half afraid he had made up his mind to wring\nfrom me a present ere he would pursue his avocation. Perhaps my\ndetermination to resist his blandishments expressed itself in my face,\nfor he lost no time in correcting the impression he had made, saying:\n\u201cY\u00e1-Moulai, I ask pardon of al Moakkib\u00e1t, I prostrate myself before\nthe two guardian angels who, in order to cope with the difficulty of\nrecording in their respective books the good and the evil actions of\nevery Muslim, are changed from day to day, and I entreat the ones who\nare on duty now not only to overlook the negligence whereof I accuse\nmyself, but also to allow me to retrieve, to the furtherance of our\neternal welfare, the blunder which I have committed. Know then, that to\nhim who reads a certain prayer near the Sal\u00e1m Gate, after descending\nthe steps thereof and passing the colonnades, shall be granted the free\ngift of one hundred thousand good deeds, together with this additional\nbenefit, that an equal number of his sins shall be blotted out. Come,\ny\u00e1-Moulai, let us lose no time in laying down the burden of our\nmisdeeds.\u201d So saying, he conducted me to the proper place, and made me\nrepeat after him the following prayer:\n\n \u201cI begin in the name of God, and by the help of God, from God and\n towards God, and through what is ordained by God, and on the faith\n of the apostle of God. Praise be to God, peace be with the apostle\n of God, peace be with Muhammad, the son of Abdullah. O prophet of\n God, may God in His compassion grant thee His peace! And may peace\n be with all the prophets of God: with Abraham, the friend of God,\n and with the messengers of God. Praise be to the Lord of the two\n worlds. May peace be with us, and with all the pious creatures of God.\n O Lord, may Muhammad be praised, and may his people be praised. May\n Muhammad be glorified, and may his people be glorified. May Muhammad\n be redeemed, and may his people be redeemed. May Abraham be praised,\n and all his people. O Lord, verily, Thou art magnanimous, and highly\n to be praised. O Lord, I praise Muhammad Thy slave and Thy prophet.\n O Lord, I praise Abraham Thy friend, and all Thy messengers. O Lord,\n open to me the gates of Thy mercy, and bring me into obedience to Thee\n and into submission to Thy will. O Lord, protect me under the shelter\n of faith. For, verily, I am Thy slave, O Lord, and Thy guest in this\n Thy house. O Lord the Compassionate, I remind thee that there is no\n Lord but Thee. Thou art alone, and hast no mate. Thou art everlasting.\n Thou begettest not, neither art Thou begotten, and there is not any\n one like unto Thee. Verily, Muhammad is Thy slave and Thy apostle--may\n peace be with him and with his people. O Generous, O Magnanimous, O\n Exalted, O Just!\u201d\n\nThen we said three times, \u201cGod is Great!\u201d and then, \u201cI seek shelter\nin Thee from the snares of the devils of man and jinn, and from the\nevils that may betide the Arab and Ajem!\u201d We afterwards put the right\nfoot foremost on the floor of the Harem, and thence returned with\nsteady steps to the arch of Beni-Sheybeh, which is hard by the Station of\nAbraham, and there we raised our hands again and cried: \u201cO Lord, grant\nme admittance into Thy place of righteousness, and likewise a safe\nreturn therefrom, and send down to us by Thy saving power a mighty king\nthat we may say: \u2018Then came Right and destroyed Wrong. Verily, Wrong is\ndestroyable.\u2019\u201d\n\nNow, the first ceremony of the Tewaff--that is, of the compassing of\nthe Ka\u2019bah--must be performed in front of the Hajerul-Asvad or Black\nStone--a sacred relic which requires a short description before we\nproceed on our way round the Ka\u2019bah: and as an introduction to this\ndescription we must relate the story of the creation of Adam, as told\nby the Muhammadans. They tell us that God, having resolved to fashion\na creature in his own likeness, sent the angels, Gabriel, Michael, and\nIsrafil, one after another, to fetch for that purpose seven handfuls\nof earth from seven depths and of seven colours. The earth, however,\nforeseeing the revolt of man from the will of his Creator, persuaded\nthe angels to return without performing God\u2019s command, so sure was she\nof drawing down on herself the divine wrath should the inanimate clay\nbe made to breathe. The angel Azra\u00efl was then despatched by God on the\nsame errand, and he, closing his heart against the earth\u2019s appeal,\nexecuted his commission remorselessly, on which account the Lord\nappointed him to be the angel of death, charging him thenceforward to\nseparate the souls from the bodies. The earth which Azra\u00efl had taken\nwas carried to a place between Mecca and Tayef, where it was first\nkneaded by the angels, and then moulded by God into a human form. It\nwas afterwards left to dry for the space of forty years, the angels\nvisiting it frequently. Among these angels was Edris--who from being of\nthose that are nearest to God became the devil--and he, not contented\nwith looking on the work of the Creator, which he knew to have been\ndesigned to be his superior, vowed he would never acknowledge it as\nsuch, and he kicked it till it rang. Then God breathed His own spirit\ninto the clay, so that it was made man, and God called his name Adam,\nand placed him in Paradise, and formed Eve out of his left side.\n\nNow, when Adam fell and was cast out of Paradise there fell with him\na certain Stone, which has since become the most cherished possession\nin the Muhammadan world. The legend runs that it was restored to\nParadise at the Deluge, after which it was brought back to the earth\nby Gabriel and given to Abraham, who set it in the south-eastern corner\nof the Ka\u2019bah, which he is said to have built. There it remained till\nthe Karmatians--that sect, founded in the year 278 of the Hegira by a\nnative of Kh\u00fazist\u00e1n called Karmata, which overturned the fundamental\npoints of Isl\u00e1m--bore it away in triumph to their capital, having first\npolluted its sacred precincts by burying there three thousand dead\nbodies, by tearing the golden Spout from its place, and by dividing\namong themselves the veil of the temple itself. The citizens of Mecca\nsought to redeem the Stone by offering no less than five thousand\npieces of gold for it; but the ransom was scornfully rejected by the\nimpious sectaries, who hoped by keeping it in their possession to draw\nthe pilgrims from the Holy City to their own capital. Some twenty-two\nyears later, however, having failed to achieve the purpose they had at\nheart, they sent back the Stone of their own free will, covering their\ndiscomfiture by declaring it to be a counterfeit. The dismay of the\nMeccans was allayed when they discovered that the stone would swim on\nwater, that being the peculiar quality of the stone they had lost, and\nso they were satisfied that the true one had been returned to them.\n\nAt first the Stone was whiter than milk, but it grew to be black,\neither by the touch of a certain class of woman, by the sins of\nmankind, or by the kisses of the pilgrims. All believers, whatever may\nbe the cause to which they attribute the change of colour, agree that\nthe defilement is purely superficial, the inside of the Stone being\nstill as white as the driven snow. Let us hope that the same thing can\nbe said of the hearts of the Faithful, whose lips are supposed to have\nwrought on this lodestone of theirs a transformation so miraculous.\nThe silver box wherein it lies is about twenty inches square, and is\nraised a little more than five feet from the ground. A round window\nhaving a diameter of some nine inches is kept open on purpose to enable\nthe pilgrims to kiss or to touch the treasure within, which is known\nas \u201cthe right hand of God on earth.\u201d This year the act of osculation\nwas not performed by more than ten pilgrims out of every hundred that\nattempted it, the crowd being utterly undisciplined in its zeal. It\nmust be confessed that I owed my good fortune to main strength, for I\nshoved my way through the excited mob and examined the Stone curiously\nwhile kissing it. In colour it is a shining black; in shape, hollow\nlike a saucer, presumably the result of the pressure of devoted lips.\nA pilgrim, if he fail in touching the Stone, must make a reverential\nsal\u00e1m before it, and then pass on. Special prayers are also said. My\nguide, before leaving, recited for my edification certain lines from\nthe \u201cFot\u00fah\u00fal Haremeyn,\u201d which in rhythmic prose would run something\nlike this:\n\n \u201cThink not that the Ka\u2019bah was made from the earth--in the body of\n the world it took the place of the heart. And the stone that you call\n the Black Stone was itself a ball of dazzling light. In ages past,\n the Prophet said, it shone like the crescent moon, until at last the\n shadows, falling from the sinful hearts of those that gazed on it,\n turned its surface black. Now, since this amber gem that came to the\n earth from Paradise with the Holy Ghost has received such impressions\n on itself, what should be the impressions which our hearts receive?\n Verily, whosoever shall touch it, being pure of conscience, is like\n unto him that has shaken hands with God.\u201d\n\nIn front of this Stone, the first rite is performed: it is called\nNiyyat or Determination. The various forms and ceremonies at this stage\nof the pilgrim\u2019s initiation vary with the sect to which he belongs,\nbut six points are common to all Muhammadans. First, Niyyat, including\nthe declaration of passive obedience to God\u2019s will, the belief in His\nday of judgment, and the formal repentance of all sins committed;\nsecond, the frequent recitation of the watchword of the Faith which\nis called Takbir; third, the reading of Esteghfar, a short chapter of\nrepentance and of tacit submission to God\u2019s ordinance; fourth, certain\nformul\u00e6 in praise of Allah and the Prophet, which are known by the\nname of Tahleel; fifth, the intoning of Hamde, which is the chapter\nof praise; and lastly, the lively repetition of Gh\u00fal-h\u00fa-Allah, which\nruns: \u201cIn the name of the most merciful God. Say, God is one God; the\neternal God: He begetteth not, neither is He begotten: and there is not\nany one like unto Him.\u201d The pilgrim, on making his \u201cDetermination,\u201d\nmust raise his hands to his cheeks, putting the thumbs under the lobes\nof his ears, and stretch up his shoulders, allowing his chest to droop\ninward, and say in a voice toned to a reverent spirit: \u201cO Allah, Thou\nart omnipotent, Thou art glorified. I purpose, in Thy excellent name,\nto make seven complete circuits round Thy blessed house.\u201d Having\nrepeated this after the motewaff or guide, I cried out: \u201cIn the name of\nGod, God is great!\u201d Then the stream of H\u00e1j\u00eds caught me to its bosom,\nand I was tossed about as in a whirlpool. Fortunately Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed stuck\nclose to my side, and there, in the eddying torrent of human beings\nthat gave forth a sound as of a swelling sea, we raised our voices, my\nmotewaff and I, one after the other, and cried: \u201cO Allah, I do perform\nthis rite out of the fulness of my belief in Thee, in acknowledgment\nof Thy book, and in faithfulness to Thy covenant, according to the\nexample of Thy prophet Muhammad--may he be blessed and glorified!\u201d And\nall the while we struggled as hard as we could to get within touch\nof the Hajerul-Asvad, which, as we knew well from the pressure of\nthe throng, was the lodestone that drew the sheeted pilgrims to the\nsouth-eastern corner of the house. Now we were driven forward, and then\nwe were hurled back; indeed, the bare-footed Faithful, seeing their\nhopes alternately rise and fall, grew grimly resolute to kiss the Black\nStone, cost them what it might. The yearning to do so, which had filled\ntheir hearts with piety in the seclusion of their homes, gave place\nat close quarters to a determination so fierce and so uncontrollable\nas might have offered to a cool-headed spectator a living picture of\nPandemonium. Every now and then a pilgrim would succeed in snatching\na hasty kiss, after which he would be flung aside, and another, less\nfortunate than himself, would have to be contented with touching the\nStone with his hand and kissing that; but by far the greater number\nhad no other choice than to pass on with a salaam expressive of good\nintentions. Some said their prayers with the tongue of their hearts,\nand with tears in their eyes; others said them aloud, the sweat\nstreaming down their cheeks. \u201cO Lord, I bring my heart and soul to\nThee, I acknowledge Thy Book faithfully, I give evidence that there is\nnot any one equal to Thee, and I promise to obey Thy Commandments.\u201d\n\nOpposite to the place called al-Moltezem, between the Black Stone\nand the gate of the Ka\u2019bah, we paused and said: \u201cO Allah, Thou who\nart omnipotent, I beseech Thee to pardon my sins in violating Thy\ncommands.\u201d A few steps forward brought us face to face with the gate\nitself, whose threshold is raised so high above the ground that the\npilgrims must mount by means of steps moving on wheels which are kept\nalongside a wall of the Zem-Zem well when not in use. There we stopped\nagain, saying:\n\n \u201cO Allah, this house is Thy house, this sanctuary is Thy sanctuary,\n this peaceful shelter is Thy shelter, and this place is the place\n of all those that flee to Thee from hell-fire. O Allah, Thy house is\n great and Thou art magnanimous; verily, Thou art compassionate and\n merciful. From fire, O Allah, and from the cursed Satan deliver me:\n yea, render my flesh and blood scatheless in the fire of hell, and\n pour on me Thy mercy on the day of judgment, and shower on me Thy\n blessings in this world and the next.\u201d\n\nWe proceeded thence to the north-eastern angle called the Rokn\u00e9-Araghi,\nwhere we halted in order to ask another blessing, and cried out in a\ntone of deepest contrition: \u201cO Allah, I take refuge with Thee from\nevil, from doubt, from disobedience, from disunion, from immorality,\nfrom hypocrisy, and from all evil thoughts concerning one\u2019s family and\none\u2019s estate.\u201d And when we went in front of the Mizab, gold Spout, a\nfew paces farther on, it was to say: \u201cO Allah, grant me refuge under\nthe canopy of Thy heaven on the day whereon there is no shelter save\nThy shelter. O Allah, make me to drink of the same cup as Muhammad,\non whom be blessings and glory!\u201d Then we proceeded on our way till\nwe reached the Rokn\u00e9-Shami or the north-western angle, and there we\nsaid: \u201cO Allah, may it please Thee to accept this pilgrimage, making\nit a praiseworthy perseverance and a laudable deed. O Compassionate,\nO Beloved, O Lord, O Merciful, and Omnipotent!\u201d Next, on reaching\nthe south-western angle or Rokn\u00e9-Yemani, we fell again to praying,\nin accordance with the law: \u201cO, Allah, our Lord and Ruler, grant us\nprosperity in this world and happiness in the next, and deliver us\nfrom the punishments of fire. O Allah, I seek shelter in Thee from\ninfidelity and from poverty and from the sorrows of life and from the\npangs of death; I also take refuge in Thee from ignominy in this world\nand in the world to come.\u201d The last prayer we said was at the starting\npoint, facing the Black Stone. Finding it impossible to approach\nwithin arm\u2019s reach, we lifted up our hands from afar, and then bowed,\nsaying: \u201cO Lord of this sacred relic, I flee to Thee and to \u2018Thy right\nhand on earth\u2019 from all want and also from all infidelity.\u201d\n\nIn this, the first circuit or \u201cshaut,\u201d we used the step called\n\u201charvaleh,\u201d walking briskly and shrugging the shoulders up and down,\nand we adopted the same gait on the second and third \u201cashwat\u201d (plural\nform of \u201cshaut\u201d). But, in performing the remaining four circuits, a\nmore grave and stately tread was assumed according to the custom.\nThis ordinary eastern walk is called \u201cteamol\u201d and combines dignity\nof demeanour with leisure of pace; it is a contemplative fashion of\nwalking, what the French would call _recueilli_, and is admirably\nsuited to a pilgrim\u2019s devotional stroll round the House of God. On the\nother hand, the reformer who should wish to introduce the go-ahead\ncivilisation of the West could not begin better than by levying a\nprohibitive tax on the \u201cteamol.\u201d Sale records the tradition that this\nsevenfold compassing of the Ka\u2019bah was ordered by Muhammad, \u201cthat his\nfollowers might show themselves strong and active, to cut off the hopes\nof the infidels, who gave out that the immoderate heats of Medina had\nrendered them weak.\u201d A second tradition is that the circular motion\nrepresents the orbicular motion of the heavenly bodies; a third, that\nit is meant to symbolise the Egyptian wheels, those hieroglyphics\nof the instability of human fortune; and a fourth, that it arose\nfrom a custom among the Pagan Arabs, who, if they wished to humble\nthemselves, were wont to walk seven times round the person or persons\nwhom they delighted to exalt. Anyhow, the compassing of the Ka\u2019bah,\nbe its origin what it may, is held by the Muhammadans to be an act of\nself-sacrifice from man to God. I was much struck by the fact that\nthe victims of cholera and of other diseases were borne round the\nsacred precincts in rude wooden coffins by their friends, who cried out\nin tones of lamentation, \u201cY\u00e1-Allah! Y\u00e1-Allah!\u201d It was an impressive\nfuneral procession, and is said to relieve the pressure of the grave,\nand to insure to the corpse a safe and a speedy entrance into Paradise.\nThe Tewaff is brought to a close by a reverential visit to the tomb\nof Abraham, which faces the door of the House. It is an open pavilion\nresting on four pillars, and crowned with a crescented cupola.\n\nThere my guide and I, taking up our position on the thither side of\nthe tomb which was thus placed between ourselves and the House of God,\nprostrated ourselves twice, saying our morning prayers the while; and\nthen, sitting on our hips, we raised our hands to the sky and said with\nclosed eyes:\n\n \u201cWe give praise to Thee, O Lord, we glorify Thee in the name of\n Muhammad--may peace be with him and with his people! O God, accept\n this H\u00e1jj from me, and allow it not to be the last one. I praise thee,\n O Lord, in all Thy attributes, I praise Thee for all Thy blessings; I\n praise Thee for all Thou willest, I praise Thee for all Thy power. O\n Lord, accept this worship from me, and cleanse my heart, and sharpen\n my sense of duty. Take compassion on me, O God, for my worship\u2019s sake,\n and because I accept the words of Thy prophet--on whom be peace! O\n Lord, make me to detest those that do not worship Thee, and make me\n to love those who love Thee, and those who love Thy prophet and Thy\n angels and all Thy pious creatures.\u201d\n\nThen, bowing our foreheads to the ground, we said aloud:\n\n \u201cO Lord, I worship Thee on my face; there is no God but Thee; Thou art\n just and merciful; Thou art the beginning of everything, and the end\n of everything; for Thine is the management and Thine the power alone.\n O Thou that forgivest the sins of Thy people, pardon my offences,\n for in Thee do I now confess my sins. Verily, no one can pardon grave\n sinners except Thyself. I say, there is not any one to be compared\n with Thee.\u201d\n\nThe rewards of a correct performance of the Tewaff and of the necessary\nprayers--preferably at sundown, the best time for meditation--are of a\nsort to render the rite extremely popular among the pilgrims. At every\nstep they take, in making the seven circuits, no fewer than seventy\nthousand sins will be blotted out of their bad books, and an equal\nnumber of virtues be added to the companion volumes containing their\ngood actions. Nor is this all, for they will be made, at the same rate,\nthe intercessors of seventy thousand sinners; they will build up to\nthemselves the same number of palaces in heaven, and will earn the\nfulfilment of seven hundred thousand of their desires in this world,\nand of seventy thousand in the world to come. And that, no doubt, is\nwhy we took precious care that our steps, even when walking briskly,\nas we were obliged to do for the first three circuits, should be, if\nsmart, extremely short ones.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nTHE COURSE OF PERSEVERANCE\n\n\nHaving encompassed the Ka\u2019bah seven times, we stood hard by the tomb\nof Abraham and watched the pilgrims fighting to kiss the Black Stone.\nThe wonder was that we had emerged from the tight scrimmage with a skin\nmore or less whole. The perspiration oozed out of the pores in streams:\nlaying hold of the fag end of my sacred habit I wiped my forehead. \u201cYou\nmust not touch yourself,\u201d said Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed; \u201cit is a grievous sin.\u201d\n\u201cLet your conscience rest in peace,\u201d I replied; \u201cI will do penance by\nsacrificing a sheep.\u201d\n\nThe guide smiled. \u201cThere is no stain, however vile, but money shall\nblot it out. Would that I were a rich man!\u201d \u201cThou fool,\u201d I cried, \u201chow\nabout the stain of superstition? Will money wipe it out, think you?\u201d\n\u201cY\u00e1-Moulai,\u201d he whispered, \u201cspeak low.... Listen. It is easier to\ndig the heart out of a mountain with the sharp end of a needle than\nto remove ignorance from the mind of a mull\u00e1. However, the Course\nof Perseverance has yet to be trod. Come let us hop and be of good\ncourage, for to-morrow we must go in procession to Arafat. We must\nbegin again with Niyyat; that is, with a declaration of intention in\nfront of the Black Stone, and after that we must proceed to Saf\u00e1, and\nsay our prayers there.\u201d \u201cI ask pardon of Allah!\u201d I shrilled. \u201cLook, the\npeople will be trodden under foot near the Black Stone!\u201d The guide was\nsilent, his eyes were turned to where the crowd was thickest. \u201cLook,\u201d\nhe said, \u201ca man is down. They are trampling him to death. That has\noften happened. In 581 of the Hegira no less than eighty-four men were\ntrodden to death inside the Ka\u2019bah. In 972 of the Flight sixty-five\nmen were suffocated through the pressure of the crowd in the Harem\nitself.... Praise Allah, the man is up again.... See, his friends are\nbearing him to a place of safety.\u201d ...\n\nGod of love, what a sight! \u201cHe has achieved merit,\u201d said the guide,\n\u201cexcept, it may be, in the eyes of the \u2018mother of his children.\u2019 She\nwill cease to love him when she sees him. However, he may die, and\nthus she may be spared the shock of--did you--but what have I done to\noffend you?\u201d My reply was curt. \u201cI find your levity somewhat tedious,\u201d\nI said impatiently. The wag was irrepressible. He waxed argumentative\nsuddenly, affirming that the snares of the heart are beauty of face\nand charm of voice. He bade me to look on his own manly countenance. I\nmight believe it or not, but even he had been deceived more than once.\nWhat chance of keeping love, therefore, had the wretch whose face had\nbeen stamped as flat as the palm of his hand? \u201cListen, and I will hum\nyou a song,\u201d he whispered, \u201cbut it must be low, since it concerns the\nheart, the theme of the poets, and not the soul, which is the concern\nof the priests. For my part I am on the side of the poets. Even in\nMecca. The song is old. It was sung by Adam in the Garden of Eden after\nthe Fall. I have found it true. Therefore, and for no other reason, it\nis worth quoting--\n\n    \u201c\u2018Oh, heart of mine, how often canst thou trace\n      Thy aching wounds to one bright maiden\u2019s Face!\n      How often must, amid discordant din,\n      Another\u2019s Voice be toned to take you in!\n\n    \u201c\u2018Yet ah, my heart, among thy darling foes,\n      Was one that matched both Nightingale and Rose;\n      A Flow\u2019r, she bloomed a day; a Bird, her flight\n      She winged ... and turned thy Day to endless Night.\u2019\u201d\n\n\u201cAlas, my poor heart, its disease is incurable, I fear. No matter.\nSaf\u00e1 awaits our coming. We will go and \u2018declare our intention,\u2019 and\nthen be off to the hill of Purity. Let us skip and hop, for to-morrow\nwe die. Y\u00e1-Allah! y\u00e1-Muhammad!\u201d So, approaching as near as we could to\nthe Black Stone, we closed our eyes, giving it as our determination\nto run seven times between the platforms of Saf\u00e1 and Marveh, and to\nrecite the prescribed prayers at the appointed places. It is considered\nan act of grace in the devout to proceed thence to the Zem-Zem well,\nand, drawing a bucket of water by means of the windlass with his own\nhands, to besprinkle therewith his head and back and stomach, after\nwhich he should drink a handful of the water, repeating the following\nprayer: \u201cO Lord, I beseech Thee to make this draught for me a source\nof inexhaustible knowledge, a vast livelihood, and a preventive of all\npains and diseases.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: THE POORER SIDE OF EGYPTIAN MUSLIMS.]\n\nFrequent allusion is made to this spring in Arabian and Persian\nliterature. Its water ranks second to that of K\u00fasar, a stream that runs\nin the Garden of Paradise, keeping the grass ever green and the flowers\never blooming. The prettiest ruby wine is compared by the poets to the\nwater of Zem-Zem; for they believe it to be the spring that \u201cgushed out\nfor the relief of Ishmael,\u201d when Hagar, his mother, wandered beside\nhim in the wilderness. The story goes that when she saw the bubbling\nwater it was to call to her son, in the Egyptian tongue, \u201cZem, zem!\u201d\n(\u201cStay, stay!\u201d). The taste of the water is difficult to describe, but\nit is certainly bitterish. My guide, to whom I had appealed in the\nmatter, answered, saying, \u201cAllah--may I be His sacrifice--has made\nthis water sacred, as you know. It is neither sweet nor bitter, neither\nfresh nor salt, neither scented nor stinking, but would appear in its\ntaste to be a mixture of all these qualities. In everything sacred\nthere must be a mystery, or how could the mull\u00e1s live?\u201d As to its\nattributes, they may be counted by the hundred. There is no disease\nthat it will not cure provided it be taken with a \u201cpure\u201d conscience. It\nis as inspiring to a Muslim poet as that of Helicon to an unbeliever.\nIt prolongs life and purifies the soul of him that drinks it in\nunswerving obedience to God through the mediation of Muhammad. The\nrich pilgrims carried gold or silver flasks in which they poured\nthe precious water, keeping it as a preservative of health, or as a\nremedy in case of sickness. An Indian Prince told me that he intended\nto keep his in order to restore the eyesight of his brother, who had\nbeen unable to accompany him on the pilgrimage. The Faithful bring\ntheir winding-sheets along with them and wash them in the holy spring.\nSome Negroes from Zanzibar have the honour to be the guardians of the\nwell and the dispensers of its contents, and they exact as much as\ntwenty piastres from the poor pilgrims for the washing of one of these\nwinding-sheets, and ten times that amount from the rich.\n\nNow, this practice of washing the grave-clothes stands in need of\nexplanation. When a Muslim dies and is buried, he is received by a\nheavenly host, who gives him notice of the coming of the two examiners,\nNakir and Monker. These are two angels as livid as death and as black\nas a putrid corpse, and they proceed to question him concerning his\nfaith, more especially as to the unity of God and the apostleship of\nthe Prophet. If he prove himself a true Mussulman, he is suffered to\nrest in peace and is refreshed by the air of Paradise. But, if he be\nof a loose belief, he is gnawed and stung till the resurrection by\nninety-nine dragons that have seven heads each, the earth pressing\nharder and harder on his body without, unfortunately, injuring the\ndragons. It is in order to escape from this torture that the pilgrims\nwash their winding-sheets, in the life-giving water of Zem-Zem,\nsome of them taking the precaution to make assurance doubly certain\nby inscribing on the sheets, in coloured letters, the most sacred\nchapters of the Kur\u00e1n. One of the pilgrims showed me a winding-sheet\nbelonging to himself on which had been written in green ink every\nsingle chapter of the Book. The well is covered with a small square\nbuilding crowned with a cupola and a crescent, and is paved inside with\nmarble. There are four Chinese windlasses at the top of the shrine for\ndrawing the water, and these were working all day long, the keepers\nhaving the greatest difficulty in restraining the ardour of the poor,\ntradition-ridden devouts, some of whom were wrought to such a pitch of\nblind fanaticism that it was as much as the Negroes could do to prevent\nthem from flinging themselves into the well.\n\nSince I had not the good fortune to win my way to the windlass, I took\na jug of Zem-Zem water, making the attendant a present of ten piastres\nfor it. Then, having performed the necessary ablutions, I went out by\nthe old gate (on the thither side of the Place of Abraham) and ascended\nthe stairs of Saf\u00e1. We found the platform alive with pilgrims, and\nthere, facing the Ka\u2019bah, we had to pass in review all the blessings\nwe had received from God during our lives, from the days of our birth\nupward. That done, we repeated seven times in an audible tone: \u201cGod\nis great.... I praise thee, O Lord!... There is no god but God....\u201d\nThree times: \u201cThere is no god but the one God; there is not anyone\nlike unto Him. For His is the kingdom, and to Him do we lift up our\npraise. He is the giver of life and the giver of death. Death and\nlife He bestoweth on all living creatures, but He dieth not, neither\ndoth He sleep. He is almighty over everything....\u201d Once: \u201cO Lord, I\npraise Muhammad and his people.\u201d Three times: \u201cI praise the Lord who\nendureth for ever, I praise the everlasting Lord.\u201d Three times: \u201cI\nconfess there is no god but God, and I confess likewise that Muhammad\nis His slave and His apostle. We worship Him whom we praise, and none\nbut Him!\u201d Then three times we cried: \u201cO Lord, have mercy on me, and be\ncompassionate to me, and give me justice in this world and in the world\nto come.... O Lord, give us Thy blessing in this life, and grant us Thy\npeace in the next, and protect us from the punishment of fire.\u201d Next,\nhaving repeated one hundred times the words \u201cGod is great; there is\nno god but God, and Him do I praise,\u201d I said aloud: \u201cO Lord, I praise\nThee in death and in what comes after death. In Thee, O God, do I\nseek shelter from the darkness of the grave, from the pressure of the\ngrave, and the disturbance of the grave. Under the canopy of Thy divine\ncompassion do I take refuge on the day when there is no shelter but Thy\nshelter.\u201d Then, in my inmost mind, I gave up to the Lord my faith, my\nperson, and my people, crying: \u201cI return to Thee, O Lord, Who alone art\ncompassionate and merciful, my faith, myself, my people, my property,\nand my progeny. O Lord, make me to act according to Thy Book and the\ndictation of Thy apostle: make me faithful to Thy people, and protect\nme from revolution.\u201d As an increase of wealth, so says tradition, this\nprayer should also be read: \u201cO Lord, I seek shelter in Thee from the\npunishments of the grave: from its troubles, and its separations, and\nits awe, and its percussion, and its blackness, and its closeness.\u201d\nThen, uncovering the back, one should raise the voice, crying out loud:\n\u201cO Lord, pardon! O Thou who hast commanded to pardon, O Thou who art\nthe first to pardon--pardon, pardon, pardon, pardon! O Generous! O\nCompassionate! O Near! O Far! make me to achieve Thy satisfaction by\nacting in obedience unto Thee!\u201d Then, descending from the platform,\nI said: \u201cI persevere seven times in running between Saf\u00e1 and Marveh,\nand this I do in order to fulfil my pilgrimage and in obedience to the\ncommand of the Lord of the Universe.\u201d\n\nThe distance between the two hills is four hundred and thirty-eight\nyards. The course has to be traversed seven times. It begins at Saf\u00e1\nand ends on the seventh lap at Marveh. Those who are too weak or too\nill \u201cto persevere\u201d on foot must be carried on a horse, a camel, a\nmule, or a donkey, like the women, who, if sufficiently wealthy, are\naccompanied by three hired servants. The first, the forerunner, who\nclears the way, wears an expression of indescribable gravity. You can\ntell by his face that you have only to cast an eye behind him to behold\na \u201cLight of the Harem.\u201d The second, leading the beast by the bridle,\nlooks religiously ahead, and the third brings up the rear, doing all\nin his power to protect his precious burden from the shrieking crowd.\nIf a pilgrim at this stage of initiation allow his thoughts to dwell\non the fair sex he must sacrifice a calf in the Valley of Mina. From\nthe foot of Saf\u00e1 to the first minaret at the south-eastern end of\nthe Harem the pilgrim must walk at his ease, and there he must say a\nprayer. It is this: \u201cI begin in the name of God, and by God, and God\nis great. May peace be with Muhammad and with his household. O Lord,\nthe compassionate and merciful, who art capable beyond my knowledge, O\nThou who art most exalted and most generous, take this act of worship\nof mine, which is not worthy of Thee, and, enriching it with Thy\nabundance, make it more deserving of Thy acceptance. I offer up my\n\u2018perseverance\u2019 to Thee, O Lord, and in Thee my hope and my strength\nare fixed. O Thou that acceptest the devotion of the pious, reject not\nmy offering, O God.\u201d Thenceforward, until he reached the Baghleh Gate,\nsome eighty yards away, the pilgrim had to suit his gait as far as in\nhim lay to the rolling pace of a camel on the trot. He had now reached\nthe starting point for hopping. Two big green flags were flying to give\nhim warning. Up went the left leg of every mother\u2019s son and of many a\nfather\u2019s daughter--for to every woman who rode there were twenty on\nfoot--and a great deal of panting confusion and breathless excitement\nensued. Hands were lifted to the sky, voices were raised in praise of\nGod, asking for strength \u201cto persevere,\u201d mules stampeded, horses lashed\nout with their heels, camels pierced their way through the surging mob\nas silently and as irresistibly as a ship breasts the sea, men and\nwomen being hurled aside like waves. The endurance displayed by the\nbare-footed devout was marvellous. They were buoyed by the assurance\nthat they were supported by the angels, Gabriel being the captain of\nthe guard.\n\nNow shoved forward by the pilgrims in the rear, now carried back by\nthose who were returning from Marveh, I hopped about in a vicious\ncircle, groaning and perspiring, like a man bereft of his senses.\nShould I never reach the blessed Gate of Ali! Who said the distance\nwas not more than seventy-five yards? Let him hop over the course and\nhe will multiply its figures by ten at every step. The folly of it all\nseemed to crash down on the crown of my bare head, shattering my belief\nin human sanity. For, carried away by the obligation of imitating\nthe \u201cpersevering\u201d antics of my fellow-pilgrims, I found myself now\nhopping on one leg like a melancholy heron, and now, on reaching Ali\u2019s\nGate, pitching and rolling and labouring along like a spent camel\nunder a goad. Y\u00e1-Allah! y\u00e1-Muhammad! I cut a sorry figure in my own\nestimation, no matter what merit I earned in the minds of my co-mates\nin affliction. So depressed was I that I had forgotten to say the\nprescribed prayer at the second minaret before reaching the Baghleh\nGate: \u201cO God, the possessor of praise and knowledge and mercy and\nmagnanimity, pardon my trespasses, for, verily, there is no forgiver of\nsins but Thee alone.\u201d Many were maimed for life, not a few were killed,\naccident followed accident, but still the unheeding wave of pilgrims\nswept along over the fiery sand, shrieking and gesticulating, till my\nsenses seemed to swoon. My guide, inured to the Arabian heat and to the\nunhallowed confusion of the course, performed his part with a studied\ndignity and a nimbleness of resource which added a touch of humour to\nan exhibition otherwise saddening. But these pilgrims themselves were\ntormented by no such self-accusing thoughts. If their feet were cut\nthey had the consolation of believing that the streams of Paradise\nwould wash them whole, for the cool water of Salsab\u00edl and Tasn\u00edm, if\nthey succumbed to their devotional exertions, would it not be lifted to\ntheir parched lips by divine peris and everlasting life be theirs?\n\nWhat might strike the spectator most of all would probably be the\ncontrast presented by the dignity of the prayers and the occasional\noutbursts of religious extravagance on the part of the priest-ridden\nand ignorant among the pilgrims. The prayers might be read in any\nchurch in Christendom. The stormy outburst from all reserve could\nonly be witnessed nowadays in the East, where religion, that ship\nof salvation, though seaworthy enough in its undeniable if narrow\nsincerity, is in constant danger of being wrecked in the breakers of\nfanaticism. Muhammad reverenced science. Several sayings have been\nalready quoted in which it was rated by him at its true value. The\npriests persist in disregarding its lessons from sheer self-interest.\nIt is not the light of religion which they spread abroad. It is the\nfire of fanaticism which they fan--a fire which, by throwing out\nabundant heat but no light whatever, burns while diffusing darkness.\n\u201cGod does not change the condition of a people,\u201d said Muhammad, \u201cuntil\nthey change it for themselves.\u201d If these retrograde priests had kept\nthemselves abreast of the times, as they were in duty bound to do as\nfollowers of a man of progressive genius, the crescent of Isl\u00e1m had\nbeen a well-nigh perfect round long ago. Enlightenment was not wanting\non the part of a great number of laymen, as I shall show later on; but\nas to the greater number of the priests I met at Mecca, well, let us\nhope that, on ascending the platform of Marveh, they were conscious of\nfalling short of the responsibilities of their office, and that they\nmade amends by throwing into the prayer of repentance the burden of a\ncontrite spirit: \u201cO Lord, Thou that hast commanded to pardon; O Thou\nthat lovest pardon; O Thou that grantest pardon; O Thou that forgivest\nwith pardon; O Lord, pardon! pardon! pardon! pardon!\u201d And if they could\nthen weep out of the fulness of a heart ill at ease in its breast, and\nnot perfunctorily as by law ordained, there might be some hope of their\nredemption. All joined in the concluding prayer, which runs: \u201cO Lord,\nverily, I beseech Thee, in all circumstances, to endow me plentifully\nwith tacit faith in Thee, and also to grant that I may be pure of\nintention in my resignation to Thy divine will.\u201d\n\n\nPLAN OF THE HAREM.\n\n_An Explanation of the Frontispiece._\n\n SM indicates the Sal\u00e1m Gate, through which the pilgrim must enter and\n where the course begins; AM, the Tomb of Abraham; BK, the Black Stone;\n K, the Ka\u2019bah, or House of God; Z, the Fountain of Zem-Zem; SA, the\n Saf\u00e1 Gate, through which the pilgrim passes out on his course; S,\n Saf\u00e1, the platform on which one must walk and pray; BH, the Baghleh\n Gate, the starting-point for hopping; AI, the Ali Gate, the finishing\n place for hopping, but on the return journey the starting-point,\n with BH as its ending. M indicates Marveh, the platform on which the\n pilgrim must walk and pray. The distance for hopping--marked by two\n pointers at BH and AI--is some seventy-five yards, the dotted lines\n showing the Course of Perseverance, and the arrow-heads indicating its\n direction.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nSCENE IN AN EATING-HOUSE--VISIT TO THE KA\u2019BAH\n\n\nIt was two o\u2019clock by the time we had completed the Course of\nPerseverance, and, since we had broken our fast at an early hour in\nthe morning, we betook ourselves in a mighty hurry to the eating-house\nof St\u00e1d Mukhtar, the Effendi pastrycook of Mecca. The caravan we had\nleft behind us at Heddah, swollen beyond recognition on the journey\nup, had just arrived, and Mussah-street was in a veritable delirium of\nexcitement. It was dry and blazing weather, with a glow as of a furnace\nin the air, and the passing of the caravan, with its streaming banners,\nits jaded camels, and its betousled pilgrims, added to the poignance\nof our hunger by delaying the hour that should see it satisfied. Only\none glimpse we took of the medley of men and beasts. As we raised our\neyes we saw, securely strapped on an ambling mule, a man of lofty mien,\nalbeit distressingly wasted, with streaming white beard and hair, and\nthe face of a corpse for tense impassivity. His eyes, deep sunk and\nexpressionless, met mine. He at once raised his voice--and never shall\nI forget the eerie exaltation ringing in its tones--and cried aloud:\n\u201cPraise be to God on high, who hath brought me alive into His house.\nBlessed is he who dieth in the house of the Lord. May He be praised and\nglorified!\u201d And from the crowd there arose a shout, that passed from\nlip to lip in a fervour of congratulation: \u201cMay it be auspicious....\nMay your eyes be lightened.... May your years be increased.... May\nyour shadow never grow less.... Y\u00e1--Allah!... Y\u00e1--Muhammad!\u201d The grim\nfortitude of that towering wraith of a man on the nimble-footed mule\nstirred in his co-religionists I know not what feelings of awe and\ngratification. For pity there was no room in their breasts; envy there\nmight have been, but of a sort whereof heroism is engendered; not one\namong them but had wished to be in the place of him who, supported by\nfaith and guided by death, had won the crown of self-martyrdom. In a\nmoment the man was gone past.\n\n\u201cIsl\u00e1m,\u201d said Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed, \u201csee how brightly it burns in a grate worthy\nto contain the sacred fire. That man\u2019s zeal has made me rich in faith.\nI tell you that the stars of heaven were a mean decoration for a zealot\nso long-suffering and sincere. But come, Y\u00e1-Moulai, let us break our\nfast in the famous eating-house of St\u00e1d Mukhtar. Behold, the entrance\nawaits our coming, for the door is open.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: MUSSAH STREET AT MECCA.]\n\n[Illustration: PUTTING ON IHR\u00c1M AT JIDDAH.]\n\nOn crossing the threshold we uttered a loud sal\u00e1m, looking up into\nthe air the while. Then we stepped inside, for, as the Persians say,\nif you wish to escape reproof you must assume the same \u201ccolour\u201d as\nyour company. The shop was oblong, measuring some 24ft. by 9ft., at\na guess. Rough stools and low black erections on four legs took the\nplace of chairs and tables. I counted no less than sixty pilgrims\nengaged in eating. It would have been impossible to count the beggars\nwho came crowding in. These I brushed unceremoniously aside, much to\nthe annoyance of one of them, who cried out in vulgar Arabic: \u201cMay\nyour meal not sit well on you! How can you eat while we are starving\nhere?\u201d Compassion laid its hand in mine, and I would have given the\npetitioner a present, ungracious though he was, had not Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed\nrestrained me, saying: \u201cY\u00e1-Moulai, do not judge our friend by his\nlooks. His appearance, I grant, is poverty-stricken beyond the power\nof repletion, but, you may take my word for it, his wealth underground\nsurpasses the dreams of this slave of yours.\u201d In this opinion he was\nsupported by the pilgrims inside, who assured me that the residential\nbeggars of Mecca are often extremely rich and in the habit of burying\nthe money they wring from the credulity or the generosity of the\nstrangers within the gates. The din in the eating-house was beyond\nbelief. Everybody spoke at once, and at the top of his voice. A pack of\nchildren fresh from school would give you an idea of the uproar. The\nfirst questions the pilgrims asked of one another were their names,\ntheir nationalities, their professions, and their family pedigrees.\nAround one of the diminutive tables were seated two men, and, as there\nwere a couple of vacant stools, I took one of them, my guide, as a mark\nof respect, sitting down on my left. Shortly after another pilgrim\ncame in, and, picking up a stool, wedged himself between Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed\nand myself, muttering a half-reluctant \u201cBismillah!\u201d The gentleman\ndirectly facing me was a Turkish Effendi, Mahmud Bey by name. Like the\nmajority of the inmates, he was clad in \u00edhram, but his face singled\nitself out by virtue of its stony reserve. On the extreme right was\na Persian Mirza, called Zainul-Abedin, whose countenance prepared me\nfor the authoritative unction of his speech. A stalwart Afghan sat on\nmy guide\u2019s left hand, while the intruder, who had separated us, was a\nnative of Hyderabad, Deccan. His name was Abdul Saleh.\n\nThe Persian Mirza was the first to break the silence. Looking at each\nof us in turn he said, in his mellowest tones: \u201cBah! Bah! Kh\u00fash amedid!\nYou are welcome. You have brought purity into the City of God.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd so have you,\u201d was \u2019Al\u00ed\u2019s affable response. \u201cI was the essence of\nimpurity when I left my native town of Ardebil to perform this holy\npilgrimage; but I trust that God may purify my conscience.\u201d The guide\nchanged his birthplace with his company. \u201cDo you come from Ardebil, my\nfriend?\u201d said Abdul Saleh. \u201cMany learned people have come from that\nblessed city. The poet calls it the House of Knowledge.\u201d\n\nSeyyid \u2019Al\u00ed smiled a sarcastic smile. \u201cEven the learned, my good\nbrother of Hindustan,\u201d quoth he, \u201care prisoners within the limits of\nthe knowable, so fear not to inform the company wherein the fame of\nArdebil consists.\u201d My guide referred to the fact that the place he had\nchosen as his native town is the convict station of Persia.\n\n\u201cGod forbid!\u201d replied Abdul Saleh, courteously, \u201cfor the tact that\nis yours shows the poet to have been right. The abode of learning\nmust count you among its most honoured citizens.\u201d These amenities put\nthe whole table in a good temper, and Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed was not long in\nsummoning the waiter, Omar, who, having informed us that his master,\nSt\u00e1d Mukhtar, had gone to Mina in order to open a branch establishment\nthere, awaited our orders in an attitude so free and easy that Mahmud\nBey, frowning ever so slightly, grew a degree more reserved than ever.\nThe waiter wore a fez with a streaming tassel, a long white robe,\nand a bright silk sash, from which hung an apron that had once been\nwhite. The dishes we ordered were a ghormeh of camel\u2019s flesh roasted\nin onions; a k\u00fafteh, or mincemeat, served with rice and seasoned with\nspices; a lamb kebab on a skewer folded in a sheet of bread fresh from\nthe oven; and a sweet called mehlabi, which looked like English jelly.\nOmar, placing his right hand to his ear, like a muezzin bugling out\nthe cry of the Faith, shouted out at the top of his voice to the cook\nin the adjoining kitchen: \u201cGhormeh! K\u00fafteh! Kebab! Melabi! Eikki!\u201d\nthen, seeing that his cigarette was gone out, he asked me to provide\nhim with a match, which was given to him by my guide, who did not share\nMahmud Bey\u2019s ill-disguised disapproval of the waiter\u2019s demeanour. The\nTurk, raising his eyes to mine, said across the table: \u201cEffendim, the\nwaiters of Stambul have better manners--however.\u201d A contemptuous shrug\nof the shoulders completed the sentence. The speaker addressed me in\nhis own language, though he was a good Arabic scholar; but a political\ndiscussion which followed a question of mine as to whether Abdul Saleh\napproved or disapproved of the British rule in India was held in Arabic.\n\n\u201cThe poet says: \u2018The essence of human enjoyment is the belly,\u2019\u201d said my\nguide, \u201cso let us enjoy ourselves in a human fashion.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat will you say,\u201d objected Masoud, \u201cif I assure you that the poet\nmeans the spiritual belly and not the bodily one?\u201d\n\n\u201cThis,\u201d replied Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed, quickly, \u201cthat there was once a Dervish\nwhose mysticism had so clouded his understanding that he interpreted\nthe writings of Omar Khayyam as you would have me interpret them.\nThe drinking of wine, according to him, was meant to symbolise the\nadoration of God. Now, it chanced that the dervish broke the law, and\nwas brought before his Governor, who sentenced him \u2018to eat five hundred\nsticks.\u2019 The farrashes, fortified by the juice of the grape, laid on\nwith a will. It was heart-rending to hear the shrieks of the sufferer.\nHis philosophy deserted him, so that he yelled for mercy. The minions\nof the law appealed to the Governor, who said to the dervish: \u2018Have no\nfear, they are merely spiritual sticks. You must eat them every one.\nMay they go down well with you.\u2019 Are you answered?\u201d\n\n\u201cBlessed be Isl\u00e1m. Long live the Caliphs of the Faith!\u201d cried Abdul\nSaleh, as though he had just awoke from sleep.\n\n\u201cAnd long live the Ameers!\u201d said Masoud, in a frenzy of patriotism.\n\u201cMay the soul of Abdur Rahman Khan, the conqueror of Kafiristan, the\nlight of the nation and religion, rest in peace, and may the sword of\nIsl\u00e1m grow sharper day by day.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe sword of Isl\u00e1m is sharp enough,\u201d cried Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed, \u201cbut it\nrequires men to use it, as in the age of the blessed Caliphs.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat do you mean by that?\u201d said the Persian Mirza, in anger. \u201cDo you\nthink we have no men in Persia? May God keep stiff the neck of Iran.\nOne man of Iran is worth fifty foreign unbelievers.\u201d\n\n\u201cParticularly if they come from K\u00e1sh\u00e1n and Isfah\u00e1n,\u201d added the guide,\nsarcastically, referring to the alleged lack of courage in the\ninhabitants of those two towns.\n\n\u201cMay your heart be cleansed,\u201d cried the Mirza. \u201cYour sarcasm, I take\nit, is aimed at the authorities, that enlist so few soldiers from the\nsouthern provinces, and scarce a single man from the towns you mention.\u201d\n\nThe Turk looked surprised. \u201cDo you mean to say that Isfah\u00e1n and K\u00e1sh\u00e1n\ndo not contribute to the strength of the Persian Nizam?\u201d he asked.\n\u201cHow, then, can Persia defend herself against aggression?\u201d\n\n\u201cYou do not know, my good friend,\u201d replied the Mirza, \u201cwhat the\nPersians can do. We have no cause to fear any foreign invasion.\u201d\n\n\u201cCertainly not,\u201d said the Afghan, with the tongue in his cheek,\ndreaming no doubt of the sacking of Isfah\u00e1n by his countrymen.\n\n[Illustration: AN EGYPTIAN COFFEE-HOUSE FREQUENTED BY THE POOR.]\n\n\u201cIf you will have patience,\u201d said the guide, \u201cI will tell you the\ncircumstances that led the authorities, whereon the sun of the Faith\nshines, to abandon the practice of enrolling recruits from K\u00e1sh\u00e1n\nand Isfah\u00e1n.\u201d\n\nWe had now finished our meal and were drinking coffee and smoking\nhukkahs, and so we lent a willing ear to the sceptical rogue, who\nproceeded thus:\n\n\u201cEarly in the reign of the late martyred Shah-in-Shah--may peace be\non his soul--the late Amin-ud-dowleh of K\u00e1sh\u00e1n assumed the reins of\ngovernment, and when that came to pass his fellow-citizens implored him\nto free them from the obligation of serving in the Army. The Minister\nlaid before them a plan whereby they might achieve the end they had in\nview. Now you must know that Teher\u00e1n is a mighty capital, and if any\none of you doubt the fact let him go there at midday and listen to the\nbooming of the great gun, which shatters the buildings round about,\nlaying whole streets in ruins. Well, one day, when the Shah-in-Shah was\ndriving through the parade square, he saw a squad of K\u00e1sh\u00e1ni soldiers\nweeping over a dead comrade. His Majesty, having made inquiries, was\ninformed that the brave K\u00e1sh\u00e1ni had died from the fright caused by\nthe sound of the midday gun. Then the Shah, bursting out laughing,\ndisbanded the whole regiment, giving strict orders to discontinue the\nenlistment of soldiers from K\u00e1sh\u00e1n.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhy don\u2019t you finish the story, my friend?\u201d asked the Mirza. \u201cThe\nsting lies in the tail thereof. For when the regiment was disbanded the\nsoldiers asked for a Cavalry escort to conduct them safely home.\u201d A\nroar of laughter followed.\n\n\u201cAs for the non-enlistment of soldiers from Isfah\u00e1n,\u201d resumed the\nMirza, \u201ctake this story from me as its true cause. The soldiers of the\nIsfah\u00e1n regiment had not received any pay for a long time, and so they\nwaylaid his Majesty one day when he was driving to the shrine of Shah\nAbdul Azim and asked him to give them relief. The Secretary for War,\nfearing revelations and the consequences, approached his Majesty and\ntold him that the soldiers had rebelled in connection with the cursed\nB\u00e1b\u00ed Rebellion. The late Shah returned to the Palace at once, and had\nfourteen of the soldiers executed, and then started on a trip to the\nhills. When he came back it was to discover the mistake he had made,\nand, as an act of repentance, he absolved the town from the yoke of\nsoldiery.\u201d\n\nThe Turk, Mahmud Bey, rose and made to leave the eating-house. Looking\nthe Persian Mirza in the eyes, he said: \u201cMy friend, it is better to\nbe seated in a corner, deaf and dumb, than to have a tongue that is\nnot under one\u2019s control. I have the honour to bid you good-bye.\u201d My\nguide and I followed him, leaving the others to digest his admonition\nat their leisure, and bent our steps once more in the direction of the\nHarem for the purpose of visiting the interior of the House of God.\n\nThe gate of the House, except on certain occasions, is kept shut.\nIt is opened for men on the tenth day of the month of Muharram,\nand for women on the following day. During each of the months of\nRab\u00edu-\u2019l-avval, Rajab, and Ramaz\u00e1n (the Muhammadan Lent) admittance is\ngranted on two occasions to the devout, who are again free to cross\nthe sacred threshold once in the month of Sha\u2019ban. On the twelfth day\nof Rab\u00edu-\u2019l-avval prayers are offered by the high priest of Mecca,\nwithin the Ka\u2019bah, for the health of his Majesty the Sultan. This\nceremony is a private one. The open sesame to the house, in the days of\npilgrimage, is the seductive jingle of gold. An influential H\u00e1j\u00ed, by\nmeans of _bakhsh\u00edsh_, can effect an entrance whenever he likes, but his\npoverty-stricken fellow-pilgrims are not granted the same privilege.\nTwice every year the house is ceremoniously cleaned and washed. When\nthat happens it is incumbent on the Sher\u00edf, the Governor-General of\nHejaz, the head priest, the keepers, and the priestly officials to\nbe present, after they have performed the prescribed purifications\nand ablutions of the body. The first annual cleaning takes place on\nthe twentieth day of Rab\u00edu-\u2019l-avval. First the floor of the house is\nscrubbed with the water from the Zem-Zem well, then the walls are\nbesprinkled with ottar of roses and other fragrant scents. Aloe-wood\nis kindled in braziers, and spreads its delicious perfume through the\nair. The officials prostrate themselves twice in prayer, after which\nthey withdraw. The second cleaning of the year is effected in the same\nfashion on the twentieth day of Zi-ka\u2019d, preparatory to the ceremony\nof draping the outer walls of the house with ihr\u00e1m. For, thirteen days\nbefore the H\u00e1jj-day, the Ka\u2019bah itself is clothed in the winding-sheet\nof humility, as though it were regarded unworthy to be called the House\nof God.\n\nThis ihr\u00e1m of the shrine consists of a soft white material manufactured\nin Yemen, and is hung on the outer walls to the height of seven feet\nfrom the ground. One of the most interesting sights is the selling\nof this stuff to the richer pilgrims by the keepers of the Ka\u2019bah.\nA square inch of it will often fetch as much as \u00a33. The purchaser\nconsiders it his most cherished possession. The mere touch of it is\nheld to cure every sickness. The sight of it is enough to protect its\nowner from the evil eye. So long as he has it about him Satan will\npractise his snares on him in vain. Thousands of miracles are believed\nto be wrought by its use. \u201cSo-and-So is a lucky man,\u201d one devout will\nsay to another, \u201che has obtained through God\u2019s grace a strip of the\nihr\u00e1m of the Blessed Ka\u2019bah.\u201d The chief door-keeper of the present\nday goes by the name of Sheykh Shaban. The post is a coveted one, and\nhas become hereditary of recent years. On the H\u00e1jj-day the ihr\u00e1m is\ntaken down, and is replaced by the kesveh, which is composed of eight\npieces of black silk, embroidered round the margins with Kur\u00e1n texts\nin letters of gold, and of a curtain of the same design and colour. Two\nof these pieces of silk go to cover each one of the outer walls. They\nare hung from the corners on long silver loops. The curtain is used to\ndrape the silver-plated door, and falls to the ground from a rod of\nsolid silver beautifully chased.\n\nThe \u201cSquare House,\u201d or Ka\u2019bah, stands almost in the centre of the\nHarem, rather nearer to the west than to the east. The ground whereon\nit lies is accounted holy, since it was here that Adam, after his\nexpulsion from the Garden of Eden, first worshipped his Creator, a tent\nbeing sent down from heaven for the purpose. This act of grace on the\npart of the heavenly hosts was the compassionate result of a conference\nover which the Archangel Gabriel had presided. There was substituted\nfor the tent by Adam\u2019s son Seth a structure of clay and stone which\nwas rebuilt at a later period, under the superintendence of Abraham\nand Ishmael his son. So much for the legendary history of the house.\nThe task of restoring the sacred edifice, in the time of Ignorance,\nfell to the lot of the four chief tribes of Arabia. It was rebuilt by\nthe Kuraish, a few years after Muhammad\u2019s birth, and was destroyed by\nthe torrents thirty-five years after its completion. Then ensued an\nintertribal war, each of the clans claiming for itself a complete side\nof the house which should face its tents, till the cause of strife\nwas settled by an agreement among the contending tribes to accept the\narbitration of Ab\u00fa-Amid, the chief of the Kuraish. The decision of\nAb\u00fa-Amid was that the tribes should abide by the determination of the\nman who, on the following Friday afternoon, should be the first to\nleave the temple. So haphazard an arrangement was bound to appeal to\nthe sportsmanlike instinct of a race that has been ever wont to test\nthe wisdom of its actions by the arbitrament of chance. The warriors\nsheathed their swords, and when the fateful day arrived not a single\nmurmur was raised against the man who, being the first to reach the\nopen air, set about planning the building as it now appears. This man,\nit is said, was Muhammad. The Ka\u2019bah, which was certainly reconstructed\nin the year 1627--the successive Sher\u00edfs and Sultans adding to its\ninterior decoration--is said to have been destroyed and restored twelve\ntimes since the death of the Prophet.\n\nIn shape the Ka\u2019bah is an almost solid square, having from outside a\nlength of fourteen yards, and being eleven yards broad and sixteen\nyards high. From afar it has the look of an immense block of\ndark-coloured granite. The double roof is supported from within by\npillars of aloe-wood, and is held in so great reverence by the devout\nthat it is declared by them never to have been polluted by the Harem\npigeons until recently, the present misbehaviour on the part of the\nbirds being taken as a sign of the approaching end of the world. The\ngateway, which fills a considerable portion of the eastern wall, is\nraised about six feet from the ground, and measures in height some four\nyards, as far as I could gauge. The door itself is made of aloe-wood,\nand is covered over with plates of solid silver, and studded with heavy\nsilver nails. The precious metal was presented to the house, in 959\nof the Hegira, by the generous Sultan Suleym\u00e1n. Inlaid in the eastern\nend of the southern wall of the Ka\u2019bah is the famous Black Stone which\nmight be said to be the centre of the pilgrims\u2019 circling aspirations,\nand the pivot of their circumambulations round the sacred precincts.\nAnother stone, marking the Sepulchre of Ishmael, lies at the base of\nthe northern wall, and from the roof above there projects a horizontal\nsemicircular rainspout, which, including the end fixed in the wall, is\nfive yards long, measures twenty-four inches in width, and is made of\nmassive gold. The water flows from the lip of the split pipe to the\nfloor of the Harem below. The tomb of Abraham, the legendary builder of\nthe temple, is situated close by, to the east, not far from the Gate of\nBeni Shaibeh.\n\nThe Prophet\u2019s faithful followers, when they say their prayers, must\nturn their faces in the direction of the Ka\u2019bah, no matter where they\nmay be. This ascertaining of the exact position of the House of God,\nwhich is the centre of the Holy City, is called \u201ctaking the Kiblah or\nOutlook.\u201d Thus the Muhammadans of Syria, and those beyond it to the\nnorth, having fixed the Kiblah, are face to face with the northern\nwall, sacred to the Stone of Ishmael and the gold rainspout: their\nprayers are therefore sure to be heard. Those of Persia, Turkistan,\nNorthern India, Sind, and a part of China, look in the direction of\nthe north-eastern angle, called the Rokn\u00e9-Araghi, which is an equally\nblessed outlook, since the door of the house is on the eastern side\nand rather more to the north than the south thereof. The faces of the\nMuslims of Aden, of Southern India, of Madagascar, and of Australia,\nare turned to the eastern wall or the south-eastern corner of it,\nwhile those of the faithful of Constantinople, as well as those of the\nMuhammadans of some parts of Russia, are opposite to the western wall\nof the sacred building. The Boers believed themselves to be the \u201cchosen\npeople.\u201d It is a pity they are not Muhammadans. For, if they were,\nthey would be considered now the chosen people of Isl\u00e1m for the simple\nreason that they would face the southern wall of the Ka\u2019bah, wherein is\nlaid the Black Stone of immemorial sanctity. But the prayers the most\nacceptable to God, when all is said and done, are the prayers raised\nfrom any quarter within the Harem of the House of Allah on earth.\n\nThe interior of the Ka\u2019bah is far more impressive than the exterior.\nThe silver threshold is reached by means of a staircase running on\nwheels. There the pilgrim must prostrate himself, asking God to grant\nhim his heart\u2019s desire. He must be careful to maintain the correct\ndemeanour, closing his eyes and lifting up his hands, inasmuch as the\nangels, who are believed to keep watch over the entrance, are quick to\nresent the slightest breach in the prescribed ceremony. The guide who\naccompanied me assured me of the fact. He was good enough to see that\nI had forgotten neither my rosary of ninety-nine beads corresponding\nwith the wondrous names of God used in prayer, nor yet the lump of\nclay (called mohre) whereon are stamped the selfsame names, together\nwith those of the twelve Im\u00e1ms and the Prophet. It was on the clay\nthat I bowed my head in contrition when I fell on my knees. My guide,\nwho had also prostrated himself, expressed the conviction, on rising,\nthat the angels were on his side. I was also about to declare myself\nto be on the side of the angels when a couple of sturdy pilgrims, in\ntheir impatience to behold the Light of their eyes, wedged me tight\nbetween their bulky forms and then hustled me to the ground, adding\ninsult to injury by being obviously unconscious of the presence of my\nhumble body. They were \u201cabsent-minded beggars\u201d with a vengeance. I can\nonly say that, on regaining my feet, I hoped the silent prayer I said,\non the spur of my annoyance, would be answered ere long; but when I\ncrossed the doorsill I was overcome by a sense of my own unworthiness,\nso that I pardoned the men who had offended me. I raised my eyes. The\nceiling was flat, and supported on three columns of aloe-wood, and from\nit hung vases of great beauty on delicate gold chains. The walls were\ncovered with red velvet, save where, in white squares, were written, in\nArabic characters, the words \u201cAllah-Jal-Jelalah! (Praise to God the\nAlmighty!)\u201d The velvet is said to have been a gift from Sultan Abdul\nAziz. In the corner formed by the northern and eastern walls there is\na door leading to the roof. This door, which is called the Door of\nRepentance, is closed to the public; but a prayer said on the hither\nside of the threshold meets with a gracious response, and the pilgrim\nis clean-washed of his sins if he but touch the wood with his hand. The\nfloor is now flagged with marble--the work of some twenty years ago.\n\nWhile I was admiring the unpretentious grace of the holy shrine,\nand meditating from its threshold on the golden age of Isl\u00e1m, my\nguide broke in on my thoughts, saying: \u201cYou are allowed to make two\nprostrations at the base of any one of the pillars. Let me advise you,\nin the welfare of your immortal soul, to choose the one facing the\nBlack Stone outside, which is the most sacred spot under the canopy\nof heaven.\u201d The difficulty was to force my way thither. The whole\nhouse was packed with pilgrims. Some were praying, some were weeping,\nothers were groaning or beating their chests, and all--except the\nBedouins--were clad in their sacred habits. A great awe fell on me.\nIt was as though the graves had yielded up their dead at the blast of\nIsrafil\u2019s trumpet. All eyes were blind, all ears deaf. The thought\nof home, of country, of wife and child seemed drowned as in a sea of\npassionate devotion to the Creator of those human blessings. And from\noutside, in the Harem, there arose the chant of the Talbih, which every\npilgrim must sing on sighting Mecca, on donning the Ihr\u00e1m, on entering\nthe Harem, on starting for the Valley of Desire and the Mountain of\nCompassion, and on performing the little pilgrimage of Omreh. I paused\nin the effort to reach the southern pillar, and listened to the singing\nfrom without.\n\n    Labbaik, Allahomma, Labbaik!\n    Labbaik, la Sherika lak Labbaik!\n    Labbaik, enal-hamda, Vanahmeta lak Labbaik!\n    Labbaik, la Sherika lak Labbaik!\n\n    (Verily, here am I! O Allah, here I am!\n    Verily, here am I! O Allah, thou hast no mate!\n    Verily, here am I, O Allah! All praise and glory to thee!\n    Verily, here am I! O Allah, thou hast no mate!)\n\nOn my soul, it was fine! All my senses must have deserted me. I\nmust have lost all consciousness of self suddenly. The burden of\nexistence seemed to be lifted. If I did not actually slip off the\nslough of the flesh I came to realise in a flash that the soul is\nimmortal. These introspective thoughts were not mine at the moment of\nthe transformation. They were retrospective, forced on me, when, on\ncoming back to a sense of my surroundings, I found myself kneeling\nat the Door of Repentance, and heard myself crying \u201cLabbaik, la\nSherika lak Labbaik.\u201d Yes; there was I--\u201can Agnostic who would like to\nknow\u201d--rubbing my brow on the marble floor of the Ka\u2019bah, without the\ndimmest notion in my mind as to how I came to be there. Only a month\nbefore I had been sipping lemon squash in a London restaurant. Strange.\nThe first thing I did was to look round in search of my guide, as\nsceptical a rascal as ever breathed. He was on his knees, at my side,\nhis eyes starting out of the sockets. I put my hand on his shoulder.\n\u201cCome,\u201d I said, \u201clet us go out. I\u2019m suffocating.\u201d He rose to his feet,\nlooking scared and abashed; but his face assumed its usual expression\nof sunny mirth on reaching the Harem. He put his tongue in his cheek\nas of yore; then, repenting him of his unregenerate mood, he told the\ntruth. \u201cY\u00e1-Moulai (Oh, sir),\u201d said he, \u201cwithin the house so great\nreverence fell on me that I did hardly think of the blessed hour\u00eds\nand per\u00eds promised to me in Paradise. The same emotion overmasters\nme every year on entering into the Ka\u2019bah of Allah, and yet what does\nit all mean? What is the value of this dream which we call life, and\nwhich is my true self? Is it the self that inquires, scoffs, doubts,\nbut wants to find truth? Or is it the self that you discovered a moment\nago bereft of every sense save one, namely, that which would seem to\nhave drawn me irresistibly to a power whose will none would seem able\nto dispute? Has that power an existence outside my emotions, or is it\nmerely the fabric of my senses? You are silent, Y\u00e1-Moulai. Well, there\nare more ways of getting drunk than by drinking of the juice of the\nforbidden fruit. I escaped from myself just then on a spiritual rather\nthan a spirituous fluid. Let us return to our camp.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nON THE ROAD TO ARAFAT\n\n\nThe most important days of the Pilgrimage are the 8th, 9th, and 10th of\nthe moon of Z\u00fa-\u2019l-hijjah. Now, the 8th of Z\u00fa-\u2019l-hijjah is the day of\nthe Repose of the Soul. In Arabic it is called Youm-ul-Tarvih, and it\nsees the exodus of the pilgrims from Mecca on their way to the Hill of\nArafat. The most noteworthy \u201ccolumn\u201d of the H\u00e1jj is the sermon which is\npreached on the mount on the following day. No pilgrim is qualified to\ncall himself H\u00e1j\u00ed unless he is present on that occasion. The preacher\nsits on a camel, and the pilgrims gather round him, those who can find\nno room on the slopes taking up their positions on the plain. Not ten\npilgrims in a hundred can hear a word, and so the majority while away\nthe time in praying, in weeping, in chatting, in telling stories, and\neven in making love. If they fall asleep or lose consciousness they\nare counted as absent. They must arrive before noon and must remain\nuntil after sunset. If they leave before the appointed time they must\npay forfeit either by sacrificing a camel or else by keeping fast for\neighteen days running. This day is named Youm-ul-Arafat in Arabic.\n\nThe pilgrims, before reaching the plain of Arafat, must perform their\nreligious purifications, and, on arriving on the Hill itself, they must\nrecite the following Niyyat: \u201cO God, I purpose, in obedience to Thy\ncommands, to abide here until the setting of the sun.\u201d With this they\nmust say aloud a prayer which runs: \u201cI praise Thee, I glorify Thee,\nO Lord; there is no God but Thee. I have burdened my conscience with\nwrongdoing, and now acknowledge my sins. O, forgive me my trespasses,\nO Lord, for, verily, Thou art the best forgiver.\u201d Nor is this all; for\nthe pilgrims, having declared their intention and confessed their sins,\nmust pray for their parents, their relatives, their co-religionists,\ntheir servants, and their slaves. The number of persons thus honoured\nin the remembrance should not be less than forty; and for this act\nof grace the pilgrims will be rewarded one hundred thousandfold.\nFurthermore, in the course of the day what we have called the Song\nof the Winding-sheet or Talbih must be repeatedly intoned, as must\nalso the Tamjid or hymn of praise, and the glorification of God\u2019s\nomnipotence, which is styled Takbir. Then, when the sun is setting, the\npilgrims turn their faces in the direction of the Ka\u2019bah and recite\nthis prayer: \u201cI take refuge in Thee, O Lord, from poverty, and from\nthe evil that may come out of the day or the night; I repent of all\nmy wicked deeds, trusting in Thy gracious pardon; and I seek shelter\nfrom fear in Thy protection: O Lord, I repent, I repent, I repent.\u201d\nThe second \u201ccolumn\u201d of the H\u00e1jj takes place immediately after sunset,\nwhen the pilgrims rush forward impetuously from Arafat to Muzdalifah,\nin order to remember God near the holy monument (in Arabic, al Masher\nal har\u00e1m), where, on a mountain on the thither side of Muzdalifah, the\nProphet is said to have stood praying until his face shone as one who\nhad seen his Lord. There the pilgrims pass the night, and at the hour\nof morning prayer they say: \u201cO Lord, in obedience to Thy commands, I\nbreak my morning at Thy Masher al har\u00e1m.\u201d Thence they proceed to Mina,\nthrough which valley they passed on their road to Arafat, and there the\nstoning of the devil and the slaying of the sacrifices, two notable\n\u201ccolumns\u201d of the pilgrimage, are performed. This is the Youm-ul-Nahre\nor Day of Sacrifice.\n\nOn the eve of Youm-ul-Tarvih my friends and I went to stay the night\nwith a Persian grandee who had taken up his lodgings in a large house\nnear the Harem. We will call his name Ardashir Morad Khan. His was in\nmany respects an exceptional character. He had acquired a knowledge\nof the French tongue without learning to detest the French nation,\nand had studied the Darwinian theory of the origin of species without\naping the European. His conversation was grave and impersonal. He was\ncommunicative without being confidential. He never betrayed a trust,\nnor blabbed his personal secrets. From him I learned all I know of the\npolitical situation in Persia; and the Youm-ul-Tarvih was six hours\ngone--remember, in the East, the day begins and ends with the setting\nof the sun--ere we closed the debate and flung ourselves down to rest.\nMorning broke. Ardashir Morad Khan, having performed his ablutions, was\nsaying his prayers, and I was drinking a cup of tea when there came a\nknock at the door, and a Persian friend of ours rushed into the room.\nHis excitement knew no bounds. He stood bereft of speech from sheer\nlack of breath; but his face spoke volumes.\n\n\u201cWell, Sheykh Eissa,\u201d said I, \u201cwhat is the news?\u201d\n\nArdashir Morad Khan dropped his rosary and looked up, listening. Sheykh\nEissa coughed as if to clear his gorge, and cried--\n\n\u201cMy manuscript on the Bedouins is lost; the precious volume has been\nstolen! For the last seventeen years, as I told you yesterday, I have\nwandered from tribe to tribe as a talisman-monger in order that I might\nstudy the customs and the character of the Bedouins, and give to the\nworld a faithful history of my experiences. I had promised to show you\nthe result of my labour, and now I am constrained by fate to re-shape\nmy impressions. Youm-ul-Tarvih? W\u00e1h! How can my soul repose?\u201d\n\nI handed the rebellious little man a cup of tea. Having taken a sip,\nhe reached out for the sugar. \u201cYour tea is as bitter as mortality,\u201d\nhe said, and straightway converted it into syrup. I recalled a pretty\nPersian story. \u201cPerhaps,\u201d I replied, \u201cthe clay from which the cup was\nmade was once man.\u201d The fancy, though borrowed, restored the Sheykh\u2019s\ngood humour. \u201cIt is the burned clay of my thief\u2019s grandfather,\u201d he\ndeclared, with a quaint uplifting of his shaggy eyebrows, \u201cor I am an\ninfidel. My precious manuscript--how can to-day be Youm-ul-Tarvih?\nAssuredly it is the Day of Sacrifice.\u201d Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed now entered the\nroom. He said: \u201cI have engaged a _moghavem_, what we Persians call a\n_hamlehdar_; he will be here with his mules and camels at midday; and\nour tents are even now on their way to the Hill of Arafat, where an\naristocratic position has been reserved for them.\u201d\n\n\u201cSurely you mean the Valley of Mina?\u201d I asked. \u201cNo, no,\u201d broke in our\nhost, Ardashir Morad Khan; \u201cthe custom of sleeping at Mina on the\noutward journey was abolished long ago on account of the delay its\nobservance occasioned, and that for no purpose that would warrant----\u201d\n\nSheykh Eissa leaped to his feet. \u201cI ask pardon of God,\u201d he cried. \u201cWhy,\nthe Prophet himself was accustomed to halt at Mina from six hours after\nsunrise on Youm-ul-Tarvih until sunrise next morning, and there he\nused to say the five prescribed prayers. Surely that fact alone would\nwarrant our observance of the law?\u201d\n\n\u201cWell,\u201d I replied, \u201cI must confess that I am delighted to know that we\nshall have more roomy quarters for the night. The Valley of Mina is a\nmere gully. According to my calculation there must be scarcely less\nthan three hundred thousand pilgrims in this city.\u201d\n\n\u201cSay four hundred thousand and you will not exaggerate the number,\u201d\ninterrupted our host. \u201cWhat is your opinion, Sheykh Eissa?\u201d\n\n\u201cThe pilgrims are innumerable this year, your Excellency. It is not\npossible to count them. The angels in heaven are not more numerous.\nNine years ago the pilgrims outnumbered the present calculation of our\ndistinguished friend. This year Youm-ul-Nahre falls on a Friday, and I\nam sure there never was before a concourse so great in the City of God.\u201d\n\n\u201cI admire the beauty of your flight, Sheykh Eissa,\u201d I said, dryly.\n\u201cBut let us deal with facts. I came here by the last pilgrim boat.\nSome two hundred thousand passports had then been handed in at Jiddah\nby the seafaring pilgrims. Do you mean to say that the number of H\u00e1j\u00eds\nwho have crossed the desert are equal to the number of those who have\ncrossed the seas from every corner of the Muslim world? I will never\nbelieve it. The advantages are all in favour of the oversea route. It\nis cheaper, it is quicker, it is safer, and it is perhaps less tedious.\nFor a fare of a few dollars any starveling can go by steamer from Suez\nto Jiddah. The result is that the old caravan routes with the one\nexception of the Syrian are, comparatively speaking, deserted. For\ninstance, the Muslims of Morocco and North Africa are now conveyed to\nMecca by sea. The contingent sent by Persia down the Gulf outnumbers\nthat which journeys across Arabia. True, the Syrian caravan still\nmaintains not a little of its ancient glory. This year it is unusually\ngigantic, containing as it does, in my opinion, not less than seventeen\nthousand camels. The Bedouins are also, I admit, in force; so let us\nsay there are two hundred and fifty thousand pilgrims in Mecca all\ntold. We shall have a better opportunity of testing the accuracy of\nthe figures when we are encamped on the Plain of Arafat. But be the\nnumber what it may, it is, at the lowest estimate, far too great for\nme not to congratulate myself that the custom of sleeping overnight in\nthat death-trap of Mina has been done away with.\u201d\n\nSheykh Eissa smiled. \u201cIt would be impossible to extol its charms as\na camping-ground. But I, for one, remember that, though the halt on\nthe outward journey has been abolished, there we must stay for three\nor at the least for two days after slaying the sacrifices. For the\nrest, I am far from sharing your love of the oversea route from the\noutlying dominions of the Prophet. In my youth I travelled by caravan\nfrom Morocco to Medina and thence to this holy city. Along the northern\ncoast of Africa, through Algeria, Tunis, and Tripoli, to the Land of\nPyramids, we wandered, halting for one day in every six days in order\nthat our camels might gather strength to sustain the hardships of the\nroad; and in Cairo we joined the Egyptian caravan, whence we proceeded\ntogether on our way--an endless string of pilgrims, glorying in our\nliberty, praising God for His gifts of heaven and earth, burying our\ndead where they fell--now in the Sinaitic Peninsula, and now in the\ndesert to the south, until we reached at last the sepulchre of the\nProphet and the place of his birth. I deny not that God created the sea\nas well as the desert. Nay, nay, spare your eloquence. My stomach at\nsea is as inconstant as the waters. I am a Bedouin at heart. However,\nyou must stay at Mina for three or for two days after the Day of\nSacrifice.\u201d\n\n\u201cIf the cholera fiend should not drive us hence in search of refuge,\u201d I\ninterpolated. \u201cThe epidemic is on the increase. The sacrifices slain,\nwe shall be only too glad to make good our escape to the sea.\u201d\n\n\u201cTrue,\u201d said Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed, grimly, \u201cif the cholera fiend should not\nchoose for us an underground route to a city of eternal rest! If it\nplease God, I shall conduct your Excellency to Jiddah so soon as the\nsun shall set on Youm-ul-Nahre. For I have no wish to fall a victim to\nthe fell disease, Sheykh Eissa.\u201d\n\nWith the foregoing words my guide bade us good-bye and went about his\nbusiness in my service. He came back, however, almost immediately. \u201cMay\nit please your Excellency,\u201d he said, addressing Ardashir Morad Khan,\n\u201cKhalil is fallen sick of the cholera and is even now at the point of\ndeath.\u201d Now, Khalil was our host\u2019s steward and had set out for the\nHill of Arafat in charge of the tents and baggage. Ardashir Morad Khan\nlooked extremely grave. \u201cGod have mercy on his soul!\u201d he cried. Then,\n\u201cWhere is he now?\u201d he asked; \u201cand who has taken his place?\u201d Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed\nreplied that the man had been brought back on a bier to Mecca, and was\nthen lying in a cellar attached to the kitchen of the house in which we\nwere. A panic would have followed this statement had not our host cried\nout in a voice of sternest command: \u201cI must request you all to be calm.\nWe must set the servants an example of courage. Are we not the slaves\nof God?... Well, Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed, who has taken over the control of our\ncaravan?\u201d \u201cThe cook of your Excellency\u2019s household,\u201d replied my guide,\n\u201cassumed the direction of affairs. I have done my best to restore the\nconfidence of your Excellency\u2019s household. The servants need a firm\nhand to keep them from running away.\u201d\n\nSo Ardashir Morad Khan left the room, and when he came back I requested\npermission to see the sick man. The other guests, who were sitting\nround the room with their backs to the walls, jumped up at once and\nmade a low bow to me as I passed by to the servant\u2019s quarters. The\nMeccan houses are generally lower than the surface of the street\nwithout, and when this is the case a flight of stone steps leads from\nthe first floor into the court round which the apartments range. I\nfound Khalil in the cellar. He was sinking fast. Nobody had dared to\nstay with him. His eyes were dried up in the sockets and blackened\nall round the rims. Not an ounce of flesh remained on his body. The\nstench was unendurable. The bearers, having stretched his legs in the\ndirection of the Ka\u2019bah and given him a cup of sour milk wherewith\nto quench his thirst, had gone away, leaving him a prey to the fell\ndisease. Compassion rent my heart, but I could do nothing: remedy I\nhad none. I saw, moreover, that he was too far gone to recover, and,\nindeed, scarcely was he aware of my presence than his new-born hope was\nstrangled by death. \u201cY\u00e1--Allah!\u201d he muttered, and that was the last\ntime he drew breath. Having rejoined my host, I went with him into the\ncity.\n\nThe streets were packed with camels, brought in thousands by the\nBedouins and by the Syrian and the Egyptian drivers. Round about the\nHarem the _moghavems_ tried our endurance to the utmost. These are the\nmen who conduct the pilgrims by camel caravan to the Hill of Arafat\nand back, supplying all their needs on the journey. There is no fixed\nprice for the hiring of a camel, but by dint of persistent bargaining\nit is possible to get one for five shillings, and each _moghavem_ may\nhave as many as fifty pilgrims under him. We were tormented by these\ncontractors more than I had ever been tormented by the Indian jugglers\noutside the gates of any hotel in Bombay. They were as plentiful as\nflies in Egypt and not less irritating. Perhaps that is the fault of\nthe pilgrims themselves. They begin by feigning indifference, and when\nthey have reduced the _moghavems_ to a haughty silence they assume\nan air of eager business. Thus the _moghavems_ have learned from\nexperience never to take no for an answer.\n\nOut of the madding crowd the talk was all of the cholera epidemic.\nOn my way to a coffee-house I happened to meet a Turkish official,\nan acquaintance of mine, and he gave it as his conviction that the\ndeath-rate had risen to over five hundred victims a day. He advised\nme to leave the Valley of Mina at sunset on the tenth of the moon.\nIn the coffee-house a Syrian pilgrim entered into conversation with\nme. He told many stories of his pilgrimage across the desert: of\nthe discomforts and the perils of the road, of the cruelties of\nthe drivers, and the almost inconceivable presumption of his own\n_moghavem_. With the immense caravan had come the Syrian Mahmil, in\nthe charge of a Pasha, and the Surreh, in the care of another Turkish\ndignitary. This Surreh is the pension sent from Constantinople to\nthe officials of the Harem. It was formerly the accumulated hoard of\ncenturies of legacies. It is now managed by the Imperial Treasury. A\nstrong force of cavalry accompanied the caravan, which, according to\nthe pilgrim in question, counted some eighteen thousand camels.\n\nThe number stated was, perhaps, an exaggeration, though a pardonable\none, for the string which I saw on reaching the Plain of Sheykh Mahmud,\nwhere the caravan had been encamped, and which was now on the move,\nextended for miles and miles. I determined then and there to avoid the\ncrush on the road by remaining in Mecca until the day was far spent.\nIt was four hours before sunset ere I could tear myself away from the\nPlain of Sheykh Mahmud. The endless string of camels and of pilgrim\nwayfarers was an unforgettable sight, and on my return to my host\u2019s\nhouse I met crowds of Syrian and Egyptian stragglers, mounted and on\nfoot, proceeding up the Moalla to rejoin the immense caravan which was\nalready threading its way to the mountains.\n\nSeyyid \u2019Al\u00ed gave me a hearty welcome when I entered the house. He had\nscoured the city, he said, in search of me, and had given me up for\ndead. I found everything in readiness for our journey, and when we\nhad smoked a kaly\u00e1n or two and quenched our thirst we got astride our\nambling mules and made for the Hill of Arafat.\n\nNow, when my friends and I left Mecca for the Hill of Arafat it was\nabout four o\u2019clock in the afternoon of Youm-ul-Tarvih. Late as it was,\nthe streets were still packed with men and beasts. In the indescribable\nconfusion steady progress was impossible, and to the universal disorder\nwas added the danger of a general stampede on the part of our mules.\nThe uncertain tempers of those animals of ours taxed our patience to\nthe utmost. We had hired them in the belief that they were tractable\ncreatures trained to amble. We rode them in terror of our lives,\nconscious of our impotence to control their paces. Now they would\ncharge through a crowd in a panic blind and headlong, and next they\nwould stand stock-still in a sweat of suspicion at the mere sight of a\nstraw or a splash of water on the road. Our _moghavem_, having a lively\ninkling of our rising indignation, assured us with haughty unconcern\nthat we had been wiser to have followed his advice and ridden camels.\nWith one thing and another it took us quite an hour to reach the\noutskirts of the city. All the people we had met wore \u00edhram except the\ndrivers and the servants, who were in their ordinary clothes.\n\n[Illustration: AN EGYPTIAN DONKEY AND ITS DRIVER.]\n\nOutside Mecca the road widens, taking an abrupt turn from a northerly\nto a north-easterly direction. We passed innumerable huts and Bedouin\ntents, we skirted the Jebel\u00e9-Nur or Mountain of Light on our left, and\nthen, swerving back to the north, we kept a sharp look-out for the\npitfalls which beset our every step. In no case were the mountains\nmany miles away. The colour of them changed gradually from a gloomy\ndrab to a deep brown. Many camels had knocked up and lay festering\nin the sun. Along the route dead pilgrims had been buried so close\nto the surface that the odour of putrefaction polluted the air. The\nstench of decaying flesh was positively sickening. Again and again I\nhad to hold my nose and cry aloud, \u201cAstaghferallah Menash-Shaitan: I\nseek shelter in God from Satan.\u201d This phrase was used more often than\nany other, and in varying moods and with many meanings. Every time an\nanimal fell down its driver would mutter the expression. If the animal\nremained obstinate, refusing to rise, the driver would rub his hands\nand repeat the words. An Arab Sheykh who rode behind me took refuge in\nGod against the devil whenever he failed in his attempt to get past\nme. This was merely a sign of impatience. Had he given vent to his\nfeelings by saying the formula sixty-nine times in quick succession I\nmight possibly have made way for him for no other reason than because\nI should have expected him to strike a blow in defence of his claim to\nprecede me. For the Prophet has said: \u201cUtter not a word in wroth until\nyou have repeated seventy Astaghferallahs.\u201d Believe me, it is a word\nto conjure with. As a mark of ironic negation it is more convincing\nthan the strongest affirmative. In a rocky pass I asked Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed,\nwhose face had turned copper-red, and whose lips were scorched, if he\nwas thirsty. \u201cAstaghferallah, y\u00e1-Moulai!\u201d he cried, smiling ironically.\nLater on, in the neck of the pass, where two men could not ride\nabreast, I had proof of the expression being used by way of a courteous\nrefusal. Riding far ahead of us two mull\u00e1s in \u00edhram, with shaven heads\nand unkempt beards, drew rein simultaneously, each requesting the other\nto pass on. This exchange of punctilio was most unseasonable. So long\ndid the two priests bandy courtesy, crying \u201cAstaghferallah\u201d one after\nthe other, that the word was soon used in a contrary sense by the\npilgrims in the rear.\n\nWe waited about five minutes for the intervening pilgrims to ride on\nin single file, and when we reached the spot it was to find that the\nroad lay between two rocks some four feet apart. One of my friends,\nquoting a well-worn proverb, bent towards me and remarked: \u201cWhy do they\nnot remove those stones out of the path of the Faithful?\u201d Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed\nobserved a priest in front of him, and replied significantly, \u201cI behold\na bigger stone in my path!\u201d The priest, who was reading the Kur\u00e1n atop\nof his camel, overheard the words, and tugged his camel round that\nhe might face the sceptical rascal. The camel made a vicious snap at\nSeyyid \u2019Al\u00ed\u2019s mule. The mule, finding itself between two fires--the\nrock on the one side and the camel on the other--sat down on its\nhaunches; and my guide, crying out the word, \u201cAstaghferallah,\u201d came a\ncropper, striking his head against a stone. The upper portion of his\n\u00edhram fell off. \u201cWas it you, Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed who fell?\u201d cried Sheykh Eissa.\nSeyyid \u2019Al\u00ed, all bruised and bleeding, crept from under the mule\u2019s\nlegs, and picked up his sacred habit. \u201cAstaghferallah!\u201d he replied; \u201cit\nwas not I who fell. It was my \u00edhram. Unfortunately I happened to be in\nit.\u201d A burst of laughter followed and then a shrill scream. \u201cI verily\nbelieve,\u201d said Sheykh Eissa, addressing me, \u201cthat your guide would make\na kitten \u2018eat a dozen sticks\u2019 if it mispronounced the Arabic letter\n\u2018ain\u2019 in the feline word \u2018maou! maou!\u2019\u201d\n\nBut I had turned whence the scream had come and made him no reply. My\nguide\u2019s mishap, as I saw on looking ahead, had excited the compassion\nof a lady in a palanquin. She was a Meccan. No sooner did she see the\nblood than she uttered a shriek of deepest commiseration. Then she\nrecovered herself, and cooed out a couple of orders. Her warmth of\nheart was now as evident as had been her emotional susceptibility. In\none breath she summoned her husband and sent him to Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed with\nan offer of a certain famous prescription for wounds and bruises. In\nthe next she implored her _moghavem_ to ransack on one of the camels a\nchest that contained, among other things, a small bottle of scorpion\noil. It was the remedy in question. This is the way it is prepared:\nthe stings having been extracted, a couple of black scorpions are\ndried in the sun, are then put in a bottle holding about half a pint\nof castor-oil, and in this they are kept corked up for the space of\na year. The unwilling Arab made demur, pleading that the delay would\ninconvenience the pilgrims behind her own caravan; but she reduced\nhim to obedience with a look. \u201cBe sharp!\u201d she crooned, as he swung\nreluctantly on his heel; so sweet was her voice that without another\nsign of hesitation he leaped forward to carry out her wishes. The camel\nwas made to kneel down by the wayside; then the chest was overhauled.\nBy the time her husband had returned the precious oil was found and\ngiven to him. \u201cTake it,\u201d she said, still gazing in \u2019Al\u00ed\u2019s countenance\nover her husband\u2019s shoulder, \u201cand tell him to use it unsparingly lest\nthe beauty of his face should be ruined.\u201d Meccan gentlewomen allow\nthemselves a certain freedom of speech and action, otherwise a less\npresentable man than this woman\u2019s husband might have been jealous\nenough to resent the frank admiration in her voice. Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed, having\nlaid on the oil by means of a wooden bodkin used for the purpose,\nhanded the bottle back to the husband, who pressed him to accept the\nrest of its contents, which would be useful, he said, in case of\nfurther accident. My guide, however, refused with many thanks, saying\nthat he could not find it in his heart to deprive the giver of the\npossibility of exercising her compassion on the next unfortunate she\nmight chance to meet. And with this our respective caravans moved on.\n\nBefore reaching the Valley of Mina a serious accident happened, this\ntime to a Malay pilgrim--an accident that proved fatal to him, for he\nwas crushed to death in a stampede of mules. I am happy to say that\nour own caravan was not concerned in the disaster. Two women swooned\nat the sight, and all the other women round about raised their voices\nin bitterest lamentation, as though they had lost a near relative.\nA quarter of an hour after, when the unfortunate man had been laid\nto rest in his shallow grave, the two women who had fainted fell\nto prattling merrily as if nothing untoward had occurred. In fact,\nthe chief characteristics of the Oriental woman are her absolute\nhelplessness outside the restricted limits of her special sphere of\ninfluence, and the swiftness with which she passes from one emotion\nto another. There is no transition in her moods. She passes from the\ntearful or the terrible to the mirthful or the ridiculous at a single\nbound of her mercurial temperament. She is at once more womanish and\nmore womanly than her European sisters. Not less marked, on this\njourney of ours to the holiest mountain of Isl\u00e1m, were the vanity of\nthe wealthier classes as it preened itself among the men, and the\nunfailing good humour of the mob. A Persian nobleman, to whom my host\nhad attached himself, had a special chamberlain whose sole duty it was\nto hand his lord and master a cigarette whenever he felt disposed to\nsmoke. Another grandee of the same nationality, if he had occasion to\ndrop his reins in order to adjust his beard, would cry out at the top\nof his voice to his _moghavem_, saying: \u201cBoy, come here! Hand me the\nreins!\u201d preserving the while an expression of sphinx-like aloofness\nfrom all human kind.\n\nAs for the good temper of the crowd, it was due, I avow, to the\nsoberness of each and every individual in it. Of drunkenness there\nwas nothing on the road so far as my experience went, though I am\nconstrained to admit that a good many pilgrims of my acquaintance had\nsmuggled along with them a bottle or two of brandy apiece which, as a\nsafeguard against prying eyes, had been labelled \u201ccholera mixture.\u201d\nWhen I say the mob was sober I only mean that it was not drunk. Its\nhumour, of course, was individualised. It varied with the character\nof the unit. Some of the pilgrims were lively, frivolous, even rowdy\nin a playful sort of way, meaning no mischief. These chatted and\nchaffed and flirted, killing monotony in many a breach of etiquette.\nThey being theoretically resigned to the will of Allah, were resolved\nin practice to reflect Omnipotence in a merry mood. Others, rapt\nand devotional, intoned the holy and instructive Kur\u00e1n, as they sat\non their camels or limped barefooted over the stony ground. Prayers\nwere muttered, religious hymns were sung, tears were shed, tales were\ntold, amid the deafening shouts of the drivers and the lofty orders\nof the _moghavems_. Conspicuous in their pastime on the road were the\nBedouins. Either they beguiled the tedium of the march by singing\nlove-songs that acted like magic on the listeners, or else they showed\nthat their weariness under restraint was invincible by frequent\nsalivation. For yawning is almost exclusively a European habit.\nOriental folk rarely yawn in public. If they are bored they give odd\nlittle sham coughs instead, while the Bedouins get rid of their moral\nphlegm or call attention to its existence by expectorating. Nor is the\nhabit regarded even by the most courteous among them as offensive: it\nis hallowed by custom. The virtue of politeness is relative. In Great\nBritain, for example, the very sound of the word \u201cbelch\u201d could only\nbe described as unspeakable; whereas the act itself in many Eastern\ncountries breathes grace and gratitude after meat on the part of the\nguests. The more often it is repeated by them the better pleased is\ntheir host. Thus it is not in a carping frame of mind that I have\nwritten down whatever in the manners of my co-religionists excited my\nquasi-European squeamishness.\n\nNow, the road, before entering the narrow Wadi of Mina, in which a\nvillage stands, narrows into a gap and climbs a flight of stone steps.\nThere the pilgrims thought it necessary, as, indeed, I suppose it was,\nto call a halt, while they performed a two-prostration prayer, and in\nthe chaos of confusion which arose I was separated from my companions,\nor shoved forward by the pressure of the crowd behind me. I was about\nto force my way back to them when I caught sight of a young Syrian\ngirl sitting astride an ass. In the excitement of the moment she had\nforgotten to cover her face, and our eyes met. On the instant all\nthought of returning left me, for the girl was good to behold. The\ncaravan she was with numbered about fifty people, and with it I rode\nalong through the village into the dreary gully beyond. Every now and\nthen we would glance at each other, the maiden and I. She was shy, and\nI was anything but bold, breathing, in her neighbourhood, a spell so\npure. So on we journeyed, side by side, I covertly watching her every\nmovement, and she playing hide-and-seek with my eyes, until at last I\nsummoned the courage to smile on her. By chance, or I know not by what\nblessing, the smile was returned, and so heartening was its effect on\nme that my whole being seemed to throb, \u201cnot from one heart, but from a\nhundred!\u201d Never was I so near to a complete surrender to love at first\nsight. In the meantime the sun was going down behind the mountains in\nthe west; shopkeepers were busy erecting their booths in readiness for\nthe return of the H\u00e1jj on the Day of Sacrifice; torches were lighted,\ncasting a lurid glare around; cannons were fired and rockets flung\naloft to announce to the weary pilgrims the hour of evening prayer.\nThere, in the ruddy light about us and the gathering darkness beyond,\nmy maiden and I knelt down, obeying the call of the faith, within arm\u2019s\nreach of each other. In my heart of hearts I prayed that God would give\nme one day a helpmate as sweet as my companion.\n\nNot a word had passed between us, nor did we exchange more than a\nglance, when the caravan got under way again. To my dismay there came\nalong, with furtive tread, an ugly-looking Syrian, barefoot and old,\nand entered into conversation with me, placing himself, with an air of\nsuspicion that nettled, and a look of proprietorship that alarmed me,\nbetween the maiden and myself. I thought that he might be her father,\nbut he said he was her husband. Instinctively I drew rein, and soon she\nwas lost to me in the blackness of the night. Caravan after caravan\nwent by, but there I remained, meditating first on the ways of the\nveil-worn sex, and then on my hapless lot, cut off as I was from my\ncompanions, with only a few mejidis in silver in a small bag round my\nneck. By and by the moon rose, and I pulled myself together. In truth,\nthe pangs of a healthy appetite began to clamour for satisfaction,\nand so I pressed forward until I reached the top of the valley, which\nwas simply blocked with pilgrims, all hurrying as fast as they could\ngo to the Mosque of Khaif. There I alighted, and, leading my mule\nby the bridle, made to cross the open space in front, where several\ncoffee booths offered refreshment; but my obstinate beast would not\nbudge, pull as I might. Not for nothing do the Easterns call them\n\u201cthe children of donkeys.\u201d They are certainly more stubborn and more\nuncertain than their mothers. Many paupers were hanging about, and any\none of them would have been only too glad to take the mule in tow, but\nthe danger was that he would run away with it--such cases of theft are\nof frequent occurrence on the pilgrimage--and therefore I called to a\nbooth-keeper asking him to send out his man to take charge of the beast\nthat I might go and quench my thirst and smoke a pipe at his stall.\nOnce rid of my stupid burden, I pushed my way into the booth which was\ncrowded with pilgrims of the poorer classes. My sudden appearance among\nthem raised not a little astonishment. I fraternised at once with a\nneedy Bedouin, and together we smoked a pipe of peace. Suddenly a gun\nwent off outside the booth, the report echoing and re-echoing among the\nmountains. \u201cA blood-feud!\u201d cried my companion, leaping to his feet,\nthen ran out of doors.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nON THE ROAD TO ARAFAT\n\n_(Concluded)_\n\n\nMore shots followed in quick succession: everybody in the booth made\na rush for the door, except the booth-keeper and myself: and we stood\nstaring at each other for some moments without uttering a single word.\nBut my companion did not long remain silent under the questioning look\nI turned upon him. \u201cThe sons of dogs!\u201d he cried: \u201cthey have not paid\nme!\u201d and, before I could even smile at the humour of the situation, he\nwas gone.\n\nAccordingly, I made haste to overtake him, laughing quietly to myself\nas I observed, on reaching the open air, that the artful rogues had\nmade good their escape under cover of the general panic, thus gaining\nfor themselves, in the estimation of their indignant dupe, a reputation\nof cunning aforethought, which nothing I could say succeeded in\nshaking. When I assured him that they had merely turned the blood-feud\nto their own advantage, seizing the occasion as a source of profit to\nthemselves, he informed me that there are a thousand and one ways of\nlevying _bakhsh\u00edsh_ by night, every one of which is practised during\nthe H\u00e1jj season, by the freebooters of Hejaz. \u201cBy Allah!\u201d he cried,\n\u201cI say, the shots were fired by the Bedouins as a signal to those\ncustomers of mine. They are in league with one another, and the money\nthat should be in my possession will soon be divided among those\nlawless tribesmen.\u201d\n\nWhilst I was arguing with him, however, about fifty clansmen rode\nswiftly by on dromedaries, and disappeared in the direction of Arafat.\nHardly had they passed out of sight than we heard the reports of their\nrifles, and after a little while the more distant battle-cries of their\nopponents. \u201cYou only heard the pursued,\u201d said I, \u201cbut the pursuers you\nhave seen. You would not believe your ears; do you believe your eyes?\u201d\n\n\u201cPerhaps you are right,\u201d he admitted, with surly reluctance. \u201cBut is\nmy loss any the less? Take care lest you yourself become the argument\nof your present attitude towards me in my trouble. Those men belonged\nto the tribe of Hozail, and they are famous marksmen. To travel\nalone to-night might mean death. The wisest thing that you could do,\ntherefore, would be to await the arrival of the next caravan.--Tell me,\nare you rich?\u201d\n\nI untied the little bag I wore around my neck (the sacred habit having\nno pockets), and emptied its contents into the palm of my hand. \u201cThat\nis all the money I have about me,\u201d I replied; \u201cbut my present poverty\nshould be my best protector on the road.\u201d\n\n\u201cNo, no!\u201d he cried: \u201cthe people believe you to be rich, and therein\nlies the danger of your riding by yourself.... Ah, here comes a band of\npilgrims; thank God,\u201d he added, as he pocketed the _bakhsh\u00edsh_ I gave\nhim: \u201cAllah be with you!\u201d\n\nThe caravan to which I now attached myself was composed of eighteen\nlean camels laden with the effects of some eighty Malay wayfarers, and\nof three half-starved asses belonging to the _moghavem_, on one of\nwhich was strapped the corpse of an old man. A torch-bearer led the\nway on foot. He was a man with such an infamous past that even his\nfellow-pilgrims, disreputable as they appeared, held aloof from him, in\nterror of their lives. Still, when I came to scrutinise his appearance\nat close quarters, I could not find it in my heart to withhold the\ncompassion that his feeble condition aroused in me. As his weakness\ngrew more evident at every step, so the strength of will, which alone\nkept him from sinking, seemed to point to some concentrated purpose\nthat he was determined to accomplish. Whilst I was wondering what this\nfixed idea of his might be, his companions whispered among themselves,\nand then came to me and said that he had run amuck in Penang, doing\nto death his wife and family; and they entreated me earnestly not\nto enter into conversation with him, lest he should be seized with\nanother fit of homicidal madness and do me some serious hurt. But\nthis story, terrible as it was, merely increased the interest I took\nin the man. I pitied him the more, because, whatever insane impulses\nmight have ruled his past life, there could be no doubt of his being\nnow possessed with a passion to reach the goal that should redeem him\nfrom the consequences of his misdeeds. That goal was the Mountain of\nMercy, as the Muslims love to call the Hill of Arafat, and thus the\npilgrimage was to him an act of penance, a penitential journey: every\nbreath he drew was a token of his remorse and his every step, a proof\nof his yearning to gain salvation. The Malays, if I may judge from my\nobservations of these specimens of the race, are lacking in the gift\nof self-restraint on the spur of their emotions. They never attempt to\nassume the virtues which they do not possess. If they are afraid, they\nlay bare their souls, and are not ashamed of their cowardice. Their\nnatures are in keeping with the jungles of their native country--crude,\nchaotic, rank as the undergrowth, and as responsive to their tameless\ninstincts as are the tiger, the bison, and the crocodile. The more\nclosely I studied the torch-bearer\u2019s demeanour, the more convinced\nI became of its sincerity. He bore his sufferings with a stoical\nendurance, to which his companions were blind, or at least indifferent,\nleaving him to gather what encouragement he might from a word of\nsympathy that I gave him. Raising his cadaverous eyes to mine, he\nthanked me with a smile more eloquent than words, more moving than\ntears. It seemed to say: \u201cBrother, thy loving-kindness has revealed me\nto myself, and, behold, I am afraid.\u201d A lump rose in my throat so that\nI could scarcely speak. \u201cBe of good courage,\u201d I whispered: \u201ctake refuge\nin God from thyself, and all will be forgiven thee.\u201d The words renewed\nhis purpose, and, knitting his brow in a frown of lithe resolution, he\nstaggered on over the rugged pathway.\n\nThe road, winding through several declivities of the valley, dips at\nlength into the basin-plain of the surrounding mountains. There it\ntakes a sharp turn to the east, which direction it keeps until on the\nlimits of Arafat a place called Alemeyn is reached. When we were midway\nbetween the mosque of Khaif and the Hill of Arafat four of the camels\ndied from exhaustion, and the loads they bore had to be divided among\nthe freshest of the animals that were left. Whilst this was being done\nby the _moghavem_, our torch-bearer, in a state of wild excitement\nat the interruption, flung down the guiding light, and then fell to\npacing restlessly to and fro, reeling in his gait like a drunken man,\nand muttering incoherently to himself; nor would he consent to pick up\nthe torch, despite the _moghavem\u2019s_ repeated orders, until the caravan\nresumed its march.\n\nShortly after, another delay was occasioned by the death of a pilgrim\nwho had walked all the way from Mecca supported on his brother\u2019s arm.\nThe _moghavem_ refused to set the corpse on one of his asses (that\nit might be buried, as the brother wished, on the holier ground of\nArafat), declaring that an additional burden would break the back of\nhis stoutest donkey. On this the brother burst into a storm of grief,\nand my heart so ached for him in his disappointment that I volunteered\nto bear the body beside me on my mule. A straggler, overhearing\nthis offer, cried out in broken Arabic: \u201cIf you do not lend me your\nassistance, I too shall assuredly fall down and die.\u201d Seeing that the\npoor wretch was indeed worn out with sickness and fatigue, I made a\nvirtue of necessity and dismounted, telling him that the price of\nhis taking my place was that he should take care of the corpse. His\nreadiness to comply with this condition, which would carry with it the\nnecessity of religious purification, proved him to be no malingerer,\nand a second glance at him was enough to assure me that he had not many\nmore hours to live.\n\nAll being ready, I laid hold of the mule by the bridle, and led the\ndying and the dead to the front of the caravan. To my surprise, I saw\nthat the torch-bearer, in his anxiety to make the best use of his\nremaining strength, was some distance away, and so determined was I to\nkeep in touch with him, and, if necessary, force him to accept my help,\nthat I broke into a run, as fast as I could lay my tender bare feet to\nthe ground. When I came up to him it was to hear a volley of musketry\nwhich seemed to proceed from a distance of not more than two hundred\nyards ahead of us; and, not long after, there came, from the rear, the\never-nearing tramp of a troop of horsemen riding at full speed.\n\nThe terror of the Malays, wholly undisguised, drove them into one\nanother\u2019s arms. Not knowing which way to turn, they all huddled\ntogether like a flock of sheep, while the torch-bearer, whose one\nidea was proof against any danger that might beset him, broke silence\nfor the first time, and derided them unmercifully because of their\ncowardice.\n\nThen out stepped the Arab _moghavem_, as shepherd of the\ncowering rabble, and cried: \u201cBe not afraid, but keep close\nto me!\u201d And on this, he rushed quickly to the fore, shouting\nout at the top of his voice, in the Bedouin dialect of Hejaz:\n\u201cY\u00e1-Aghadin-ul-ghoum-Nahn-Meskinna-al-Zowarin!\u201d\n\nThis sentence, \u201cO tribal chieftains, we are only the poor of the\npilgrims,\u201d he kept on repeating as he strode boldly forward: every now\nand then he turned round in order to hearten the cowering wretches that\ncame trembling after him; but, before he had advanced a hundred paces,\nthe galloping in the rear grew so loud that he ordered the caravan to\nhalt and take whatever cover it could devise.\n\nWith a swiftness of decision, born of a common fear that the horsemen\nwere Bedouins on the warpath, the terrified pilgrims made the camels\nkneel down at the sides of the road, and entrenched themselves behind\nthem, scarcely daring to breathe, lest their whereabouts should be\nrevealed. And no sooner had they flung themselves on the ground than\nthe troop came rushing past, proving itself to be a squadron of\nSher\u00edfian cavalry in pursuit of the freebooters. Much to the joy of\nthe pilgrims, the firing ceased almost immediately after, and the\nskirmishers in front of us were heard to beat a rapid retreat on Arafat.\n\nOn the silence that ensued, came the tinkle of an approaching caravan,\nto which, on the principle that there is safety in numbers, we resolved\nto attach ourselves. The new-comers, forty in number, were Indian\nsettlers of Mecca, passive-eyed and wheedling of tongue, and with us\nthey were only too willing to make common cause, bearing themselves\ntowards us with that spirit of brotherhood which is perhaps the\nmost humanising characteristic of the Islamic faith. Within half an\nhour\u2019s march of Alemeyn, our united party was overtaken by a band of\nprofessional men and women--musicians, singers, and dancers--who,\nmounted on gaily-caparisoned camels, presented a vivid contrast to our\npoverty-stricken pilgrims on foot. As each one went by, he or she was\ngreeted by our greybeards with loud derisive cries of \u201cAstaghferallah!\nAstaghferallah!\u201d This demonstration on the part of our old men was\nmeant to imply that theirs was the garb of virtue, however naked\nmight be their wretchedness. In the same belief, I utter seventy\n_Astaghferallahs_ before I venture to describe this entertaining\ncompany.\n\nAltogether they numbered thirteen persons, the musicians being men,\nand the singers and dancers being the Flowers of Delight of Mecca.\nFirst came a drummer, beating intermittently, but at regular intervals,\non a curiously shaped double drum, not unlike a huge orange cut in\ntwo, and so joined that each part came under each hand. It is called\n_nagghareh_ by the Persians, and gave forth a shrill, discordant noise,\nthat not even the big egg-shaped drum (Tabl), which was beaten\nenergetically with two long drum-sticks by the man that followed,\ncould drown or materially modify. Behind these drummers rode two\nwomen singers, whose voices were as the tinkling of the heavy bangles\nwith which their arms and ankles were laden. Next in the line of\nmarch was a young man with a withered face, blowing incessantly on an\ninstrument called _surn\u00e1_, that bears a resemblance, in form and also\nin tone, to a Scotch bagpipe. After him, a couple of dancing girls,\nwith streaming ringlets, and clad in silk dresses of many colours,\nburst into rippling laughter at every second, partly because it was\ntheir business to be merry-hearted, and partly because they found\nfood for mirth in the members of our caravan. But when they saw the\nnumber of our dead--and our Indian contingent had added not less than\nseven to our funeral train--their lively amusement was stilled, and\none of them said to me, on passing by: \u201cWere I in your place, O Haji,\nI should bury the corpse, and offer the seat it occupies to yonder\ntorch-bearer, who seems to stand in sore need of succour.\u201d \u201cThe wishes\nof the dead must be respected, O Compassionate Heart,\u201d I replied; \u201cand\nas for the torch-bearer, nothing would persuade him to renounce his\ntask of self-sacrifice. He has taken a vow to perform the pilgrimage\non foot, and he comes from a far distant country.\u201d The answer she\nreturned was lost in the ear-piercing squeak of a _kern\u00e1_--a woeful\nwind instrument at least four feet in length--and in the scarcely\nless strident din of a third tom-tom. The rear was brought up by two\nmen--the one thumbed a stringed _rub\u00e1b_, a Bedouin instrument admirably\nadapted to the music of the wastes; while the other, the jester of\nthe band, had powdered his face with barley flour, and wore a tall\nhead-gear of white lambskin, and a long cloak of vari-coloured silk.\nCasting a quizzical eye on our effects, and one look in particular on\nmy mule with its dual burden of the dead and the dying, he remarked,\nin an audible tone, imitating the Indian accent: \u201c_Wah, wah, wah!\nAhlul-Jehannum!_ Bah, what a hell party!\u201d--an expression that, in face\nof the open self-sufficiency of the majority among us, made me roar\nwith laughter. My companions, refraining from retaliation in kind,\ncontented themselves with repeating the word _Astaghferallah_ until\ntheir tormentor had passed out of hearing.\n\n[Illustration: THE MUSICIAN CAMEL CAVALCADE.]\n\nThe reader will understand that these musicians and dancers were not\nproceeding to Arafat that they might be present at the forthcoming\nsermon on the mount. Their aim was to collect as much money as they\ncould wring from the pilgrims, and then be the first to lead the\nprocession back to Mina. For there, after the Lenten hardships of\nthe H\u00e1jj are ended, several days are spent in holding revels and in\nmerry-making.\n\nAn uninterrupted march of half-an-hour, under a stormy sky, brought us\nto where two walls define the boundary of Arafat. There the _moghavem_\nhalted, and cried out, in a joyful voice, \u201cO blessed pilgrims, here we\nare on the exalted soil of Alemeyn! May peace be with Muhammad and with\nhis family!\u201d\n\nForthwith there arose on all sides such an outburst of religious\nenthusiasm as I had not witnessed even in the Harem of the Ka\u2019bah.\nCries of \u201cLabbaik allahhom\u00e1 labbaik!\u201d passed from lip to lip. The\ntorch-bearer fell on his face to the earth, and shed tears of delirious\njoy. The dying man on my mule sank to the ground, dragging the corpse\nwith him, and sang praises to Allah with his last breath. A native\ndervish, beside himself with hashshish-bibbing, danced furiously round\nand round, beating on his bare breast, and tearing his unkempt locks,\nand shrieking excitedly, \u201cY\u00e1-H\u00fa! H\u00fa-y\u00e1!\u201d Then, with one accord, we\nall prostrated ourselves five times in prayer, rending the air with a\nchorus of \u201cHere I am, O Allah, here am I!\u201d\n\nAfter the excitement had subsided, the _Sahebin-ul-Maiet_, or owners\nof the dead, met in conference together, and decided that it would\nbe best to bury the corpses of their friends before we entered the\nencampment on the plain of Arafat. To that end the help of the Bedouin\ndrivers was solicited. A grave was dug, measuring about ten feet by\ntwelve, and having a depth of some two-and-a-half feet and into this\nthe bodies were lowered and placed side by side, some wrapt in their\nwhite _kefans_, and the rest wearing the habits they died in. The pit\nwas then filled up, and large stones were piled a-top, serving the\ndouble purpose of preventing the corpses from being snatched by beasts\nof prey, and of marking the place where they lay buried. This done, an\nIndian _mull\u00e1_, putting his thumbs behind the lobes of his ears, the\nfingers extended, exclaimed with indescribable fervour, \u201cOne only is\ngreat--one Allah!\u201d while the pilgrims, taking their stand behind him,\nbowed themselves to the ground in prayer.\n\nThe funeral rites over, the _mull\u00e1_ declared the dead to be \u201cmartyrs in\nthe Faith,\u201d on which the _moghavems_ of our respective caravans, having\nmade all necessary preparations, ordered us to press forward in the\ndirection of the city of tents.\n\nI looked round in search of the torch-bearer, but he was nowhere to be\nseen, nor could anyone whom I questioned tell me what was become of\nhim. I never saw him again.\n\nOn resuming our journey, the threatening storm-clouds overhead\ndissolved in a shower of rain which drenched us to the skin. More\nimpatient than ever to find Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed and my Persian friends, I bade\nthe Malay and Indian wayfarers a hasty farewell, then, urging my mule\ninto a quick ambling pace, was soon far in advance of their caravan.\n\nThe road is very narrow at Alemeyn, but it widens considerably,\nas, taking a sudden bend from the east to the north-north-east, it\napproaches the central broadway of the encampment. This thoroughfare\nwas turned into a bustling open-air bazaar. Coffee-booths were erected\nat intervals of every twenty or thirty yards, and at these places the\ncrowd was thickest, and blazing torches impregnated the air with smoke\nand the stench of noisome oil. It is customary to keep awake throughout\nthe hours of this night, praying and reading the Kur\u00e1n; and maybe the\npractice was honoured in the observance by many a pious pilgrim within\nthe seclusion of his tent; but, in this gadabout centre of uproar and\nconfusion, the vigil was passed in no such devotional mood. Eating\nand drinking took the place of religious exercises. Stories were told\nto the bubbling of the water-pipe; love songs were intoned under the\njourneying moon; and pilgrims, whose minds were sharpened with long\nbrooding over metaphysical conundrums, could yet find the keenest zest\nin bartering noisily over the purchase of a melon.\n\nIt passed through my mind that here, if anywhere, I should be likely\nto happen upon Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed, for his pleasure-loving disposition, as I\nshrewdly guessed, would be irresistibly attracted to where it could\nbe best satisfied and displayed. And in this expectation I gave my\nmule in charge of a beggar, and, having ordered a cup of coffee at a\nrefreshment stall, sat down on a stool to keep watch.\n\nI had not been waiting more than a quarter of an hour when I saw Sheykh\nEissa come riding towards me. The \u201crose of my heart bloomed,\u201d and I\nleaped to my feet with joy, calling him by his name. At last his eyes\nmet mine, and in another moment he was at my side.\n\n\u201cSir,\u201d he said, with a deep salaam; \u201cSeyyid \u2019Al\u00ed is looking for you\n_dar-beh-dar_--from door to door. He has just gone down the road with\nour _moghavem_, and one of our servants, and a Bedouin driver, to see\nif he can find you. If you had bought one of my talismans, you would\nnot have lost yourself in the crowd.\u201d\n\n\u201cMy friend,\u201d I replied, \u201cyou will remember the story of the Slave in\nSa\u2019adi\u2019s book of the _Rose Garden_. When he was on board ship he cried\nnight and day from fear of the sea. Then Fate threw him overboard that\nhe might appreciate the safety of the ship, and be thankful to be\nrescued and set on board again. I have learned the same lesson on the\njourney from Mina to Arafat. There is no condition in life so miserable\nbut it may be rendered almost pleasant, in retrospect, by a more\nwretched one still.\u201d\n\nMeanwhile, Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed hastening up with his companions, had overheard\nmy remarks, and now interrupted me, saying with some heat: \u201cY\u00e1-Moulai,\nI am grateful for this--that the company of vagabonds should have had\nthe effect of making my society less tedious to you now than it was\nbefore you deprived me of the brightness of your presence! Verily, I\nhave good reason to rejoice that you fell among thieves and rogues!\u201d\n\n\u201cYou misinterpret his Excellency\u2019s words,\u201d cried Sheykh Eissa. \u201cYour\nvanity lies so close to the skin that----\u201d\n\n\u201cWhy should you make it bleed, then?\u201d I broke in. \u201cA truce to your\nquarrelling. Show me the way to our camp. My eyes are heavy with sleep.\nIt is as much as I can do to keep them open. Come, Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed, unknit\nyour sullen brow. I have missed you grievously. Let that assurance\nsuffice to heal your wounds.\u201d\n\nAs I spoke a bugle sounded the hour of midnight. Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed, still\nsomewhat glum, started off at once, carrying a thick Bedouin club.\nAfter him came the servant, bearing a lighted _f\u00e1n\u00fas_ in his hand,\nwhile Sheykh Eissa and myself followed close at his heels, leaving the\n_moghavem_ in the rear to look after our mules.\n\nOur way lay to the east of the central broadway. Before entering\nour own quarters, in the north-eastern corner of the plain, where\nall the dignitaries of the H\u00e1jj had pitched their tents, the Sheykh\npointed out to me the high-pinnacled pavilions of the Sher\u00edf of\nMecca, of the Amin-us-Surreh, of the Pashavat of Turkey, of the\nPersian Consul-General, of the High Priest of Teheran, of the military\ncommanders of Hejaz, and of the Amir-ul-H\u00e1jj-ul-Shami and the\nAmir-ul-H\u00e1jj-ul-Mesri.\n\n[Illustration: WATER-CARRIERS OF MECCA.]\n\n[Illustration: THE PASHA OF HEJAZ AND THE AMINUS-SURREH.]\n\n\u201cHis Holiness the Sher\u00edf,\u201d said he, \u201chas more tents than one could\ncount at one\u2019s ease. Do you see that high pavilion where the green\nflag is flying? That is the audience-chamber of his Holiness. Some of\nthe tents serve as dining-rooms, some as withdrawing-rooms, some\nas bath-rooms. Others, again, as sentinel houses, as stables, as\ncooking-houses, as servants\u2019 apartments, and so forth.\u201d\n\nWell, the tents of all the grandees, including those of my Persian\nhosts, were surrounded by _tejirs_ or canvas walls measuring about\nseven feet in height. The extent of the confined space varied of course\nwith the number of one\u2019s retinue; our enclosure being comparatively\nsmall covered a stretch of ground about fifty paces square. A sentinel\nwas on guard at the entrance, above which hung a Persian lantern,\nand directly in front of us as we passed through was a semi-circular\npartition of canvas which concealed from sight the series of tents\nbeyond.\n\nThese tents of ours, five in number, must not be confounded with the\nones we had used at Mecca. They belonged to a Persian _moghavem_\nattached to the Syrian caravan, and were made of white canvas lined on\nthe inside with a particular kind of red cloth that goes by the name of\n_shelleh_. Supported on nine poles covered with the same material, they\nwere so constructed that any one of the sides could be converted at\nwill into the front entrance, and that doors could be opened wherever\nand whenever needed. By this means it was possible to keep the interior\nrelatively cool.\n\nThe floor of our withdrawing-tent was spread with Persian rugs, and\nat the further end facing the doorway was a downy _mokhata_ or pillow\ndivan. To this snug abode I returned, after I had washed my hands and\nfeet in a tent close by, to find that the servants, following the\nhospitable custom of the Bedouins, had already laid the cloth for\nsupper. My hosts were not present; having dined, they were fast asleep\nin their own tents.\n\nIt is not considered seemly in the East for inferiors to sit down\nin the presence of their superiors, nor do the latter ever so far\nforget their superiority as to stand up in welcoming a guest of lower\nrank. The act of rising is a recognition of equality, and not a mere\ngreeting. Thus, when \u201cI fell down to supper\u201d (as the late Shah was\nfond of saying in the diary of his European tour) I was in etiquette\nbound to accept the homage of Sheykh Eissa and Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed\u2019, who were\nstanding up. But their attitude of docile humility so tickled my sense\nof the ridiculous that I raised my head after a few minutes, and said:\n\u201cAh, are you there? _Bismillah_, sit down ... _Y\u00e1-Allah!_\u201d\n\nThe invitation was certainly a breach of social custom on my part,\ninasmuch as I was the master--a breach, however, for which the\nexclamation of _y\u00e1-Allah_, which is an acknowledged substitute for\nrising, made ample amends in my humble opinion. With an equal contempt\nfor formality, or finding the silence oppressive beyond endurance, I\nthen gave them permission to talk. If I refrained from inviting them to\npartake of the savoury dishes of camel\u2019s flesh prepared for me, it was\nsimply because I knew that they had already broken their fast.\n\nThe conversation fell on the subject of the Bedouins. The Sheykh,\nhaving told me a story of a blood-feud between two clans, untied a\nlittle parcel which he was in the habit of carrying about with him,\nand took out three steel dice loosely threaded on wire and inscribed\nwith talismanic characters, together with a brass disk divided into\nsquares and covered all over with hieroglyphics. \u201cBy means of these two\nthings,\u201d said he (while Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed tipped me a wink of incredulity),\n\u201cI can foretell the future.\u201d\n\nWith those words, he shook the dice in both his hands, and threw them\non the magic disk, and then, after making pretence to read the signs\non the face of the dice, as well as those within the squares they\noccupied, he sat meditating for several minutes in gloomy silence.\n\u201cBlood,\u201d he muttered at length, biting the thumb of his right hand,\n\u201cblood, I say, will be shed on this plain before the rising of\nthe sun. A peaceful caravan will be annihilated by a warrior band.\nTerrible! I see some pilgrims: they belong to my native land; I hear\nthem crying for mercy: but the clansmen--ah, what is this I read?--yes,\nthe clansmen of Hozail, having plundered them, refuse to give quarter.\nSurely this is a warning to me to keep a sharp look-out that I may use\nmy influence should woe betide my fellow-countrymen! May God protect\nthem through my timely aid!\u201d\n\nBy this time I had finished my meal, and, having drunk a cup of coffee\nand smoked a kaly\u00e1n, I dismissed the fortune-telling Sheykh, who\npromised, before he went away, to return at daybreak and accompany me\nto a sort of gymkhana, where the Bedouins were to show their skill in\nhorsemanship. And then, being dead tired, I said good-night to Seyyid\n\u2019Al\u00ed and flung myself down to rest. Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed, on leaving the room,\nsang a Persian lullaby softly to himself. It ran something like this:--\n\n    Hence, begone, thou desert ogre,\n      Sleep would fain my baby lull:\n    Baby, hush, thine eyes are drowsy,\n      And the night is growing dull.\n    Hush, the night is full of shadows,\n      Full of phantoms dark and dread;\n    Soundly sleep, my precious baby,\n      Morning comes with joyous tread.\n    Hushaby, Beloved of Allah,\n      Sleep, and thou shalt go to school,\n    Pen in hand, shalt learn thy lessons,\n      Sagely con each word and rule.\n    Thou shalt read the wondrous sayings,\n      That in holy Koran stand;\n    Famous shalt thou be, my baby,\n      Wealthy, mighty, handsome, grand.\n    Hushaby, thou breathest smoothly,\n      And thine eyes like daisies close;\n    Sleep hath caught thee to her bosom\n      Rest, my baby, sweet repose.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nARAFAT DAY: NIGHT[2]\n\n[2] In the East the night precedes the day, thus our Sunday night is\ntheir Monday night.\n\n\nIt has always been difficult, if not impossible, to satisfy the\ncravings of an inquisitive nature; and when Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed left the tent,\nsinging the Persian lullaby, my curiosity was not long in overcoming\nmy desire to sleep. It was not the prayerful hum of the canvas city\nthat kept me awake; it was the undevotional uproar, with the appeal\nit made to my love of adventure. I lay there for some time thinking,\nas men active and alert in body and mind will, of the chances I might\nmiss of witnessing some deed of heroism or of violence, were I to allow\nmyself to count the possible cost of the risk, rather than the certain\nopportunities of distinction which its dangers would present to a man\nof an enterprising spirit.\n\nWith these thoughts in my mind, I leaped to my feet and at once\nwandered out in the camp. To me it seemed one vast place of sepulture;\nfor, go where I might, there I happened upon the victims of the cholera\nfiend or its terrible ally, fear. I saw them writhing on the ground,\nwith limbs hideously contorted and faces blackened like charcoal; I\nheard the sick groaning from within the tents as I hurried by to the\nmore convivial surroundings of the market-place; and I stumbled over\nthe graves in which the dead had been shovelled with unseemly haste by\ntheir terror-stricken friends. The custom was to bury the dead outside\ntheir tents (or wherever they might happen to fall, if away from the\ncamp), but to this custom the neighbours sometimes objected in a craven\nregard for their own safety; for my part, the longing to recreate my\nmind amid more companionable scenes, caused me to run all the way to\nthe meid\u00e1n. And there, carousing with the ragtag and bobtail of the\nloiterers and stragglers of the encampment, I counted private soldiers,\nour guardians of the peace, by the score. They filled the front benches\nof almost every coffee-booth, making the night merry with their hearty\nlaughter, while their companions, not behindhand in conviviality, burst\nout singing love-songs to the accompaniment of the clapping of hands.\n\nThe Bedouin Sheykhs, virile, dignified, and exclusive, did not deign\nto take part in these revels, but spent the vigil of the night on the\nMountain of Mercy or in the caf\u00e9s that they kept for their private use.\nThey were not dressed in the pilgrim\u2019s garb; they were arrayed in all\nthe warlike trappings of their tribal splendour; and being impressed\nby this silent declaration of their independence, I came at length to\nthe conclusion that they, regarding themselves as the chosen people of\nthe Faith and the holy places as their inheritance, deemed it right\nthat the winding-sheet of humility should be worn not by themselves,\nbut by those who visited the Holy Land of Isl\u00e1m from beyond the seas.\nAnother characteristic of theirs, a characteristic that runs on\nparallel lines with the first, is the attitude of the Sheykhs to their\nclansmen, and _vice vers\u00e2_, as it reveals itself in the expression of\ntheir faces. As every one knows who has studied the laws of this free\nand irresistible people, despotism, as it exists in the Muhammadan\nmonarchies, is a thing impossible amongst them; and the consciousness\nof this inalienable grace, why, upon my word, their faces positively\nshone with it! Every Sheykh\u2019s face is as free as is that of his\nclansman from that meek and submissive servility which is the mark of\nthe Persian or (in a less degree) the Turkish dependent in the company\nof his master. A Sheykh, on the other hand, being first amongst equals,\nbears himself towards his followers with a dignity and charm commingled\nout of paternal pride and childlike modesty, nor does such an one\nconsider his position to be threatened because his tribesmen never\ncringe. They, too, are freeborn men and carry their heads high even\nin the presence of the Sher\u00edf of Mecca, who holds his race too dear\nto exact an obsequious homage. Indeed, his face never wears a frown;\nhis voice is never raised in anger; and yet for all who come near him\nthe consciousness of his power lies not in themselves, but in the man\nhimself: in a word, it lies in his complete self-forgetfulness and his\nfreedom from all arrogance and pretence.\n\n[Illustration: THE SHER\u00cdF OF MECCA IN HIS UNIFORM.]\n\nWell, as I walked along in the direction of the Holy Mountain, I found\na great many pilgrims engaged in calling out the names of such of\ntheir absent friends as had begged to be remembered on the night of\nArafat. The Prophet recommended his followers to perform this act of\nremembrance, and said that whosoever among them should thus create\nseventy pilgrims by proxy would be rewarded with seventy palaces in\nthe world to come and the praises of seventy thousand angels. Imagine,\nthen, with what zeal and devotion my fellow-pilgrims lifted up their\nvoices! After each name, loud cries of \u201cHere I am, O Allah! here am\nI!\u201d were raised by one and all, the Maghrebis singling themselves out,\nto my amusement, by the number of women\u2019s names that came tripping\noff their tongues; it seemed for all the world as though they were\nresolved to win the praise of none save female angels!\n\nTickled not a little by this delicious trait of character, I wandered\non, falling the while into a vein of pleasant memories on the friends I\nhad left behind me, until I was suddenly recalled to myself by a mighty\nhue and cry. And this is what had happened. A Bedouin thief, breaking\nthrough the tent of a pilgrim whom he knew to be engaged in calling out\nnames on the plain, saw in a corner a round bundle in a white cloth.\nWith greedy hands he made to possess himself of its contents when, to\nhis intense amazement, a woman burst from its folds, shrieking! She had\nwrapped herself up in the cloth ere she went to sleep, as the custom\nis among Orientals of the lower class, so that not even her head was\nvisible to the nefarious Bedouin, who, on now perceiving his mistake,\nthrew himself on the floor, with the intention of slipping headforemost\nunder the tent. He had certainly got away at once, had not the husband\nreturned, and, in the belief that the thief had it in the mind to take\nadvantage of his dearest treasure, laid hold of the intruder by the\nleg, giving the alarm that had startled me from my day-dream. The woman\nswooned away, while the Bedouin tugged himself free and made good his\nescape. A few minutes later, a sergeant and his men shouldered their\nway through the crowd that had collected round the entrance--too late\nfor once.\n\nI hesitated a moment before I ventured to put my fate to the test of\nfurther experience. I knew well that I risked robbery, if not death,\nin continuing my ramble; for, as I had noticed from the moment of my\nsetting out, the camp was haunted by paupers with the most evil and\ndesperate faces I ever beheld. They lay in wait for the unwary pilgrim\nwherever the gloom was densest, and at best the lanterns and torches\nabout each tent shed but a dismal glimmer on its purlieus; but the\ndesire to scale the Hill of Arafat and to say my prayers on its summit,\nat last overcame the whispers of alarm. My only weapon was a stout\ncudgel, which I had picked up as a protection against the pariah dogs\nthat barked at every passer-by; however, as only a couple of dollars\nwere left in the little bag round my neck, I felt that I could plod\nalong in the teeth of danger with no load of uneasy wealth on my mind.\nAnd so, with a fresh glow of courage, I sallied forth.\n\nIt was by this time about half-past three in the morning, and a lull\nseemed to fall on the camp, or perhaps this was merely a fancy of mine,\na testimony to my jangled nerves. Be this as it may, I had not taken\na hundred paces before I had the evidence of my senses to testify to\nthe fact that my recent misgivings had been something more than the\nsuggestions of timidity or nervousness. For, on reaching a secluded\nand storm-rent tent, I was suddenly surrounded by a gang of paupers,\nwho sprang out upon me, clamouring for alms in a tone so threatening,\nthat my pride rebelled and would not allow me to purchase my safety\nat its expense. Enough, I thought, if I seek refuge in yonder tent. A\nhail of stones about my head increased my determination to gain the\nplace of shelter, about fifty yards away, and thither I cudgelled me a\npath with a desperate expenditure of strength. The surly rascals trod\nclose upon my heels, stoning \u201cthe devil of a Jew\u201d with surly illwill;\nbut inside the tent they dared not follow me. For all that, if they\nhad committed the blunder of counting the booty before the battle was\nwon, I had soon the discomfiture to discover that innocence in distress\nmay be less fortunate in its destiny than villainy in disguise. To the\ninjuries I had received at the hands of the robbers were now added the\ninsults of the inmates of the tent. They stood on the defensive, taking\nme to be a thief; I called heaven to witness that I had come near to\nbeing his victim; whereupon they assumed the offensive, and, catching\nme by the nape of the neck, dragged me outside and gave me in charge\nof a sentinel who, as ill-luck would have it, happened to be on his\nbeat. Without saying a word, I disbursed myself of half the money I\nhad about me, which was a proof of the innocence of my intentions so\nconvincing to the sentinel, that he let me loose and fell to upbraiding\nmy unwilling hosts for their unjustifiable suspicions. His eloquence\ntook the sting out of the reception they had given me, and I went on my\nway blithely enough.\n\nWhen I at last reached the Hill of Arafat, it was to find that the\nBedouins and the Sheykhs of the tribe of Kuraish had already taken\npossession of the best places around the enclosure whence the sermon\nwould be preached on the following afternoon; for it was there, about\nhalf-way up the Hill, that Muhammud was wont to address his followers,\nsitting on a dromedary. This place, as well as the summit beyond,\nis reached by means of a broad flight of steps, which, winding up\nthe southern slope of the Mount, gets gradually more precipitate and\nnarrow. No attempt to keep order was made by anybody in authority, with\nthe result that the pilgrims going up would meet the pilgrims coming\ndown, and be locked tight in one another\u2019s arms, each party fighting\nits hardest to force a passage through. On the crest the pressure of\nthe crowd was even greater: I mean more especially in the neighbourhood\nof the Makam, or prayer-niche of Adam, with its white-washed platform\nand central obelisk, where pious wayfarers from every quarter of Islam\nwere pouring out their thanks to God from the innermost tabernacle of\nthe heart.\n\nHaving said a two-prostration prayer--a duty that I had not neglected\non passing the sermon enclosure below--I turned to the north where,\nin the valley separating the Hill from the surrounding mountains, a\nband of Bedouin shepherds had lighted huge roaring bonfires, by the\nlight of which I could see their flocks (so soon to be slaughtered as\na sacrifice to the Omnipotent) peacefully nibbling the sparse green\nherbage of the lowlands.\n\nFrom the north I went to the south, and gazed down on the plain below,\nto where, under the ruddy glare of the torches and the yellow light of\nthe lanterns, the tents of the faithful stood out against the darkness\nbeyond. The only regularly pitched camps were those of the soldiery,\nthe Sher\u00edf, and the other dignitaries of the H\u00e1jj; all of these\noccupied the space on the left-hand side of the observer; while in the\nfore-ground, to the right, as well as to the left, the tents of the\nSyrian and the Egyptian caravans were conspicuous: and most of these\nwere either circular or elliptical in shape and of considerable size,\nsometimes as many as twenty pilgrims, and never less than ten, sleeping\nin a single tent. For the arrangement between a Syrian pilgrim and his\n_moghavem_ is this: The pilgrim pays the _moghavem_ a certain sum of\nmoney in return for which the latter guarantees (1) to find him a seat\nin a _kejaveh_ when the caravan is on the move, (2) to give him the use\nof a camel on which to set his provisions and belongings, and (3) to\nreserve for him a sleeping-compartment within one of the tents that are\nthus turned into portable caravanserais.\n\nNow, the Syrian caravan, whose commander considers himself the chief\nof all the foreign pilgrims and brings with him a strong detachment of\ncavalry, claims superiority over that of Egypt; but both caravans glory\nin the possession of a Mahmil or Holy Carpet, a treasure, by the bye,\nthat is not a carpet at all, but a square wooden frame with a top in\nthe shape of a pyramid. A becrescented ball of gilt silver is set on\nthe four corners of the square and on the crest of the pyramid, and\nthe little shrine is covered all over with rich brocade embroidered in\ngold and edged with silk tassels. This covering varies in colour and\nin material, but, generally speaking, the Syrian Mahmil is draped with\ngreen velvet and the Egyptian with red. The origin of the Mahmil is\nsaid by some to date back to the year 645 of the Hegira, when a Queen\nof Egypt, called the Tree of Pearls, made use of a similar kind of\nthing as a litter, on the occasion of her pilgrimage to Mecca; and the\ntradition goes that she borrowed the design from the chest in which\nMuhammad stored the wares that he took with him on his journey from\nMedina to Syria, a journey made before he had revealed to the Arabians\nhis new doctrine. Nowadays the Mahmil is empty. But a copy of the\nKur\u00e1n is fastened outside below the topmost crescent. In the course of\ntime the Egyptian Mahmil came to be known by the name of Aishah, the\nProphet\u2019s second wife, who one day questioned him, saying: \u201cNow am I\nnot better than Kadijah? She was a widow, old, and had lost her looks;\nyou love me better than you did her?\u201d And Muhammad answered: \u201cNo, by\nAllah! She believed in me when none else would believe. In the whole\nworld I had but one friend, and she was that.\u201d And it is after this\npeerless woman Kadijah that the Syrians have called their Mahmil. Along\nwith that of Egypt goes what is called the Kesveh, which consists of\neight pieces of black silk and a green curtain. The first is used for\ncovering the walls of the Ka\u2019bah, and the second for veiling the tomb\nof Abraham. This ceremony, which takes place during the pilgrimage, was\nfirst instituted by Kurb, King of Yemen, and in the year of the Hegira\n750, a man named Suleyman bought seven villages in Egypt, the produce\nof which has since gone to defray the yearly expenses of the Kesveh.\nThese villages now yield an income of about \u00a37,000 sterling, and all\nthis money is spent in purchasing the Kesveh and in despatching it with\ngreat pomp to Mecca.\n\nAfter meditating for about half an hour on the inexhaustible subject\nof my sins, I forced my way through the press to the foot of the Hill,\nand after several adventures in a place called the \u201cKitchen of Adam\u201d\n(where the Indian and Meccan pilgrims of the poorest classes pitched\ntheir tents and where even the dervishes and beggars had found a\nshelter)--adventures too trivial to be related here, I returned at last\nto my own pavilion, and \u201claid me down with a will\u201d to sleep. The whole\nencampment was now wrapped in a solemn hush.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nARAFAT DAY: DAYBREAK\n\n\nPop, pop, pop! I lay between sleeping and waking, and wondered what the\nnoise could be. Bang, bang, bang! And again, bang, bang! I awoke with\na start--surprised to find myself wide awake; but an hour\u2019s sleep is\nnot long enough to stupify a man. The reports grew louder, and the dogs\nbegan to bark from every corner of the encampment.\n\n\u201cCome hither to prayers,\u201d sang out the muezzins; \u201cdevotion is better\nthan sleep.\u201d By that time every pilgrim was up and stirring. Wheuf!\nthe air of the false dawn, how chill it was! I summoned a servant,\ntelling him to light a fire outside the tent; other pilgrims followed\nmy example; and soon the hissing samovar gave promise of a cup of tea.\n\nThe eastern horizon, in the meantime, was growing redder and still\nmore red; and the pilgrims, having performed their ablutions and said\ntheir prayers, began to intone the Talbiyah and the Tahlil, pouring out\ntheir supplications to God and their belief in His unity, in a wailing\nlilt of entreaty and contrition. Others stood in circles, beating\ntheir breasts and singing the Labbaik. It was a scene of enthusiasm\nimpossible to describe.\n\nRap-tap-tap, tap-rap-rap, floated on the air: it was the sentinels\nbeating their drums to salute the break of day. Guns fired incessantly\non the hills and in the valley and on the plain. And now the hawkers\nand the worshippers, the water-carriers and the paupers, the hungry\nand the ascetic, all began to shout together. \u201cSweet water refreshes\nthe soul,\u201d cried the water-carriers; \u201cdrink of the sacred water of\nAin\u00e9-Zobeideh.\u201d \u201cGive in the name of Allah,\u201d whined the beggars; \u201cmy\nliving is in the gift of Allah. Are ye not the creatures of Allah?\nY\u00e1-Allah, y\u00e1-Allah!\u201d \u201cLight the fire and fill the cup,\u201d said a Persian\nofficer, in his eagerness to break his fast. \u201cAnd don\u2019t forget to\n\u2018fatten\u2019 the water-pipe,\u201d added his companion. \u201cAnd you shall \u2018dig up\nits grandfather\u2019 [that is, be the last to smoke it as it passes from\nmouth to mouth], my friend,\u201d said the officer, smiling.\n\nWhen the sun came up on us, I saw Sheykh Eissa for the first time\nthat morning; he was standing at a distance of some yards, talking to\nSeyyid \u2019Al\u00ed, whose handsome face shone with its usual expression of\nlight-hearted amusement. The two men bowed to me reverentially, their\nhands folded on their breasts.\n\n\u201cLook, y\u00e1-Moulai,\u201d said Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed, \u201cthe top of the Mountain of Mercy\nis so full of tents and animals and men, that the poor jinns, to say\nnothing of the angels,----\u201d\n\n\u201cNow, don\u2019t talk blasphemy, my friend,\u201d interrupted a priest called\nMull\u00e1 Ahmad. \u201cDo you think there is no room left for the angels?\u201d\n\n\u201cGod forbid!\u201d cried Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed, raising his eyes aloft. \u201cThey can\nperch on the tent-poles, or on the camel-saddles.\u201d\n\n\u201cKofre-negue\u00edd (don\u2019t blaspheme)!\u201d yelled the Mull\u00e1. \u201cDon\u2019t you\nknow that the angels are transparent? But for that the sun would be\neclipsed, so dense is the choir of angels in the circumambient air.\u201d\n\n\u201cIs that so?\u201d replied Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed, with a smile that incensed his\nquestioner beyond all measure. \u201cDoes not the Holy Tradition say that\nthere must be six hundred thousand souls on this Blessed Plain, and\nthat the deficiency, if any, will be made up with the necessary number\nof heavenly choristers? I had not thought that the deficiency was so\ngreat as to cause so vast a reinvasion of light from above.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Tradition,\u201d shouted the Mull\u00e1, \u201csays that there must be _fully_\nsix hundred thousand souls: there may be more, but there cannot be\nless----\u201d\n\n\u201cHow many pilgrims are there, do you think?\u201d I asked, interrupting the\nMull\u00e1.\n\n\u201cIt is human to err,\u201d he replied, sententiously; \u201cbut, however many\nthere may be, and I believe there are 600,000 and more, Allah may\nincrease them. And as for the angels, Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed, they will confine\nthemselves to the regions of the air, immediately above us, and will\nsay \u2018Amen\u2019 to our prayers and supplications.\u201d\n\n\u201cMultiply your estimate by 3 and divide it by 6, and you will not be\nso far out of your reckoning, I think,\u201d and so saying, I appealed to\nSheykh Eissa for his opinion.\n\nThe Sheykh scanned the encampment with critical eyes. \u201cLet us say,\u201d he\nmurmured at last, \u201cthat this city of tents on the plain and the hills\ncontains innumerable souls and moving beasts. Am I not right, Mull\u00e1\nAhmad?\u201d\n\n\u201cWell said, my friend!\u201d cried the Mull\u00e1. \u201cNobody save Allah--may I be\nHis sacrifice!--could count the number one by one. And who are we that\nwe should set a limit to God\u2019s omnipotence and clemency?\u201d\n\nThe Turkish authorities were almost as ignorant in the matter as the\nrest of the pilgrims. Some of the former said 280,000, others 380,000;\na more daring calculation was twice the first number (560,000);\nand the most timid of all was that of a Turkish official of my\nacquaintance, who estimated the concourse of pilgrims at 250,000. Now,\nin 1807, there were 83,000 pilgrims in Mecca, according to Ali Bey;\nin 1814, Burkhardt, the Swiss traveller, who visited the Holy City in\ndisguise, under the name of Sheykh Ibrahim, calculated that there were\n70,000 pilgrims; while Richard Burton (Sheykh Abdullah), in 1850, found\nthe number reduced to 50,000;--a number which, in 1902, was increased\nfivefold, in my humble opinion; indeed, I maintain with the utmost\nconfidence that this calculation of mine, if somewhat too high, cannot\npossibly be reduced below 220,000; for the opinion among the Meccans\nwas unanimous that the Bedouin and foreign elements, on the occasion of\nmy pilgrimage, were more than four times as numerous than they had been\nwithin the memory of the oldest inhabitants.\n\nNow, as regards the plan of the encampment, it has always been the\nendeavour of the well-to-do to keep as close to the Mountain of Mercy\n(the Hill of Arafat) as possible, and the consequence of this is that\nthe whole expanse of the northern face of the plain is more or less\naristocratic, with an effort to regularity in the arrangement of the\ntents, the most distinguished camping-places being in the north-eastern\nangle, where the Sher\u00edf\u2019s pavilions are pitched, and all along the\nnorth and north-western ridges, where the tents of the Turkish soldiery\nand the foreign grandees spread themselves in unbroken lines to the\npoint of attraction in the north-east. For to sun themselves in the\nlight of the Sher\u00edf\u2019s beneficent eye, is the ambition of all pilgrims\nwho have any claim to regard themselves as gentlefolk. The more the\nplain slopes to the south, the more it is covered with the tents of the\nvulgar and with the pilgrims that have no tents at all; while midway\nbetween the two extremes are the booths and stalls of the open-air\nbazaars: these are also scattered here and there in every encampment.\nThe Syrian and the Egyptian caravans, with their respective Mahmils,\ntake up their appointed places, nowadays, without any serious dispute\narising between them; but in olden times the rivalry was so keen and\nso bitter, that blood was often shed. The Meccan religious officials,\nthe Turkish civil and military authorities, and the privileged grandees\nof all nations, including, of course, the Persian Consul-General,\nfollow the precedent of immemorial custom; but for the rest the rule of\n\u201cfirst come, first served\u201d holds good in every quarter of the plain,\nI mean within the limits of the broadly defined distinctions of class\nwhich make it expedient, if not compulsory, for the paupers and less\nreputable pilgrims to keep to the south, leaving the northern regions\nto their brethren of higher castes. In theory, the Mussulmans are all\nequal, each to each; but, socially, they are at least as exclusive\nas the Christians, and infinitely more exacting where etiquette and\nceremony are concerned; while at Mecca, the Kiblah of the Faith,\nthere is, with the yearly influx of pilgrims of heterogeneous races,\na growing tendency to assimilate the two most striking effects of\nwestern centralisation as seen in the capitals of Europe--namely, an\ninclination to become more and more tolerant in matters of religion,\nand a determination to regard wealth as the determinative factor in\nseparating class from class. To every student of Isl\u00e1m the first of\nthese is of tremendous importance. He must bear constantly in mind\nthat the embroilments between the seventy-two sects, so far from being\nirreconcilable, show a steady inclination to become less marked in the\nholy city of Mecca at the present day, notwithstanding the hostility\nof the priests towards a complete reunion. Time was when the Shiahs,\nto which sect the Persians and the Nakhowalis of Medina belong, were\nprecluded from exercising their religious rites in their own way, and\nwhen they were even shut out from the regular encampment on the plain\nof Arafat. But to-day they are not only allowed to gain salvation\nas the spirit moves them through the performance of their special\nceremonies; they are also accorded the privilege of following the time\nlaid down in their own almanacks for the due solemnisation of their\nsacred rites, and that altogether apart from the Orthodox sects who\nfollow invariably the instructions of the Kazi of Mecca.\n\nThis is an immense gain; let us consider what it means: Does it not\nmean that the Prophet\u2019s aim in making Pilgrimage an inseparable part\nof the Faith, is getting, year by year, a step nearer to completion?\nAnd if so, can the enthusiast\u2019s belief in the possibility of an united\nIsl\u00e1m--an Isl\u00e1m rooted in \u201cone life, one law, one element, the one\nfar-off divine event,\u201d be dismissed as a dream too spiritual to be\nsubstantiated? I say no; for a dream that is already a spiritual truth,\nas it most certainly is among the enlightened at the present time,\nmay one day become a political fact in the eyes of the whole world.\nHowever, come with me to the Persian encampment, and I will tell you\non the way something more about the city of tents, as well as something\nmore of the Mussulmans of the Shiah persuasion.\n\n[Illustration: A LEARNED MUSSULMAN OF INDIA.]\n\nThe first thing that struck me, by the light of day, was the contrast\npresented by the personal cleanliness of such of the pilgrims as had\nperformed their ablutions, and the inconceivable filthiness of the\nsurroundings in which they lived. To attempt to describe the causes\nthat resulted in this insanitary condition of the encampment (a\ncondition that, in the absence of any medical help worth mentioning,\nadded considerably to the violence of the cholera and the number of\nits victims) would be to enumerate the disgusting habits of every\nindividual camp-follower in the train of the grandees, not to allude\nto those of the poor and destitute, who either lived under tattered\nrags over rude crossbars, like the dervishes, or slept with the vermin\non the naked ground. The scene was pleasing to the eye, no doubt; but\nthe contagion spread by its most picturesque features was none the less\noverpowering to the nose. At a distance it was artistic: a glimpse of\ngipsy life twinkling with colour; walk into it, and it was only fetid\nstench and festering pollution. The tents of the less poverty-stricken\ncaravans were pitched in rings called _dowars_; the beasts of burden\nbeing hobbled in the centre, or tethered to the tent-pegs outside; and\nthe shape and colour of the tents, if less various than the facial\ntypes of those who dwelt in them, were sufficiently diversified, in\ncertain quarters, to relieve the monotony of the general picture.\nRed within and white without, the tents of the middle classes were\ndome-shaped, while those of the privileged dignitaries were as\nsumptuous and varied in colour and form as those of the poorest classes\nwere ingenious in contrivance. The Sher\u00edfian colours were green and\ngold and red, and the most beautiful pavilions of all were certainly\nhis. After these, perhaps, came those belonging to the Persian\nConsul-General, who made a not unsuccessful attempt to compete with\nthe highest in the splendour and completeness of his camp equipment.\nMoreover, the thoroughfares of the select corner of the plain were,\nupon the whole, well-ordered and creditably policed, more especially\nwas this the case with those in closest proximity to the Turkish\nauthorities.\n\nAnd now with these preliminary remarks on the appearance of the city\nof tents by day, I will ask the readers to follow me into the Persian\nencampment situated midway between the Syrian and Egyptian caravans;\nfor it is my present wish to be the means of introducing him to that\ninteresting Shiah sect that flourishes in the neighbourhood of Medina\nand is known by the name of Nakhowalis. I had a long talk with about\na dozen of these men (they had accompanied the Persian pilgrims from\nMedina to Mecca as guides) and it is on the information that I gleaned\nfrom them that this short paragraph is based.\n\nWell, when the Prophet fled from Mecca, with a few devoted followers,\nhe was received by a great number of the people of Medina with every\nmark of confidence. Those who fled with him were afterwards called\nMohajer or Immigrants, while those who went out to help him from the\ncity of refuge came to be known by the name of Anssar or Auxiliaries.\nIt is from the latter party that the Nakhowalis claim descent. They\nnow number about two thousand families, and live, in open feud with\nthe Orthodox inhabitants, outside the city gates. They have their own\nmosques and cemetery, as they are not allowed to worship within the\nHarem of the Prophet\u2019s Tomb, nor were they permitted, until quite\nrecently, to cross its threshold. The cause of all their disabilities,\nhowever, is of a political rather than religious nature; for all of\nthem hold the first two Caliphs in execration, the greater number\nforswearing allegiance to Othman as well. The bond of sympathy between\nthe two groups thus formed is the veneration and love they bear\nMuhammad\u2019s cousin and son-in-law, \u2019Al\u00ed, whom they believe to have been\nthe lawful successor of the Prophet. However much or little they may\ndiffer in doctrine from the Shiahs of Persia, they are acknowledged by\nthe latter as belonging to the same communion; indeed, the Persians\ncontribute, year by year, considerable sums of money to the support of\nthese distant co-religionists of theirs--sums which are handed over\nto them by one of the Persian pilgrims. Moreover, a Nakhowali, if he\nchance to visit the country of the Lion and the Sun, will be sure to\nreturn with bags full of money; nor is this charity of a sort that\nloses both itself and friend, the recipient being quick in responding\nto every act of friendship, as many a Persian pilgrim had good reason\nto remember if, as it usually happened, he took up his abode at\nthe friendly hearth of a Nakhowali. Hospitable and chivalrous, the\nNakhowalis adhere strictly to this unwritten law of the desert-born,\nthat a guest must be protected even if he be an infidel; none the less\nthey count both Jew and Christian as unclean, being as scrupulous\nin this particular as the Persians, whose rules they follow in the\ndischarge of their religious purifications.\n\nMy informants, who were armed to the teeth, were handsome, swarthy,\nand fearless-looking. They bitterly resented the fact that, on certain\npoints of religious observance, they were constrained to obey the\ninstructions of the Kazi of Medina, rather than those of their own\nclergy. They declared that this obedience had been wrung from them as\na condition of their freedom to have priests of their own; but since\nI had not an opportunity of going to Medina to see for myself, it\nwould be unwise to give further publicity to reports which reached me\neither through the Orthodox Madani, who were naturally antagonistic,\nor through the Shiah Nakhowalis, who were not less certainly biassed\nin their own favour. Their womenfolk (to make an end of this short\ndiscourse) are reputed to be the most beautiful of all at Medina; they\nwere so closely veiled, however, that they might just as well have been\nthe ugliest--none save their husbands could tell.\n\nThe scene now changes.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nARAFAT DAY: FORENOON AND AFTERNOON\n\n\nEarly in the morning, shortly after my visit to the Persian encampment,\nthe Turkish cavalry paraded and man\u0153uvred. The troops were composed of\nTurks, Kurds, Arabs, and Albanians. To see these men in the pride of\na soldier\u2019s bearing, you must watch them as they rush into life and\nmotion; for with their ragged uniforms and unlikely-looking mounts,\nthey are at a disadvantage when standing at attention. But once let\nthem get in full swing, and they soon prove that they are trained\nfor use and not for show. To me this sudden change from unsoldierly\nslovenliness to skill and daring activity, was a revelation. And\nthe horses--lean Arabs from Southern Arabia or wiry nags from\nEgypt--responded spiritedly to every twist and turn of the bridle\nwrist: they too were transformed. The feats of horsemanship performed\nby the Albanians were the wonder and delight of every pilgrim. These\nman\u0153uvres of theirs, so different from those of European cavalry, are\ndoubtless aboriginal. They leave their cantonment in fighting array,\nriding to the tattoo of a small kettle-drum called _nakus_. On a\nsudden, at a beat of the drum, the regiment opens out, scattering in\nall directions: each man pricks it in pursuit of the enemy, firing\nincessantly into the air. The sound of the drum now changes, and the\nmen come galloping back, meeting in a dense column: then all is\nordered confusion and breathless expectation. The signal is given,\nand then with impetuous fury the whole squadron hurls itself on the\nspot chosen to represent the enemy\u2019s position. The men, alternately\ndispersing and reforming, advancing and retreating, obey every beat of\nthe drum, their horses being as intelligently alert as well-trained\npolo ponies. So reckless were the Albanians on this occasion, that it\nwas a miracle that only a rider here and there came to grief. And all\nthe time this sham fight was raging, horsemen from every corner of\nchivalrous Arabia galloped aimlessly about the encampment, waving their\ntufted spears. In the hearts of the pilgrim bands watching their every\nmovement they struck an awe not unmixed with terror: for, as Seyyid\n\u2019Al\u00ed put it, the horses seemed shod with lightning as they flashed to\nand fro; and lightning, may it not spare the guilty and strike the\nrighteous?...\n\nYou must not think that the pilgrims were idle all this while--not\neven Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed and myself. A party of us met about nine o\u2019clock to\nvisit the holy places on the plain, Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed acting as guide. My\ncompanions were Sheykh Eissa, Mull\u00e1 Ahmad, Mirza Yus\u00faf, and Seyyid\nMuhsin. The demeanour of these men is worth describing as a touch of\ncharacter. The tour being a religious duty, their mien was designed to\ngive expression to the earnestness of their devotion. The talkative\ncharm-monger, Sheykh Eissa, strode forward as in a trance; though he\nrarely said a word, his lips moved constantly, as if he were whispering\nin the ear of a jinn: he was spellbound. His companion, Mull\u00e1 Ahmad,\nlooking neither to the right nor the left, tripped along with mincing\nsteps, reciting prayer after prayer in Arabic (classical style). The\nman who walked at my side was Mirza Yus\u00faf, than whom a deaf-mute of\nordinary intelligence had made himself better understood; for the\nMirza, having taken a vow to remain silent till he had repeated\nthe Verse of the Throne seven thousand times, replied to all my\nquestions by signs and nods and awkward contortions of the body. As\nfor the two Seyyids--Muhsin, a friend of mine from Central Persia,\nand \u2019Al\u00ed, a man you already know--even they, though drawn together\nby the law of affinity, yet felt constrained to conceal their innate\nlightheartedness from each other, wearing in its place an expression of\nsanctimoniousness more comical than insincere.\n\nWell, the usual course is to proceed at once to a place called\nJamm\u00e9-Sakhra, where the Prophet used to stand and say his Talbiyah;\nbut my friends, allowing themselves to be persuaded by me, had set\nout instead in the direction of the Mountain of Mercy. There, with\neven greater difficulty than on the previous night, I shoved my way\nup the first flight of steps, using Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed sometimes as a buffer\nand sometimes as a wedge. The others had remained below, being afraid\nto risk the dangers of the ascent; for even on the lowest skirts of\nthe Mountain the swarms of pilgrims were subjected to pretty rough\nhandling; while on a somewhat higher ridge the Wahhabis of Nijd were\nquarrelling with the Bedouins of Al-Hejaz as to who should have the\nbest places for listening to the Kazi\u2019s eloquence in the afternoon.\nWe had skirted the angry disputants and reached the steps not much\nthe worse for wear; but despite all our efforts we found it quite\nimpossible to mount higher than the first enclosure whence the sermon\nis preached. There we might have stayed till sunset, a prey to the\nrapacity of paupers, had not the pilgrims on the plain learned wisdom\nfrom our plight, and stayed where they were. This lessened the pressure\nround the platform: and the number of pilgrims coming up being now\nless than the number going down, we took advantage of this opportunity\nwithout a moment\u2019s hesitation, and allowed ourselves to be carried\naway by the downgoing stream to the foot of the Hill.\n\nOn reaching the bottom, we turned to the right and made for the\nAin\u00e9-Zobeideh--Zobeideh, wife of Caliph Harun-ur-Rashid. To this spring\nhas been given the power of working miracles: merely dip a black cloth\nin it, and it will be washed as white as milk. No dye can resist its\ncleansing property, no stone withstand its charm. I might believe this\nor not as I liked, said Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed; for his part, he would demand\nno greater wonder than that it should quench his thirst--a thirst\nthat was insatiable, he begged Zobeideh Khanum (Lady Zobeideh) to\nbelieve. Throwing himself on his stomach, he wriggled through the\ncrowd to the water\u2019s brink; I did likewise; and then, having washed\nour hands and feet and quenched our thirst, we crawled back and said a\ntwo-prostration prayer out of the gratitude of our hearts.\n\n\u201cGod bless Zobeideh! May her fountain never run dry!\u201d cried Seyyid\n\u2019Al\u00ed; then off we went at last to where the Prophet used to recite\nhis Supplication before preaching his sermon on the Mount. This\nplace, as already mentioned, is called Jamm\u00e9 Sakhra: it is a small\nenclosure standing within whitewashed walls, and is divided into two\ncompartments--one for men and one for women--both of which contain\nprayer-niches. Here our friends were awaiting our arrival, having said\ntheir prayers--a duty which they discharged a second time (God will\nincrease His kindness!) by way of returning thanks for our safety.\n\nBy this time the sun shone in the zenith, and the whole plain was\ncovered with worshippers, saying their mid-day prayers: the angels,\nas they believed most fervently, lending ear to their entreaties and\nresponding to such as were sincere with an approving Amen.\n\nNow, a Mussulman believes in earnest; watch him as he bows himself\nin praise or supplication, and you will not doubt his sincerity. His\nfaith is unquestioning, for is it not to him as an elemental force, as\nnecessary as the air he breathes? Why, it warms him like fire, this\nfaith of his, and refreshes him like water, nor is the earth than it\nmore solid and indestructible. The East has many things still to learn\nfrom the West, but faith is not one of them. Surrounded by the dying\nand the dead, these terror-struck pilgrims, at the first cry of the\nmuezzin, regained their presence of mind. They had been stricken with\nfear as with an ague, they had fled from death as from a scourge, but\nat the first sound of that devotional summons, they stood at attention\nbefore their Creator, like soldiers awaiting the word of command. And\nthen, as though God had spoken, they bowed their bare heads--then\nthey sank on their bare knees--and then they prostrated themselves on\nthe ground. Do you doubt their sincerity still? And if their faith is\nunimpeachable, can you deny that the Prophet was less magnificently\nsincere?\n\nWith these thoughts in my mind, I hurried to our tents to read a few\nchapters of the Kur\u00e1n and to say the prescribed prayers, before setting\nout again to witness the Sher\u00edf\u2019s procession and attend the Kazi\u2019s\nsermon. This day, the 9th of the moon, was a day of fasting; but a good\nmany pilgrims found pretexts for breaking their fasts, and I, being\nworn out after the long journey of the preceding day and the exciting\nvigil of the night, was among the number. Having eaten my fill, I\ndropped fast asleep, to be awakened about three o\u2019clock by the firing\nof guns. Our party at once left the tents, giving full instructions to\nthe servants to have everything in readiness for the rush from Arafat\nat sundown.\n\n[Illustration: PERSIAN PILGRIMS FROM TABRIZ, HAVING TEA ON BOARD THE\nSTEAMER.]\n\nThen out once more into the plain, weltering in the sunshine, to\nstand, bare-headed and with naked feet, until the sun should sink\nbehind the horizon....\n\nThe Egyptian Mahmil had already passed on to its appointed place on the\nmountainside; but, fortunately, we were not too late to see the passing\nof its Syrian rival which, draped in its covering of gold and green,\nnow threaded its way across the plain. The Mahmil headed by a dozen\nled horses of the purest Arabian strain, all richly caparisoned with\nembroidered cashmere shawls, was surrounded by a squadron of horsemen\nand camel-riders; while immediately in front of the prancing Arabs,\ncame heralds in white headgear and red coats, bearing silver batons in\ntheir hands. And thus the green badge of Syria moved on to its allotted\nplace on the skirts of the Mountain of Mercy.\n\nHardly had it reached its destination, than the band of the Sher\u00edfian\nprocession crashed out a march: and soon afterwards the cavalcade\ndrew near. A score or two of men on foot cleared the course, making\nvigorous use of the long staves they carried in their hands. A number\nof mace-bearers, who came next, were followed in turn by a regiment\nof Sher\u00edfian cavalry, barbarously dressed and gallantly mounted, each\nman prepossessing the spectator in his favour. Even more popular was\nthe appearance of the magnificent body of men which next excited our\nadmiration. It was a staff of Arab chieftains, the pick of the country,\nriding on mettlesome thoroughbreds, and combining in their persons\nall the chivalry and the dash of their indomitable race. Then a blaze\nof crimson-red--the Sher\u00edfian state colour: this struck my eye on the\nflowing saddle-cloths of the led horses of His Holiness, the Sher\u00edf of\nMecca, who, meekly riding on a white mule, quite alone in the line, was\nclad, like the poorest of the poor among the pilgrims, in Ihr\u00e1m. Behind\nhim walked his courtiers and the members of his Household, while a\ncrowd of Bedouin Sheykhs on horseback or on camels brought up the rear.\n\nWhen the cavalcade was stationed near the Mahmils, guns were fired\nagain and again to announce that the sermon was about to begin. Then,\namid the sighs and sobs and tears of that vast congregation, the Kazi\nof Mecca, sitting on a dromedary, began to preach, or (perhaps more\ncorrectly) to pray. Speaking in Arabic verse, each line being repeated\nabout a dozen times by the pilgrims, he intoned the rhythmic psalm in a\ndeep but ringing voice. The opening passages ran as follows:--\n\n    Thou, O Lord, no mate possessest:\n    Thou, in truth, the King of kings!\n    I am here for Thee--for Thee:\n    I am here with praise for Thee.\n    Thou no compeer hast, O Allah!\n    Nights are darkened at Thy command:\n    Stars are shining in obedience:\n    Angels praise Thee round Thy Throne.\n    Prophets come at Thy beck and call:\n    The sun goes round to sing Thy praises:\n    Thou art holy and Thy name is holy:\n    Thou art merciful, magnanimous, and compassionate!\n\n         *       *       *       *       *\n\n    May the end of our life come with heavenly blessing!\n    May the angels of punishment pass by from our doors!\n                      We glorify and praise Thee, Lord!\n    May the angels of mercy show their grace to us!\n    May our humble supplications be acceptable to Thee!\n                      We glorify and praise Thee, Lord!\n\nAt first the pilgrims held their breath, afraid of missing a word; but\nas the prayers and psalms and exhortations proceeded, their enthusiasm\ngrew more and more unrestrained. No longer content with repeating the\nKazi\u2019s words, line by line, they burst into tears, and from tears\ninto shrieks. They beat their breasts, sobbing from sheer excess of\njoy; they could be seen, on the plain, whirling round and round, as\nthey sang the Labbaik. Some swooned, partly from delirium of religious\nemotion, and partly from the effect of the sun\u2019s excessive heat. One\nmoment--and your blood seemed to boil and your brain to swim in liquid\nfire; then came relief: you were drenched in sweat, reduced to liquid\nthat alternately evaporated and gushed out of every pore. I was wedged\nso tight in a compact mass of pilgrims, within a stone\u2019s throw of the\npreacher, that there was no chance of my reaching the haven of my one\ndesire--the cooling spring where I had slaked my thirst at noonday. And\nso one hour wore on.\n\nWhat had happened among the pilgrims out there in the dancing glare of\nthe sunlit plain, I cannot say; but the least said about the reports\nof the behaviour of some of them, the better. No good purpose can be\nserved by emphasising the exceptional and parading the obscene. Where\nI stood, longing for the sound of running water, there, at least, the\nsolemnity and the fervour of the congregation were of a sort to take\none\u2019s reason captive, overcoming, by sheer repetition of appeal, even\nthe craving I had to swill my gullet with a draught of water.\n\nAnother hour went by: the sun was sinking in the west: the eastern\nhorizon turned colour, passing from a purple shade to a tone of deepest\ncrimson. The green flag on the mountain-top still floated high in\nair; still the preacher gave out his message, to the ever-increasing\nexcitement of his people; and then at last, just as the sun dipped in a\npool of red, the signal of Essraf was given. The sermon was over, and\nthe night of another day begun. We were now entitled to call ourselves\nH\u00e1j\u00eds.\n\n\u201c_Ayd\u00e1kum Gheb\u00fal_ (May your festival be accepted),\u201d cried Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed,\nkissing me three times on the cheeks, in accordance with the practice.\n\nAnd I returned the kisses, saying--\n\n\u201c_Tebarik-Allah!_ (May God be glorified).\u201d\n\nI now pass on to the Day of Sacrifice and the Days of Drying Flesh.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nTHE DAY OF VICTIMS: FROM SUNDOWN TO SUNSET. THE DAYS OF DRYING FLESH.\n\n\nLong before the signal of Essraf was given, the canvas-city had been\nin a state of confusion: so that by the time the sermon was over most\nof the tents had been folded and stowed away. Thus everything was now\nready for the impetuous rush from Arafat.\n\nThe pilgrims\u2019 jubilation was then at its height. The uproar was\ndeafening: drums were beaten, bugles called us to make haste, and\nrocket after rocket exploded as it whirred through the air.... We\nwaited half an hour or so, exchanging kisses and congratulations, and\nthen a path was prepared for the cavalcades. The Egyptian Mahmil took\nthe right-hand side of the road and the Syrian the left: after them\ncharged the mounted pilgrims, followed by those on foot, all and each\nshowing the same reckless determination to press forward over every\nobstacle, no matter how narrow the road might be.\n\nThis headlong stampede after the sermon on the Mount is historic. It\nnever grows stale with the years. The havoc it wrought in 1319 of the\nFlight it would be quite impossible to exaggerate; for the confusion\nwhich has become traditional was increased fivefold by the number\nof pilgrims, a number that was vastly greater than any within the\nrecollection of the authorities. Women and men swooned in the crush\nand were trampled to death--litters were overthrown and smashed in\npieces--camels were trodden under foot: but neither disaster nor death\ncould, in the slightest degree, glut the wild desire by which the crowd\nwas moved--the desire, namely, of being more completely possessed by\nthe feeling of a religion-wrought delirium. It was not a triumphant\nprocession of peaceful pilgrims, therefore, though that is undoubtedly\nwhat it should be; it was a charge of religious madmen running _amok_.\nHow many were killed or maimed, I can hazard no guess; but of this I am\nquite certain,--the casualties had not been so terrible on any previous\noccasion within the memory of man.\n\nThus the dense mass moved on, and about the hour of midnight we reached\nMuzdalifah. There we halted for the night, the pious passing the time\nin praying and reading the Kur\u00e1n. Very few pilgrims took the trouble\nto pitch tents here, the vast majority of them sleeping on the ground.\nBefore lying down to rest, Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed and I collected forty-nine\nstones apiece for the Lapidation of the Devil in the valley of Mina.\n\nNow, this ceremony takes place three times: first, between sunrise and\nsunset on the 10th of the moon when every pilgrim must fling seven\nstones at a buttress, situated at the Meccan entrance to the valley,\nand called the Great Devil. These seven stones must be gathered at\nMuzdalifah, and have to be washed seven times and each time in fresh\nwater. On the following day, the 11th, twenty-one stones must be\nthrown: seven at the Great Devil as before, seven at the Wusta or\nCentral Point in the middle of the valley, and, last of all, seven\nmore at the Ula or First Place lying at that entrance to Mina which\nfaces Arafat. All these twenty-one stones may be gathered either in\nthe valley itself or at Muzdalifah on the return journey; but they,\ntoo, must be washed seven times and each time in fresh water. The\nsame rules apply to the third Lapidation, which is held on the 12th of\nZ\u00fa-\u2019l-hijj\u00e1h: and the three ceremonies aforementioned are performed in\ncommemoration of the tradition that Abraham was tempted three times of\nthe Devil, at those very places in the valley, what time he was about\nto sacrifice his son Ishmael. Now the first day, which is the 10th of\nZ\u00fa-\u2019l-hijjah, is called the Day of Victims, while the two following\ndays are called the Days of Drying Flesh in the Sun.\n\nAwaking early, my party set out, at peep of day, to the sacred monument\nhard by, where, amid scenes of indescribable solemnity, the Festival\nPrayers were celebrated by the Kazi of Mecca, who also preached a short\nsermon. Departing thence at sunrise, we arrived at Mina about nine\no\u2019clock, one of our servants dying of cholera on the road. We buried\nhim where he fell, each one of us wondering if his own life would be\nthe next to come to an end. What would happen after the slaying of the\nvictims we dared not think. The prospect looked gloomy in the extreme.\n\nHaving eaten a good meal, we traversed the valley in the direction of\nMecca, in order to be rid, as soon as possible, of the tiresome duty of\nstoning the Great Devil. When we reached the entrance to the valley,\nit was to find our access to his Satanic Majesty blocked by a vast\nconcourse of excited pilgrims. The road, about thirteen yards wide,\nwas packed with horsemen, camel-riders, litters, pilgrims on foot, and\nwomen in _kejavehs_, all struggling and fighting to get within stone\u2019s\nthrow of the buttress which rests against a wall that is only a little\nhigher than itself which is--say, three yards high by two yards broad.\nOf the Orthodox sects the Shafeis are the most privileged, for they are\nallowed to stand at a distance of five cubits from the Devil, whereas\nthe Hanefis are supposed to make their attack the more formidable by\nfighting at close quarters--within arm\u2019s reach of the Arch Foe.\n\nAnd all the while the great mountains frowned down upon us; very\nawe-inspiring I found them: the seven stones I had brought along with\nme fell at my feet only to be picked up by Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed.\n\n\u201cCome, y\u00e1-Moulai,\u201d said he: \u201cthe devil is not so big after all. See, I\nwill fling your stones as well as my own at little devils like myself.\u201d\n\nAfter this \u201cceremony\u201d was over, we returned to our camp where a barber\nwas waiting \u201cto bring me out of Ihr\u00e1m.\u201d When he had trimmed my hair,\nshaving it round the nape of the neck, and had cut my nails, I made to\ntake off the pilgrim\u2019s garb, saying--\u201cIn the name of God the Merciful\nand Compassionate, I intend to doff my Ihr\u00e1m of pilgrimage, according\nto the usage of it by the Prophet, on whom be blessings and glory! O\nAllah, reward me to the number of the hairs of my head with Light,\nPurity, and Grace. In the name of God--God is great!\u201d Upon this the\nbarber helped me to undress and (after I had had a bath) to put on my\ngala attire which was Egyptian in make and in material.\n\n[Illustration: DISEMBARKING AT JIDDAH.]\n\n[Illustration: PILGRIMS AT JIDDAH.]\n\nBy this time the servants had purchased the victims, and they now came\nto tell me that all preparations had been made for the sacrifice. I\ndeputed Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed to slay my harmless sheep, from a sudden invasion\nof squeamishness. And before the day was over the valley of Desire was\nturned into a reeking slaughter-house, and, it may be added, into a\ncemetery for the dead pilgrims. These also were victims--the victims\nof the misdirected religious zeal which had prompted a slaughter that\nserved no other purpose than to spread the epidemic. The less said\nof it here the better. I have no wish to make the reader sick. It\nwill be enough to add, to what has been said in a previous chapter,\nthat the camels were sacrificed by none but grandees, who dispatched\ntheir victims with the words: \u201cIn the Name of God! God is great!\u201d the\nsame words being used by the other pilgrims in sacrificing the sheep!\n\nAll beasts of prey are believed by the superstitious to keep away from\nthe valley during the Day of Sacrifice and the Days of Drying Flesh;\nfor, had not the victims been brought down from heaven by angels, and\ndriven by them under the guidance of Bedouin shepherds, to the place\nof slaughter? But the truth is that the Takruri negroes were more\nblood-thirsty than any of the carnivorous animals or birds of prey:\nthey laid in wait until the sheep were killed, feasting their eyes on\nthe creatures\u2019 dying agonies, and then pounced on the carcases like\nhungry vultures.\n\nNow, a great many pilgrims, after casting off the Ihr\u00e1m and putting\non their festival attire, went at once to Mecca, visited the Ka\u2019bah,\nrepeating the ceremonies already described, and then returned to Mina\nto slay their victims. One of our party who had taken this course fell\nsick of the cholera on the road, and the news of his grave condition\nreached us at mid-day. We therefore determined to take up our quarters\nin Mecca, for our comrade\u2019s sake, and to return to Mina, day by day,\nin order to complete our stoning of the Devil. Sheykh Eissa, however,\nremained behind to take charge of our camp; and when we got back again\nnext morning, it was to hear from him a flamboyant account of the\nfireworks and jollifications of the Great Festival that we had missed.\nWe listened to his stories of the too-unfettered revelry by night with\nheavy hearts, for our friend was dead. Outside, the whole valley stank\nlike a shambles, hundreds of pilgrims having succumbed overnight to the\ncholera epidemic; and so, when we had stoned the Devil for the second\ntime, we bent our steps again to the Holy City, taking care to remember\nour comrade in our prayers as we passed by the mosque of Khaif. There\nwe saw some poor pilgrims drying the flesh of a dead sheep--a revolting\nspectacle. Next day, the 12th of Z\u00fa-\u2019l-hijjah, we cast the remaining\ntwenty-one stones at the three buttresses in the Valley of Desire, and\nwere ready on the 13th to join the little pilgrimage to Al-Omreh--a\nmosque near the pillars of Alemeyn--having to that end performed\nablutions with the water of Zem-Zem, and put on the ihr\u00e1m once more,\nand made our declaration of intention opposite the Black Stone. It\ntook us about three hours to reach the sacred spot where we said a\ntwo-prostration prayer after having subjected our heads and hands and\nfeet to a second ablution. Then we rode back to Mecca and again went\nthrough all those ceremonies within the Harem and between Mount Saf\u00e1\nand Mount Marveh which have been described in the earlier pages of this\nnarrative. This brought the little pilgrimage of Omreh to an end, and\nthe ihr\u00e1m was finally removed. Thenceforward the streets of Mecca were\ncrowded with pilgrims dressed in every costume of the East.\n\nI remained a week in the Holy City after the Day of Victims--indeed,\nno pilgrim could bring himself to leave the Kiblah of the Faith before\nthe 18th of Z\u00fa-\u2019l-hijjah--and whiled away the time by frequent visits\nto the Harem and the bazaars. By these means I added considerably to my\nknowledge of the pilgrims and their ways. The result of my observations\nwill be found overleaf.\n\nOn the 18th I attached myself to a strong caravan bound for Jiddah, and\nthere I said good-bye to Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed. The reader will meet him again,\nhowever, in the brief pages of Part III.\n\n\n\n\nPART III\n\n\n\n\nPART III\n\nMECCAN SCENES AND SKETCHES\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nTHE MECCAN BAZAARS\n\n\nThe European, who prides himself on his practicality, is inclined to\nlook down on the merchant\u2019s calling, though it is surely one of the\nmost practical of all. The Oriental, on the other hand, who is supposed\nto be the most romantic of mortals, generally holds it in high esteem.\nTherefore the Oriental, if he is less practical in that he is slow\nto adopt the time-saving methods of his Western brother, is far more\nlogical in paying every respect to a calling which is one of the chief\nfactors in the welfare of nations. Moreover, the Oriental\u2019s attitude\ntowards travelling proves him to be far more practical than he is\ngenerally believed to be. As a general rule he takes to roving, either\nto lay up for himself treasures in heaven by visiting holy places, or\nto better his condition in life by trading in foreign parts. If he is a\npilgrim he combines the spiritual and the worldly aims above-mentioned,\nstrong in the Prophet\u2019s assurance that it shall be no crime in him\nif he seek an increase from his Lord during his pilgrimage. The\nconsequence is that Mecca is turned every year into a bustling fair,\nan exchange and mart where Eastern commodities of every description\ncan be purchased in cash or in kind. This being understood, I will ask\nthe reader to accompany my guide and myself on our shopping tour of\nthe Meccan bazaars, for I must not forget, as a true pilgrim, to buy a\nsough\u00e1t or present for each of the friends I left behind me.\n\n\u201cY\u00e1-Moulai,\u201d said my guide, \u201clet me advise you to grease your tongue\nwith honey before we go, that the shopkeepers may respond to the\ncompliments you must pay them by lowering their prices. I notice that\nyou have a smile on your lips. Y\u00e1-Allah! do you wish to return with\nan empty purse? Press your lips together, affect a poverty-stricken\ndemeanour, otherwise you will be fleeced not only by the traders, but\nalso by every beggar in Mecca, more particularly by those who lie in\nwait for the generous-hearted round about the Harem. On entering each\nshop you must cough as hard as you can, though you tear your chest in\npieces: then the shopkeeper will be compassionate in the matter of\ncharges. Another counsel I would offer you is this. Let us suppose you\nwant to buy a knife. The first thing you must do is to ask the cutler\nfor a sword, then for a dagger, then for a pair of scissors, and,\nafter refusing all of these things with a sneer, you must command him\nto show you a knife in a voice toned to insinuate that the purchasing\nof that article is an act of generosity on your part, a magnanimous\nrecompense to him for his trouble. For our merchants, though they are\noften crafty and betray a suspicious conscience, are, if you treat them\nas they expect to be treated, of a childlike simplicity. So cast off\nyour sandals that you may acquire the reputation of a saint and thus\nbe treated fairly in the bazaars. Believe me, Y\u00e1-Moulai, if you follow\nthese instructions, you will drive a better bargain with the Meccan\nthan you would by trusting to the honesty of a Firangi trader who is\ncivilisation-proof against these simple wiles.\u201d And so chattering he\nled me through the crowded streets, and would have asked for alms, that\nI might pass as a beggar, had I not forbidden him sternly to practise\nin my service a piece of deceit as unworthy of himself as it would be\nhumiliating to me; whereon he glanced at me furtively muttering in his\nbeard: \u201cHe is as proud as a Shahzadeh.\u201d\n\nThe city of Mecca is divided into two parts. Of these the upper\nquarters are called Mal\u00e1, as opposed to the lower ones, which are known\nby the name of Misf\u00e1l. The shops are very similar to those at Jiddah;\nbut in the street that bears the name of Mussah, which is the broadest\nand most picturesque thoroughfare, they occupy, I may say, the ground\nfloor of the houses on both sides, presenting to the passers-by such a\nwealth of Oriental goods as I for one had not seen before. The familiar\nword \u201cbazaar\u201d is Persian, its Arabic equivalent being S\u00fagh, and a\nwhole quarter is sometimes called after its neighbouring market, as is\nthe case, for instance, with the quarter called S\u00fagh\u00e9-Seghir. To the\nNorth of Mussah-street is situated the Soueygha Bazaar, where goods\n(especially the belongings of dead pilgrims) are sold by auction twice\na day, in the morning and in the evening, and there also slaves are\nexhibited and knocked down to the highest bidder. The Syrian Bazaar,\nor Sugh\u00e9-Sham\u00ed, is to be found to the east of this slave market;\nthe armourers display their weapons in the S\u00fagh\u00e9-Geshatshi near the\nPlatform of Purity, whence the Sugh\u00e9-Lail, or Night bazaar, is within\neasy reach; while further to the east, below the skirts of Mount Ab\u00fa\nGhobais, in a market named Moamil, pottery of any description can\nbe bought by the pilgrims as receptacles for the curative water of\nZem-Zem. In a square to the east of this bazaar camels and sheep are\nsold, and fruit stalls are kept by Bedouins: and from thence one passes\nto the blacksmiths\u2019 shops or Sugh\u00e9-Haddadin.\n\nThe pilgrim who would purchase shoes or sandals must seek the upper\nquarters of the town, and there, in the north of Mal\u00e1, he will find\nwhat he wants in abundance, as well as many provision stores which\nserve to replenish the supplies of the yearly caravans; for most of\nthese dealers have agencies at Jiddah, Bombay, and Cairo. In the same\nquarter, still to the north, is the meat market, most of the butchers\nbeing Bedouin Arabs who keep special flocks of sheep and camels\nfor slaughter and for sale. From this bazaar the way lies through\nsome extremely narrow and dirty lanes to the Zok\u00e1k\u00e9-Seni or Chinese\nMarket, where gold and silver vessels and jewellery are sold by a few\nMuhammadans of the Celestial Empire. Thence to the north-east are\nsituated the dyers\u2019 shops, which go by the name of Sugh\u00e9-Sabbaghin.\nThe manufacture of indigo dye, which is much used in Arabia, is very\ninteresting. First the small leaves are dried in the sun, then they\nare powdered and put into earthenware jars filled with water, where\nthey remain overnight. Next morning the leaves are stirred thoroughly\nuntil a dark blue froth is produced in the water, after which they are\nleft to settle. When the indigo is taken from the bottom it is spread\non cloths to drain, and is then mixed with dates and saltpetre. The\nmethod of calendering the garments dyed with indigo consists in beating\nthem on stones with wooden hammers, which is generally done to the\naccompaniment of a song.\n\n\u201cBismi\u2019ll\u00e1hi\u2019r-Rahm\u00e1ni\u2019r-Rahim!\u201d With those words on our lips we\nentered the bazaar to the north of the Harem. What first struck my\nattention was a man sitting on a rug with a small wooden frame in front\nof him, a round blue tile by his side, a reed pen in his right hand,\nand a few sheets of paper in his left. He was an Arab scribe, and\naround him were gathered a crowd of illiterate pilgrims, all waiting\nfor him to write their letters. The first to go forward was an Afghan\npilgrim. He had muscular limbs and a fierce, scowling face. Said he:\n\u201cWrite me a letter to my brother: he is ill and lives at Sakhir.\u201d The\nscribe, who was sitting on his hips, cocked up his right leg ever so\nslightly so as to form a sort of table, and asked the Afghan what he\nwas to say. \u201cBy God!\u201d exclaimed the native of Sakhir, \u201cI expect you\nto provide something more than the paper and the penmanship. You must\nsupply the words as well. What! you know not what to write? Have I not\nsaid that my brother is sick and like to die? Tell him that I will\nbring him a bottle of Zem-Zem water--that will cure him, if it please\nAllah--and a winding-sheet that has been dipped therein, which will\nbe useful if he die--God forbid!\u201d Here my guide stepped to the front,\nsaying, \u201cFrom the Percussion of the Grave and from the Interrogation\nof the Grave may God the Merciful and Clement deliver him!\u201d A bright\nsmile flashed over the Afghan\u2019s face. \u201cMay your kindness increase!\u201d\nsaid he. Meanwhile, the scribe dipped his pen in the silk threads on\nthe blue tile which served the purpose of an inkstand. These threads\nwere soaked in soot and water, and it took about three dips to write a\nsingle word. Every now and then he would raise the paper to the left\nside of his face and look at it slantingly out of the corner of his\neye. If a word did not please him he would rub it out by moistening\nhis forefinger and dabbing it half-a-dozen times on the word, for the\nink left no permanent trace on the paper but came off in layers when\nrubbed with the wet finger. The lines of the letter were wide apart,\nand an ample margin was left on both sides. When the bottom of the page\nwas reached the scribe filled the margins lengthwise, and then fell\nto writing between the lines. I could not help thinking that the sick\nSakhiri would find it easier to answer the interrogations of Nak\u00edr and\nMunkar, those dread Inquisitors of the Grave, than to read the letter\nfrom Mecca, which struck me as being almost as difficult to decipher as\na Chinese poem. When the last word was written the Afghan took out his\npurse, to the strings of which was tied a round seal of brass whereon\nhis name was engraved. Having unfastened the seal he handed it to the\nscribe. It amused me to see that the purse was withheld by the canny\nAfghan, who obviously had no intention of losing over the transaction\nmore than he had bargained for.\n\nAll Orientals, particularly the Persians, lay great store by their\nseals. Those of the lower classes are generally round and made of\nbrass, and are either fastened to their purse strings or left dangling\nby their waistbands. The mull\u00e1s have a preference for square seals\nof cornelian set in base silver, as approved by the Prophet; while\nthe high officials \u201cgratify the pride of irresponsibility,\u201d or the\ninstincts of taste in the matter, some choosing gold seals ornamented\nwith diamonds, and others turquoise seals decorated with pearls or\nwith rubies. Sometimes a line of poetry is engraved on the seal as\nwell as the owner\u2019s name. I knew a pious Shi\u2019ah whose seal bore this\ninscription: \u201cThe slave of the King of the country, Im\u00e1m \u2019Al\u00ed,\u201d only\nthe last word, of course, being his own name. Later, on our journey\nthrough the bazaars, we chanced to see a Persian hakk\u00e1k, or seal-maker,\nat work. The cornelian he was carving was fixed in tar on the small\nboard in front of him. The deft way in which he wielded his small\nhammer was the result of a steady hand and an unerring eye, gifts\nfor which the Persians are justly famous. The motto was intended\nto commemorate his pilgrimage to the Mother of Cities, and ran as\nfollows: \u201cSadik, the least of H\u00e1j\u00eds and the slave of God, in the city\nof God!\u201d\n\nI entered into conversation with this man Sadik, and was lucky to find\nin him a very lantern of traditions. The works of Baid\u00e1w\u00ed, of Ab\u00fa\nSa\u2019\u00edd al-Khadr\u00ed, of al-Farr\u00e1 of Bagh, of Nu\u2019man Ibu Bash\u00edr, of Ab\u00fa\nHurairah, of \u2019Abd Allah Ibu Mas\u2019ud, to say nothing of the Persian and\nArabian poets, he seemed to know by heart. When I complimented him on\nhis learning, he replied, saying: \u201cIf I am blessed by God with a good\nmemory, it is because I have never eaten a quince, or a sour apple,\nor fresh coriander, or garlic, or the remainder of a mouse\u2019s meal;\nnor have I, to the best of my belief, ever read a book written by the\nblind, nor drawn blood from the nape of my neck. For these things\nweaken the memory and produce folly. From the unseemly demeanour of\nyour guide\u201d--the rascal had been more exasperating than usual--\u201cI would\nhazard the conjecture that he has tasted of many a mouse\u2019s meal.\u201d\n\nThe guide grew exceeding wrath, and would have struck the speaker had I\nnot prevented him; then he cried, \u201cYou lie! the humiliation you would\nthrust on me, see, I cast it back in your face!\u201d The seal-maker smiled\ngood-humouredly. \u201cFriend,\u201d said he, \u201cthe humiliation was mine, and not\nyours, for have I not spoken to a careless listener? Know, however,\nfor your future guidance, that a man, if he meet with humiliation,\nhas sometimes nobody but himself to blame. This will certainly be\nhis sorry case if he sit down uninvited to another\u2019s table, or if\nhe respect not his host, or if he hope for kindness from a foe or\nfor learning from the low-born; so much the more will he suffer the\ninevitable consequence if he honour not his Prophet, his country, and\nhis King. And\u201d--here he turned to the crowd--\u201cto listen inquisitively\nto another\u2019s conversation has the same effect as addressing an\ninattentive audience. I would not have ye be guilty of the former,\nwhich is the extreme of discourtesy, any more than I would have the\nlatter, which is the acme of humiliation, thrust on me a second time by\nthe friend to whom I spoke.\u201d\n\nI watched the guide, who could not contain his spleen. \u201cThou\nsententious ass!\u201d he shrieked, making as if to take off his sandal\nwherewith to belabour the seal-maker. Once more he was met by a meek\nand smiling countenance. \u201cVerily,\u201d quoth Sadik, \u201cif one show leniency\nto the mean, the low, or the servant, one must expect to be imposed\non. I do but light a lamp in broad daylight, or sow seed in the desert\nsand, which is as wasteful as eating when one\u2019s stomach is laden, or as\nshowing consideration to one who is not deserving of it. Three things\ntend towards madness: the first is to walk with the blind, the second\nis to talk to the deaf, and the third is to sleep alone.\u201d\n\nBy this time the sun had risen high in the heavens, and the mat awnings\nsuspended on poles were already drawn down in order to keep out the\nfierce rays of sunlight, so on we went till we came to the tin-makers\u2019\nbazaar. There we heard a cry of \u201cY\u00e1 Allah! y\u00e1 Allah!\u201d and, on looking\nround, beheld a funeral procession. The corpses, four victims of the\nepidemic, were being borne from the Harem to the graveyard on rough\nserirs, or wooden biers peculiar to Mecca. When the procession had\npassed by, I entered one of the shops and bought a couple of tin\nbottles, each of which would hold about two pints of Zem-Zem water. It\nis not customary to bargain over the purchasing of these articles since\nthey are meant to contain the water of the sacred spring.\n\nAcross the way, in a shop full of musty manuscripts of questionable\nantiquity, I chanced on a veritable treasure. This was an exquisite\ncopy of the Kur\u00e1n in the old Kufi writing. It was plain that the\nbookseller had no conception of its value, for when I asked him the\nprice of it he said, \u201cGive whatever you like, and I will be content to\npart with it. We must not attempt to make a profit out of the Word of\nGod, though it were well that we should seek to profit by its lessons.\u201d\n\nThe Muhammadans are not supposed \u201cto sell\u201d the Kur\u00e1n like any other\nbook: a \u201chedieh,\u201d or \u201cpresent\u201d goes to defray the cost of production. I\noffered a \u201chedieh\u201d of a Turkish pound, not so much as dreaming that the\nbid would be accepted; but to my intense delight the shopkeeper, having\nraised the Book to his lips, and from the lips to his eyes, and from\nthe eyes to his forehead, handed it to me, saying, \u201cThis is the Word of\nAllah; I give it to you, earnestly begging you to pray for me when you\nread it!\u201d\n\nI certainly prayed for him five times that day out of a grateful heart,\nand I made a point of doing so until, just before I embarked on my\nhomeward voyage, I looked for the precious Book only to find it gone,\nalong with several other valuable purchases.\n\nSoon after leaving the bookseller\u2019s, being in need of rest and\nrefreshment, we entered a coffee-house which was literally filled with\na crowd of pilgrims of every nationality in the East. Conspicuous\nin flowing ab\u00e1s with white and yellow stripes were two Sheykhs, who\nwere sitting on stools at a low table, and with them I entered into\nconversation, offering them a cup of coffee each. The elder, a man\nof about forty-five, belonged to the tribe of Beni S\u00fabh, while his\ncompanion, who was many years younger, owed allegiance to the tribe of\nOwf; consequently, both of them were members of the fighting clan of\nHarb Bedouins, who either live in tents about two stages from Mecca,\non the road to Medina, or reside, if they are settled Arabs, in the\ntowns of Rabegh, Safr\u00e1, and Far\u00e1. Of all the tribes of Harb none is\nmore dreaded by the pilgrims than that of Owf, more particularly are\nthey feared by the caravans that travel between the two holy cities.\nTheir power and bravery are undeniable, as was clearly proved during\nthe Wahh\u00e1b\u00ed invasion of Hejaz. Closely allied to them are the tribes of\nBeni Amere and Zobeid.\n\nThe young Sheykh, with whom I now struck up an acquaintance, declared\nthat the Owf, with all their shortcomings, could teach moral lessons to\nthe rest of the clan, and he attributed their predatory habits to the\n\u201coverboiling spirit that was in them.\u201d He contradicted the report that\nhis tribe had robbed forty Persian pilgrims of their belongings between\nHeddah and Mecca, and had murdered three Syrians between Medina and\nthe Prophet\u2019s birthplace. He professed strong attachment to the person\nof the Sher\u00edf, and expressed the hope that we would live to see the\nunion of every tribe of Arabia under his sway; in fact, he was a true\npatriot, frank of speech, of engaging manners, and showing no signs of\nlawless violence.\n\nNot less courteous was his companion. On hearing that he was a Sheykh\nof Beni Sobh I asked him if he would tell me something about the famous\nbalsam of Mecca, for I had read that the amyris-tree, which exudes this\nfragrant juice, grows on the mountain of J\u00e9b\u00e9l\u00e9-Sobh, between the towns\nof Rabegh and Bedre. He was good enough to comply with my request,\nbeing a connoisseur on the subject. The trees, Bishon, as he called\nthem, have a straight stem, and grow to the height of about twelve\nfeet. In the middle of summer incisions are made by the women in the\nsoft bark with a special kind of knife, whereon a white juice oozes\nout, and this the women collect with the thumb-nails of their right\nhands, and put into a sheepskin or into a vessel of burnished copper.\nThe balsam, if the incisions are made later in the season, takes on a\nyellowish colour, and loses a good deal of its virtue as a tonic.\n\nThe Persian pilgrims, I was told, are unwearied in their efforts to\nobtain the honey-like balm in its unadulterated form, but they rarely\nsucceed unless they go to the headquarters of Beni Sobh, for the stuff\nsold as balsam in the Meccan bazaars is hardly ever pure. The Arabs\nthemselves can detect by the smell whether it is adulterated or not.\nFortunately for the pilgrims there are certain other tests which are\nsaid to be infallible. The best balsam sinks in water, has a bright\nblue flame when alight, and, if you put a drop on your finger and set\nfire to it, it will burn without injuring the skin. The Persian traders\nmix turpentine with it, probably because the yellow balsam, even when\nit has not been \u201cdoctored,\u201d smells of that resinous substance, but the\nArabs adulterate the white balsam with inoffensive oils of several\nkinds. Every morning the pilgrims who could afford to buy the precious\ntonic would take a drop in their tea or their coffee, and I know from\nexperience that it has the most invigorating effect on the nervous\nsystem.\n\nThe senna of Mecca, which is exported to Persia, to Central Asia, and\nto Syria, is also a product of the country of the tribesmen of Beni\nSobh, who may be regarded as the richest and most peaceful of the\ntribes of Harb, reaping as they do the produce of their rich valleys\nwithout molesting the caravans in the hope of spoil. The date-tree is\ncultivated by them, my friend the Sheykh being the fortunate possessor\nof over a thousand trees. It surprised me to hear that these palms are\nsold not by the grove but by the tree, and, as it sometimes happens,\nthe dates of a single tree may belong to two or more owners. When a\ntree has to be fructified, the gardener, having laid bare the female\nspathe and shaken over it the male pollen, sings in a low voice,\nsaying: \u201cPlease God, you will thrive and be fruitful.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nTHE TALISMAN-MONGER\n\n\nOn leaving the coffee-house (Kahv\u00e9-Kh\u00e1n\u00e9) we heard the voice of a\nmuezzin calling to prayers. It was noon. \u201cListen,\u201d said Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed,\n\u201cI know the Mull\u00e1 well; he has the soul of a saint and the voice of an\nangel.\u201d Emotional, the tears ran down \u2019Al\u00ed\u2019s cheeks in streams; then,\ndrying his eyes, his whole face shone as from some sudden light within\nhim. The scoffer was mute--silenced by the majestic melody of that\nfar-flung summons; but it must not be supposed that any translation\nin English could reflect the dignity of the original Arabic, the most\ndevotional tongue ever spoken by the lips of man:\n\n    Mighty is the Lord! Mighty is the Lord!\n    Mighty is the Lord! Mighty is the Lord!\n    I bear witness, there is no god but God!\n    I bear witness, there is no god but God!\n    I bear witness, Muhammad is the messenger of God!\n    I bear witness, Muhammad is the messenger of God!\n    Come hither to prayers! Come hither to prayers!\n    Come hither to salvation! Come hither to salvation!\n    God is Great! There is no other god than God!\n\n[Illustration: AN EGYPTIAN GROCER.]\n\nThe words swept over the city like a storm cloud, fraught with\ndarkness, thunder, and lightning--symbols these of the mysteries,\nthe threats, and the promises of the Faith. The mere sound of the\nfull-throated syllables, even to one who had no Arabic, would, however\nobscure it might be, suggest something alike threatening and revealing.\nIt was as though some moonless desert had found a tongue to proclaim\nto-morrow\u2019s sunrise.\n\n\u201cBy my life!\u201d cried Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed, \u201cwhy, this human voice, acknowledging\nthe might of the most Mighty, finds its way to the core of being. I\ndo repent in that I did make mock of the engraver of seals. He was a\nrighteous man, and of excellent courtesy and address. I have committed\na fault. I have eaten dirt. I am the humblest of his servants. Come,\ny\u00e1-Moulai, let us hasten to say the F\u00e1tihah within the holy precincts\nof the Harem.\u201d This prayer runs:\n\n\u201cPraise be to God, the Lord of the Worlds, the Compassionate, the\nMerciful, the King of the Day of Judgment. Thee do we worship, and of\nThee do we seek help. Lead us in the right way, the way of those to\nwhom Thou hast been gracious, not of those with whom thou art angry,\nnor of those who go astray.\u201d\n\nThis, the opening chapter of the Kur\u00e1n, is held in special veneration\nby the Muhammadans, by whom it is sometimes called the chapter of\nprayer, of thanksgiving, of treasure, and is repeated by them as often\nas the Christians repeat the Lord\u2019s Prayer. Not less precious is the\nsublime passage in the second S\u00fara, descriptive of the Divine Majesty,\nand entitled Ayatu\u2019l-K\u00fars\u00ed--that is, being translated, the Verse of the\nThrone. It runs something like this:\n\n\u201cGod, save whom there is no God, is the living, the self-subsisting\none. Slumber overpowereth Him not, nor sleep. Unto Him belongeth\nwhatsoever is in the heavens, and whatsoever is in the earth. Who is\nhe that shall intercede with Him, save through His good pleasure? He\nknoweth that which is past, and that which is to come unto them; and\nthey understand not a single iota of His knowledge, except so far as\nHe hath willed. His firmament spans the heavens and the earth, the\npreservation whereof doth not distress Him. And He is the most High,\nthe most Supreme.\u201d\n\nHaving said our prayers, my guide and I, we left the Harem and returned\nto the bazaars. The smell of burning aloe-wood drew our eyes to a shop\nwhere combs seemed to be the only purchasable articles. These combs,\nmade of ebony, were of two kinds. The first, used by the men, are\ncalled male combs. They are provided with a single row of teeth. The\nothers, known as female combs, have teeth on both sides. We passed on.\nA man bearing a sheepskin was hawking honey, like the water of the eye\nfor purity. It is brought down to the Meccan markets by the Arabs of\nthe clan of Beni Salem, another branch of the tribe of Harb, who also\ndwell not far from Rabegh, and are more numerous than the two tribes\naforementioned, whose Sheykhs we had the pleasure of meeting in the\ncoffee-house. Among the countless hawkers thronging the thoroughfares\nnot a single Arab milkman did we see. We met only one milkman, and he\nwas an Indian. For milk-selling is not a popular pursuit in Arabia.\nIndeed, it carries with it the stigma of an ineffaceable disgrace,\nthe term \u201cmilk-seller\u201d having come to bear the meaning of \u201cbastard.\u201d\nIn like manner the Persians make use of the expression \u201cm\u00e1st-kash,\u201d\nsour milk carrier, on the rare occasions when they are driven to\nreprove a mean flatterer. The first shop we entered was that of a\ndraper who drove a remunerative trade in winding-sheets. There we\nnoticed the poorer side of the East. Crowds of beggars--not necessarily\npoverty-stricken--were practising their lucrative business. Some were\nweeping, many were malingering, and one was really dead. There was no\nbargaining over the prices of the grave-clothes. Every purchaser chose\nthe one he could afford to buy. While I was selecting mine Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed\nintervened, saying, in an undertone:\n\n\u201cY\u00e1-Moulai, allow me to persuade you to buy the oldest you can find,\nto the end that Nak\u00edr and Munkar, when you come to die (God forbid),\nmay pass you by as having already answered their cross-examination\nas to your spiritual preparedness. For my own part, being in sound\nhealth--praise be to God on high!--I have no faith whatever in the\nexistence of those Inquisitors. I am of the opinion of the Persian\ngrandee who, having stuffed the mouth of his dead groom with grain,\nand having opened the grave in due course, found the grain still in\nthe groom\u2019s mouth, and cried: \u2018This is proof positive that he never\nanswered Munkar and Nak\u00edr, and strong presumptive evidence that no such\nInquisitors exist!\u2019 Nay, grow not impatient with me. Am I not the least\nof thy slaves?\u201d\n\nThe sceptical rogue chuckled, emitting a sound like that of a camel\ndrinking water. The winding-sheet I bought cost about fifteen\nshillings. Later on I had it washed in the water of Zem-Zem. It\nmeasures about 8ft. by 4ft. In the middle the figure of a cypress\ntree is inscribed with the Verse of the Throne as a protection to the\nwearer from the Percussion of the grave; and other verses from the same\nchapter of Al-Beghar surround the hem thereof. For the life of me I\ncould not help being sorry that I should not see myself in it as others\nwould see me--a reflection which nearly stifled my guide with laughter.\n\u201cSince you are still a good enough Muslim to be superstitious,\u201d said\nhe, \u201cI would suggest that we should next visit a talisman-monger\u2019s, for\nthere you would find charms to protect you against the Evil Eye and the\ncontagion of every disease.\u201d Thither, therefore, we bent our steps.\n\nThe talisman-monger, as I discerned from his features, stern and\npassive, and from the determination of mind underlying them, was\nhalf-Turk, half-Syrian. The Syrians are of a resolute character, and\nseldom take a step that does not bring them nearer to the end they\nkeep ever in view. In this regard they are the antithesis of the\nEgyptians, who seem utterly aimless if left to their own devices. In\ntheir attitude towards work the Syrians are more persevering than the\nPersians, and less conceited in character. They are at their best\nas men of action. As men of thought they are inferior both to the\nPersians, who are the Hamlets of the East, and to the Bedouins, whose\nwild, imaginative spirits equip them for pillage and for poetry alike.\nThey are extremely fond of music, these cheery sons of a flowery soil,\nthough here, again, they must yield the palm to the fiery clansmen of\nthe Arabian deserts. The charm-seller, a characteristic specimen of\nhis race, an excellent business man, was taken completely by surprise\nwhen I asked him to give a name to a certain cornelian set in silver\ngilt and inscribed with a Kur\u00e1n text. \u201cMay God protect me from Satan,\u201d\nhe muttered in pious horror. \u201cHere is a Muhammadan who knows not a\nB\u00e1b\u00e1gh\u00fali!\u201d Then, recovering slowly from his astonishment, he went\non to explain that it is worn by a Muslim child in commemoration of\nthe Aghigheh sacrifice, and I may repeat here that it forms the chief\nfeature of the cover design to this volume.\n\nAfter much bargaining I bought a B\u00e1b\u00e1gh\u00fali for a couple of Turkish\npounds, and found in it, beyond its usual interest, a magnificent\nexample of Perso-Syrian work. The cornelian, which is circular in shape\nand slightly raised in the middle, is of a rosy shade, and measures\nabout an inch in circumference. On it is engraved, in the finest Naskh\nwriting, a short chapter of the Kur\u00e1n, which must have cost the artist\nhalf-a-year\u2019s labour. The stone is set in silver of a floral design,\nwith two loops or links, through which are threaded strings of gold\nending with tassels and a running noose for fastening round the arm.\nRound the centre stone are inlaid twenty-two rubies and emeralds, in\nalternate order, eleven of each. These stones alone, though they are\nnot cut properly, are worth three times as much as I gave for the\nwhole thing. I made haste to tie the B\u00e1b\u00e1gh\u00fali round my biceps, more\nfrom fear of theft than any superstitious motive, and promised not to\npart with it in any circumstances; whereat my guide, sneering, said,\n\u201cMay the devil give you a wide berth, y\u00e1-Moulai!\u201d the talisman-monger\nendorsing the wish by adding, \u201cMay it be auspicious.\u201d\n\nThe wearing of a t\u00fagh, or silver chain, to which is attached a silver\nbowl called kashk\u00fal, is confined to the Shiahs. It is worn round the\nneck by many Persian boys, and is changed every year until the boy is\nnine years old. By the end of that time he has nine chains laid by.\nThese are sent, as propitiatory offerings, to the shrine of some saint,\nthat of Abbas in Kerbela being the most sacred. Thus it comes about\nthat a boy, so long as he wears the t\u00fagh, is called \u201cthe dog of Abbas,\u201d\nand is said to be under the special protection of that saintly man. I\nturned to my guide. \u201cHow is it,\u201d said I, \u201cthat he is called Abbas\u2019s\ndog, and not \u2018Allah\u2019s dog,\u2019 or, more becomingly still, \u2018Allah\u2019s child\u2019?\u201d\n\n\u201cI will answer you in a parable,\u201d replied Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed. \u201cThere was\nonce a certain man who owned a flock of sheep. Every morning, when he\ndrove his flock out of the fold to the pasture-land, he would say, \u2018O\nAbbas, keep watch over my sheep, which I leave in your protection;\u2019\nand then he would go about his work until it was time to drive the\nsheep home again. One day he was too busy to act as shepherd, and so\nhe sent his son in his stead. The boy, having brought the sheep to the\ngrazing ground, said within himself: \u2018I wonder why my father leaves\nthe sheep in the care of Abbas. Did not Allah create them as well as\nhim? Assuredly my father has committed a fault.\u2019 And, so thinking, he\nleft the sheep in charge of their Creator. Now it happened that, Abbas\nhaving resigned his office, a pack of wolves passed by, and, being\nfamished, spared not even a lamb: so that when the father went in\nsearch of the sheep, he could not find a single one. Having questioned\nhis son, he learned the truth. \u2018Silly boy,\u2019 said he, \u2018knowest thou not\nthat Allah takes care of all his creatures, of the wolves as well as of\nthe sheep, whereas Abbas, listening to our entreaties, would keep the\nbeasts of prey from attacking our flocks and herds? Be wiser to-morrow\nthan you were this morning.\u2019 So you see, y\u00e1-Moulai, that there is no\nuse in trying to be anything to Allah beyond what one really is.\u201d\n\nAt the end of nine years these chains are valued, and the price of\nthem is distributed among the poor, after which they are sent to\nthe shrine of Abbas. To the chain a pair of hands made of silver is\nsometimes hung, in memory of Abbas, whose hands were cut off on the\nplain of Kerbela. The talisman-monger had hundreds of these chains and\nbowls and hands in his shop, and also, among other things, heaps of\nm\u00e1z\u00fas, or oak-apples. These oak-apples are used as charms by nearly\nall Muhammadans. Those in the shop were of two kinds. Some were nearly\nblack and perfectly circular; others were of a light brown colour and\nspheroid in shape. Among those of a spheroidal shape was a m\u00e1z\u00fa of\nexceptional beauty, evidently intended for a woman. The two ends of the\nhollow spheroid were set in silver with numerous figures exquisitely\nchased, one group of which was that of a female slave handing over the\nheart of her young mistress to the expectant lover. This particular\nkind of m\u00e1z\u00fa, I was told, is suspended on a chain and worn on their\nbreasts by the women. Other oak-apples are seen hanging from the tip of\nchildren\u2019s caps on a silk band, along with prayer-bags made of green\nvelvet and containing texts from the Holy Scriptures.\n\nMeanwhile my guide, having struck up acquaintance with a countryman\nof his from Hamadan, was engaged in conversation with him. This new\nfriend, Murshid Khan by name, was a tall swarthy fellow. He had come to\nbuy a chip of the sacred tree talh\u2019, an acacia which has small round\ngolden blossoms, whereof he related the following legend:\n\n\u201cMany centuries ago a certain peasant went to cut wood in a forest\nnear the city of Hamadan. This he had been wont to do every winter in\norder to eke out his livelihood, during the cold weather, as is still\nthe custom among the peasantry in our parts. Now, it chanced that his\naxe struck against a branch of a talh\u2019 which, as it happened, was in\nthe way of the tree he was felling. To his consternation a stream of\nblood oozed out, followed by cries the most pitiable he had ever heard.\nThey seemed, in their distressful anguish, to come from the heart of\na mother that had lost her child. The axe fell from the peasant\u2019s\nhand, and he himself sank to the ground in a faint. When he recovered\nconsciousness it was to look for the talh\u2019 ... only to find it gone! He\nreturned to the city as fast as his legs would carry him and there he\ntold his story, which was spread abroad among the people. And from that\nday to this the wood of the talh\u2019 has been regarded as sacred. Children\nuse it in the place of m\u00e1z\u00fas, and barren women, if they hang a chip of\nit above their beds for the space of forty consecutive Fridays, will\nbear children in due course. This is so.\u201d\n\nHere the guide, Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed, interrupted the speaker, saying: \u201cLight\nof my heart, thou speakest the truth. In my country, in the town of\nBehbehan, near Sh\u00edr\u00e1z, we have a famous way of protecting our women\nfolk against the attacks of Aal--that cursed ogress who comes to cut\nout the liver of every mother after the birth of her child. First we\ndraw four lines round the walls of the house; then at each of the four\ncorners we plant a branch of the talh\u2019 tree; and a dagger, with an\nonion atop, is stuck in the ground facing the door. This is the only\npossible way of keeping Aal out--may she be accursed!\u201d\n\n\u201cSark\u00e1r,\u201d said Murshid Khan, turning to me, \u201cI have, with these two\neyes of mine, seen things beyond belief, though I believe in them\nmyself, and many a true believer shares the belief with me.\u201d Here he\nturned his face in the direction of the Harem, raised his eyes, and\ncried: \u201cBy the owner of this Harem, the truth of my story is this: I\nhad a sister, by name Jav\u00e1her, who became Jinni, Jinnstruck, when she\nwas ten years old. She had been of an equal mind until one day she went\ninto a field in Hamadan, where a servant was milking the goats. It\nappears that she spilt the milk by accidentally kicking over the bowl\ncontaining it, and thenceforward her mind was troubled: she was Jinni.\nNow we people of Hamadan accounted ourselves lucky in that there lived\namong us a pious Mull\u00e1 \u2019Al\u00ed, whose extraordinary capabilities were a\nmatter of wonder and adoration. As a Jinn-gir, or Jinn-trapper, he was\nunrivalled. Him, therefore, we called in that he might cast out the\nJinn that had disturbed the peace of my sister\u2019s mind. When he came\nhe brought with him his famous t\u00e1s--a bowl used for ablutions--and a\nlong white sheet. Having filled the t\u00e1s, he ordered my sister to sit\ndown beside it and to gaze into the water. Then he threw the sheet\nover the child and the bowl, and made certain passes with a wand he\nheld in his right hand. Whereupon, as we noticed to our terror, there\narose a mighty stir beneath the sheet, as though a host were fighting\nthere. On a signal from Mull\u00e1 \u2019Al\u00ed the tumult ceased and all was in\na hush. Suddenly, the good priest, calling my sister by her name,\nsaid: \u2018What do you see there?\u2019 And my sister replied, in a dreamy,\nawestruck whisper: \u2018O, Mull\u00e1 \u2019Al\u00ed, I see him seated gloriously on a\nthrone studded with precious gems, and hundreds of attendants, both\nmen and women, are kneeling before him. It is the King of the Jinns.\u2019\n\u2018And what do you hear? be attentive!\u2019 said the priest. \u2018One little\nJinn,\u2019 replied my sister, in a terror-stricken voice, \u2018is prostrating\nherself before his Majesty, and this is what she says: \u201cJav\u00e1her--may\nshe be punished--spilled a bowl of milk a month ago, and hurt my toes,\nand I have been lame ever since. Though my friends have cast a spell\nover her, I must request your Majesty to increase her punishment, that\nshe may learn to fear the displeasure of our King.\u201d Oh, oh, oh! How\nshe cries and weeps before the throne of his Majesty; I am fainting.\u2019\n\u2018Beg her humbly to forgive you, and promise to be more careful in the\nfuture, and all will be well,\u2019 cried Mull\u00e1 \u2019Al\u00ed. It was impossible to\ndoubt the sincerity of my sister\u2019s repentance, and when the priest\nremoved the sheet, which he did so soon as my sister had made her\nappeal before the throne, behold my sister was in her right mind\nonce more. I forgot to say that before the removal of the covering\na neighbour came in, saying that he had lost a gold diamond ring,\nprobably by theft. So the priest commanded my sister to ask the Jinn\nshe had injured to tell her where the ring was. The Jinn in question\nwas good enough to mention the thief by name, much to the delight of\nour neighbour, who subsequently recovered his property. I can assure\nyou, Sark\u00e1r, that this last proof of the Mull\u00e1\u2019s power made Hamadan\nthe safest city in Persia. Theft was unknown there. May Mull\u00e1 \u2019Al\u00ed have\na long life!\u201d\n\nThe talisman-monger was the next to speak. He said: \u201cYou must know that\nI am not always in Mecca. I come here for the three journeying months,\nthen I return to Smyrna, where I have two shops of this nature in the\nbazaars. Next to one of my shops there is a small coffee-house, whither\nI go for refreshment in my leisure hours. About three years ago there\ncame to Smyrna a man named Dervish Ibrahim, from Turkistan. Everybody\nexcept myself believed in the supernatural power of this dervish, who\nwore a white beard on a shining face. One evening, when I had closed my\nshop and was proceeding home, I found the dervish seated on the front\nbench of the coffee-house, surrounded by his followers. He called me by\nmy name--Abdullah-ben-Jafar--though it had never been mentioned before\nhim, and when I went to him he said: \u2018I can see from your face that you\nscoff at the power of talismans, though you sell them to those who are\nwiser than yourself, and therein show yourself possessed of some share\nof wisdom. It is my humour to-night to reveal to you a single drop\nof the ocean of omnipotence. Come, take this scrap of paper, whereon\nI have written a few words to the dead, carry it to the neighbouring\ncemetery, bury it in the sand near the entrance, and bring back to me\na handful of the sand. Be careful, on returning, not to look behind\nyou, for, if you do so, you will be torn in a million pieces that will\nbe distributed among those that lie there. Look ahead, and your life\nwill be safe.\u2019 Well, curiosity possessed me, and off I went. When I\nhad buried the scrap of paper, and taken up a handful of sand, I heard\nthunder and the voices of the dead crying, \u2018Oh, Abdullah-ben-Jafar,\ntake not the sand away, else you will be cut in bits. Stop! Stop!\nStop!\u2019 I shuddered all over my body, and lost consciousness suddenly.\nWhen I awoke it was to see the sun rising. I hurried to the dervish,\nand kissed his feet, and implored him to forgive me for having doubted\nhis power to work miracles.\u201d\n\nThis story-telling had attracted a number of pilgrims, who, to the\nexaltation of the talisman-monger, fell to examining his curiosities\nwith a view to business. After every purchase, Abdullah-ben-Jafar\nraised his hands to heaven, and cried: \u201cPraise be to God on high! May\nHis kindness be increased!\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nSEYYID \u2019AL\u00cd\u2019S STORY OF HIS REDEMPTION\n\n\nOn leaving the talisman-monger\u2019s we went about our shopping in the\nMeccan bazaars, my guide pointing out to me the places of interest on\nthe way. He grew excited when we passed a certain coffee-house, from\nwithin whose doors, as he assured me, he had escaped from himself\ninto the bosom of the Beloved more times than he could count. \u201cThere\nare better ways of ascending into heaven, y\u00e1-Moulai,\u201d he exclaimed,\necstatically, \u201cthan by being buried underground!\u201d He paused as if to\ngive me the opportunity of begging him to explain the connection; but\nall I said in reply was that a Tower of Silence would scarcely suit one\nwhose tongue was for ever on the wag.\n\n\u201c\u2019Tis true,\u201d he affirmed, in no way disconcerted, \u201cthe birds of prey\nare not to my liking. I would discourse of the parrot of mysteries,\nthat hath opened to me the gates of Paradise more than once. If your\nExcellency would acquaint himself with----\u201d I interrupted him, saying:\n\u201cAre you speaking of hash\u00edsh, my friend? If you are, let me tell you\nthat I have no wish to renew my experience of the drug.\u201d And when I\nhurried on, he drew a deep breath, but whether of disappointment or of\nrelief I couldn\u2019t make out. \u201cIn that coffee-house, y\u00e1-Moulai,\u201d he said\nat last, \u201cyou might have tasted of every narcotic of the drowsy East:\nof hash\u00edsh, the master Seyyid, or the Parrot of Mysteries, an acquired\ntaste; of bang, a most potent liberator of thought; and, lastly, of\nopium, which is, as we Persians have it, the Antidote, the healer of\nevery ill except the one it engenders. I was once a well-seasoned\nvafur\u00ed (opium-smoker), and could discourse of mysteries more eloquently\nthan any dervish. My nose would grow wet every time I smoked a pipe\nof hash\u00edsh and my imagination bear me on its wings to the seventh\nheaven, or plunge me into the lowest hell. Those were days of spiritual\nintoxication--y\u00e1-Allah. What cured me of drug-bibbing was the dread of\nremaining in the abode of the damned.\u201d\n\nHe sauntered on, telling over the beads of his rosary. \u201cNever,\u201d he\ncried suddenly, \u201cshall I forget the last pipe of hash\u00edsh I smoked.\u201d I\nfollowed him up on the scent of a story. \u201cCome,\u201d said I, \u201ctell me your\ntale, and have done with it.\u201d\n\n\u201cWell, it was at Sh\u00edr\u00e1z; I was in the society of some twenty matured\ndervishes, and the year was at the spring and the sun was set. I never\nhear a nightingale, nor smell a rose, but I can taste that kalyan\nof hash\u00edsh and tobacco. Not that I was conscious at the time of any\nstomachic qualm. Not more than half-a-dozen whiffs were enough to speed\nme on my way into a world in which this mortal flesh lay shuddering\nat the terrible aspect of things--terrible beyond the imagination of\nthe unenlightened to conceive. Supper was brought in. Among the dishes\nlaid before me was a plate of pil\u00e1w, dome-shaped, having on top a\nmultitude of round pieces of meat, and these, to my exceeding terror,\ncame tumbling down the pyramid of white rice, owing to the carelessness\nof the servant in handling the dish. But what did I, in my excited\nfancy, behold, y\u00e1-Moulai? I thought I was at the foot of a snow-clad\nmountain, whose crest dwarfed that of Demavend, and from the summit\nthereof there came hurtling down on me huge boulders of massy rock. I\ncried aloud in terror, and tried to hide myself in the corner of the\nroom. My friends, the dervishes, laid hold of me, and carried me into\nthe compound, and flung me into the tank, and in so doing they cheated\nme to believe that a host of angels had rescued me from the avalanche,\nand, bearing me into Paradise, had cast me into the living waters of\nSalsab\u00edl. For, on opening my eyes, I saw a heavenly houri, whose face\nshone as the face of the sun. Her feet were on the earth, but her head\nreached as high as the fourth heaven. How could I--a man of ordinary\nstature--make love to a houri whose height, even among the ladies of\nParadise, must have been a swallow\u2019s flight above the average? True,\nI might sit in adoration at her feet, but that a taller man than I\nwould have the pleasure of kissing her lips seemed only too likely.\nThis thought was blasphemy in itself; and no sooner did it creep into\nthis unregenerate mind of mine than two angels caught me by the hands\nand threw me into the burning furnace of hell. And this sudden change\nin my fortunes corresponded with the actions of my friends in taking\nme out of the tank and putting me to bed, and applying a hot remedy to\nwhat they believed to be a cold disease. Y\u00e1-Allah, how I burned, but\nwithout consuming, in that fire of the unredeemed. I cried for help,\nbut Allah--may I be His sacrifice--cast me still deeper into the hell\nof His displeasure, saying, \u2018He who would worship me must worship me\nin soberness and sincerity! Eschew all narcotics, O Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed, lest\nI leave thee here to perish in the flames.\u2019 Then repentance wrung my\nheart so that the tears started to my eyes and overflowed. And when\nthat happened a wind from heaven blew, and I caught sight of a cloud\nof sun-lit hair--the hair of the divine houri who had previously\noverawed me--and these radiant tresses were wafted by the wind within\narms\u2019 reach of my despair. I clutched them in these two hands. The\nexhilaration of a swift ascent filled my soul with thanksgiving, and a\nshriek--like a throb of pain--darted through me from without, striking\non the drum of consciousness within me. In other words, I awoke to\nfind myself lying at home, with a handful of my wife\u2019s hair pressed\nto my lips in rapture. How I came to be there I never discovered, but\nthe mother of my children explained to me with many words that the too\nforcible removal of the hair I held in my fingers had left a bald patch\non the crown of her head. And this, y\u00e1-Moulai, is the true story of my\nredemption.\u201d\n\nMeanwhile, we had reached the northern extremity of Mussah-street,\nwhere in a shop I noticed a number of small bags of yellow leather\ncontaining, as Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed informed me, the celebrated henna of Wady\nFatima. This valley, called after the Prophet\u2019s daughter, the wife\nof \u2019Al\u00ed, his cousin, is situated about eight hours\u2019 journey to the\nnorth-west of Mecca, on the road to Medina. The whole neighbourhood\nabounds in the shrub from whose pounded leaves the henna paste is\nproduced. The act of dyeing the hair with henna is known by the name\nof khezab, and is so popular among the Muhammadans of both sexes that\nit has come to be almost a religious rite. Many a devout dyes his\nhands and feet and hair once a week, the paste giving to the skin an\norange-reddish colour, and deepening the original shade of dark hair to\na ruddy black. On the hamm\u00e1m day the henna is taken to the bath; the\nattendant forms it into a paste in small dishes used for the purpose\nand called jam\u00e9-henna; the decoction should be allowed to stand for\nhalf an hour before it is applied to the skin and the hair. There\nare special women artists who draw, on the soles of the feet and the\npalms of the hands, all manner of pictures with this dye. Not less\nthan eight hours are devoted to the practice, the victims--women,\nof course--lying with outstretched limbs, for the henna \u201cto take its\ncolour.\u201d\n\nIf one neglects to make use of the dye one runs the risk of bringing\nmisfortune and leprosy on one\u2019s whole family. The henna of Wady Fatima,\nwhich has a perfume peculiar to itself, is considered particularly\nblessed. I was told by the shopkeeper--a prejudiced person, no\ndoubt--that the Devil himself could be rendered harmless to the Muslim\nwho should dye his hands once a week and employ an apt quotation from\nthe Kur\u00e1n, always provided he were not clad in ihr\u00e1m. The assurance\nthat he had sold one hundred thousand bags of the precious dye to the\npilgrims within the month gave me a lively notion of the credulity of\nhis customers.\n\nNext day I had an opportunity of witnessing the funeral of one of\nthe chief priests of Mecca, who had died of cholera. The procession,\ndespite the panic created by the epidemic, was of considerable length.\nHalf a dozen mull\u00e1s, intoning passages of the perspicuous Book, led\nthe way. These were followed by twelve unkempt dervishes in quaint\nuniforms, reciting in unison the praises of the dead priest. Then came\nthe rough bier peculiar to Mecca on the shoulders of ten pilgrims of\nas many nationalities. The son, supported by two stalwart priests, and\nthe chief mourners came next, and after them the women, about twenty\nin number, and a crowd of beggars, who had heard that the flesh of\ntwo camels was to be distributed among them. Every now and then, as\nwe noticed on watching the procession pass by, the bearers would be\nrelieved of their burden by the most eager among the bystanders, for\nit is a tradition that seventy thousand angels will praise the man who\nlends a helping hand in carrying the dead to the cemetery. A frequent\ncry went up of \u201cO Lord, may his sins be forgiven him. Praise be with\nMuhammad and with his people.\u201d\n\n\u201cY\u00e1-Moulai,\u201d said Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed, \u201cyou saw how the people lent their\nassistance in order to win the approval of the angels? Well, I will\ntell you of a clever trick performed in Mecca last year by four Sunnis\nwho had murdered a Shiah in a lodging-house. One of the assassins was\nchosen by the arbitrament of the _estakhhareh_ to buy the bier and\nto bring it to the house where the body lay. That being done, the\nmutilated corpse was laid inside by the four men, who, so to speak,\nbore the burden of their misdeed into the street. The passers-by,\nseeing a funeral, hastened to offer their help in carrying the\ncorpse to its resting-place. No sooner was each one of the assassins\nrelieved than he made good his escape, so that by the time the\nwashing-house was reached the culprits had all disappeared. The crime\nwas detected when the body was taken out to be washed. Suspicion fell\non the bearers--half a dozen strange pilgrims who had lent a willing\nshoulder--and they were brought before the Kazi on the charge of\nmurder. They only escaped death by paying a heavy sum in blood money.\u201d\n\nWe pursued our course eastward to the temporary Syrian bazaar called\nSugh\u00e9-Shami. Goods from all parts of Syria--from the town of Smyrna to\nthe remotest fastness of Lebanon--were to be found there. The Syrians\ndrove a lively trade in silk stuffs from Damascus and Aleppo, as well\nas in European cotton prints and in steel ware. The steel ware was\nsold as \u201cInglisi,\u201d though it was generally of German manufacture,\nimported into Asia Minor either direct from the Fatherland or from\nConstantinople. I saw \u201cInglisi\u201d silk umbrellas, with what appeared to\nbe silver handles, priced at half a mejidi, or about two shillings.\nGerman watches, guaranteed to be \u201cInglisi,\u201d could be bought at a cost\nvarying from four to ten shillings. On the other hand, Persian carpets\nwere far more expensive there than they are in London, and so also\nwere Turkish ones. Silk headgear called _chepi_ and silk kerchiefs\ncalled _kefi_ were in great request among the Bedouins, who purchased,\nbesides, the dried fruits of Syria. There were many coffee-houses _\u00e0\nla turque_, where story-tellers recited in flowery language, either\nArabic or Turkish, the tales of the Arabian Nights. Some pilgrims might\nsit listening from sunrise to sunset, but my guide and I, having drunk\na cup of coffee, proceeded on our way, past the Prophet\u2019s birthplace,\nto the Moamil or pottery bazaar. There, as I watched the potters at\nwork, I couldn\u2019t help quoting the immortal lines of Omar Khayy\u00e1m, as\ntranslated by Fitzgerald:\n\n    \u201cFor I remember stopping by the way\n     To watch a potter thumping his wet clay;\n     And with its all-obliterated Tongue\n     It murmur\u2019d--\u2018Gently, Brother, gently, pray.\u2019\u201d\n\nThence, in the Sugh\u00e9-Lail, the carpenters have their niches. My guide\ntold me a story of a Meccan carpenter who went once to measure a\ndoorway of one of the houses in the neighbourhood. Having forgotten\nhis yard measure he calculated the width by opening his arms. Then,\nstill keeping his arms in the same position, he hastened back to his\nshop. On the way he fell down a well; the people gathered round; and\none among them threw him a rope, but the carpenter refused to catch\nhold of it, lest he might change the measurement of the doorway. \u201cAh,\nmy friend,\u201d said I, \u201cthere I waited for you. That story is taken from\n\u2018Mull\u00e1 Nasiru\u2019-Din,\u2019 a book satirising the mock piety and the folly of\nthe priests. You must be more careful in choosing the tales you would\nfoist on my credulity.\u201d And so wrangling we reach the cattle market.\n\nNow, kindness to animals is specially recommended by Muhammad, but\nhis followers have still much to learn in practice. The sheep and\ncattle are driven to the market in the early morning, before sunrise,\nand, unless they are sold, must remain all day long without anything\nto eat or to drink. The condition of some of the sheep was pitiful.\nThe camels, that are not accustomed to be for ever nibbling like the\nsheep, appeared to suffer less from the deprivation of food. In that\nquarter of the town nearly all the tradesmen, whether cattle-sellers,\nbutchers, fruiterers, or grocers, were Bedouins, dwelling in their\nencampments inside the town, and holding themselves aloof from the\nArab townsmen and the foreigners. In manners, customs, and morality\nthey have suffered but little change from the time of the Prophet,\nfor, unlike the Meccans themselves, they have borrowed none of the\ncharacteristics of their co-religionists from alien countries. They\nforbid their women to be on intimate terms with the townswomen; and\nwhen you meet them buying and selling in the market place they are\nalways extremely reserved, and sometimes not less haughty in their\ndemeanour towards you. For the frankness which is their most pleasing\nquality in their canvas cities is held in restraint so soon as they\ntake up their quarters in Mecca during the pilgrimage. The women, both\nrich and poor, work hard, in most cases even harder than the men, and\nthat is why they wear, in contrast to the townswomen, who are corpulent\nand comely, an appearance of being as muscular as they are lean and\nsun-baked. Near the cattle market we saw some low shops and warehouses\nin which corn and provisions were being sold by Indians and Egyptians\nto some Bedouins who had entered the town in order to replenish their\nsupplies, and there, too, the out-going caravans are wont to take\nin their eatables for the homeward journey. Rice and wheat are the\ncommodities which are most needed by the Bedouins of Hejaz, and in\nthese the southern Indians carry on a brisk trade with the interior of\nthat barren province.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nHEALING BY FAITH\n\n\nTwo things play an important part in the family life of Persia. The\nfirst of these, the yearly almanac or _taghv\u00edm_ is studied with a\npathetic trust by all. In a day that has been marked unlucky they see\nthe frustration of their hopes and prayers, however perseveringly\nthey may strive, by earnest effort, to elude the working of the\nfateful stars and to bring about the consummation of their wishes.\n\u201cThe most blessed hour for prayer,\u201d I was told by one of them, \u201cis\nwhen the planet Jupiter is in conjunction with the culminating point\nof the firmament.\u201d And when I began to argue with him, he said in\nastonishment: \u201cHave you no faith in _estakhhareh_ either?\u201d I replied:\n\u201cIf you can prove to me by any passage in the Kur\u00e1n that God will lend\nhis advice to the Muslim who shall consult Him through the beads of\na rosary, I will believe in the _taghv\u00edm_, the _estakhhareh_, or any\n_f\u00e1ll_ or omen you care to mention. But, first, let me be sure that\nI understand the method of making an _estakhhareh_. Having read a\nverse of the Holy Scriptures, you place the finger on a bead, then,\ncounting the beads from that point to the nearer end of the thread,\nyou believe that God will grant you your heart\u2019s desire provided the\nnumber be odd, but that He will refuse your request if it be even. Am I\nright?\u201d \u201cCertainly,\u201d he replied; \u201cfor if my prayer be reasonable and\nI deserving in the sight of God, He will assuredly guide my hand.\u201d \u201cIt\nis obvious,\u201d I retorted, \u201cthat God can and does guide His slaves; but\nI deny that He shares your belief in the luck of odd numbers. Let the\nProphet be my intercessor. This is what he says:\n\n\u201c\u2018Do ye acquire knowledge, for he who acquireth knowledge in God\u2019s\nservice performeth an act of piety; he who giveth utterance to it\npraiseth the Lord; he who is diligent in search of it worshipeth God;\nand he who imparteth it offereth sacrifice to Him.\u2019 Now, your faith\nis rooted not in knowledge, but in superstition. Look around you, and\nyou will see the wonders of God in the working of laws immutably just,\neternally the same. I tell you that action and reaction are equal\nand opposite, that the ordered weal and woe are the results of our\nown actions good and evil, and I advise you to put on the armour of\nknowledge in the desert less you fall a victim to the superstitious of\nwhom you now are one. \u2018The ink of the scholar,\u2019 the Prophet tells us,\n\u2018is more holy than the blood of the martyr.\u2019\u201d\n\nMy opponent, however, remained unconvinced. He assured me that his\nspiritual director would not dream of wearing a new \u2019ab\u00e1 without first\nconsulting the _taghv\u00edm_, nor would he take it on himself to administer\na dose of medicine to a sick child without asking God, through the\nbeads of his rosary or the pages of the Kur\u00e1n, whether the remedy would\nbe efficacious or not. Of the progress of medical science the Shi\u2019ah\npilgrims knew nothing.\n\n[Illustration: A PERSIAN PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY.]\n\nGalen and Avicenna are still regarded as the leading masters of the\nprofession, and their treatises are the only ones that are studied.\nDiseases are divided into hot and cold. A cold remedy is applied to a\nhot disease, and a hot remedy to a cold one. The doctors bleed patients\nsuffering from malarial fever. They keep small-pox endemic by their\ncurious remedies. Silver armlets containing texts out of the Kur\u00e1n\nare worn as preservatives of health. The saints and _estakhharehs_ are\nsometimes the only doctors. \u201cThe One who sends fever takes it away\n... Khod\u00e1 rah\u00edm ast (God is merciful).... If He wants me to remain\nhere He will cure me.... He is the best doctor.\u201d Offerings in money\nor in sweet-meats are given to the poor for the patient\u2019s recovery.\nThe money is placed under the pillow every night, and is distributed\nevery morning among the needy. The patient, despite the stifling\natmosphere, is persuaded to believe in a speedy recovery, everybody\ntelling him that he will soon be quite _kushdell_ or cheerful. But when\nthe end draws near a priest is summoned in haste, and the dying man,\nif he has no just cause of complaint against a child or against his\nwife, says not a word as to the distribution of his property, having\nfull confidence that the divine law will be religiously followed. He\ninstructs the priest as to the rites to be observed at his funeral and\nthe offerings to be paid for the peace of his soul. He may command his\nsons to obey their mother and to respect their sisters. If he has no\nissue he may settle his property on a school, a mosque, a saint, or a\nwater cistern.\n\nThe corpse must not remain more than twenty-four hours in the house.\nThe hamm\u00e1m\u00ed, or bath-keeper, now enters the house in the capacity of\nan undertaker. He places the body on a _korsi_, that is, on a raised\nwooden platform in the middle of the room; a copy of the Kur\u00e1n and\na decanter of rose-water are set down near the head; and a cashmere\nshawl is laid over the remains. For a month or forty days after burial\na _ghari_ or hired priest keeps watch over the grave, praying for the\nsoul\u2019s peace of the newly-departed, and reading the Kur\u00e1n aloud. On the\nnight of the interment the percussion of the grave, the feshar\u00e9-ghabre,\nis supposed to take place. The priest must keep on reciting a certain\npassage of the Kur\u00e1n, called Ayatu\u2019l-K\u00fars\u00ed or the Verse of the Throne,\nin order to extend the space and prevent the pressure. Then come Monker\nand Nak\u00edr--those livid-faced angels of death--and question the deceased\nconcerning his faith. If his answers be satisfactory, \u2019Al\u00ed will cause\nhim to be refreshed by the air of Paradise; if not, he will be beaten\non the temples with iron maces.\n\nThe evening before I left Mecca for Jiddah I was suffering from a\nracking headache, and my friends advised me to consult a certain Arab\nphysician. The curiosity to have an interview with this leech overcame\nmy scepticism concerning his health-giving touch, so off I went to the\neast of the town where he dwelt, taking my guide with me; and there,\nin a winding lane some three feet wide, we found his house. My guide\nsummoned the servant by banging at the outer door with his club. In\nabout ten minutes what we judged to be a small urchin appeared behind\nthe door and asked us in a piping treble what we wanted. Having assured\nhimself that we were not Bedouin Arabs bent on pillaging the sacred\nhouse, he drew back the bars, bidding us enter in the name of God the\nMerciful and Clement.\n\nThe courtyard through which we passed was unpaved and not more than\nfive yards square. The apartments--six fetid cells--ranged round\nthree sides of it. The hak\u00edm\u2019s room faced the door. We walked in with\nthe greeting \u201cSal\u00e1m \u2019aleykum! Peace be unto you!\u201d The faith-healer\nwas seated cross-legged on a mat in a corner of the cell. He rose\nto receive us, saying \u201cBismillah! in the name of God!\u201d the Eastern\nequivalent of \u201cPlease come in.\u201d He was of middle height, lean, of a\npleasing countenance; his eyes were deep-set, brilliant, smiling; his\nbeard measured the span of a man\u2019s hand; and his teeth flashed between\nlips framed for laughter. He wore a white handkerchief round his head,\nand a long blue gown reached to his ankles. Nothing could exceed the\ncourtesy of our host. As a mark of respect, he insisted on my taking\nhis place; my guide, heaving a \u201cY\u00e1-Allah!\u201d and a sigh of relief, sank\nto my side on the left; while the sunny-faced saint, squatting at\nmy right hand, turned a beaming eye on his trusty henchboy, who was\nstanding in the doorway, waiting for the orders of his lord and master.\n\nIn the East they never break the ice of silence with a remark on the\nweather. The customary opening is to inquire if you are in health. I\ntold the doctor, in answer to his question, that I had a bad headache,\nand had come to him to be cured. When he had raised his hands and\ncried out \u201cY\u00e1-Muhammad!\u201d thereby invoking the Prophet to lend him\nthe assistance he required, it was to ask me on which side the head\nached. I touched the spot, whereon he fell to rubbing it vigorously\nwith the palm of his right hand, calling out the while to the urchin\nto fetch the necessary apparatus for the forthcoming operation. The\nboy disappeared. In a few minutes he came back, bearing in both his\nhands a round hollow plate of clay in which were a few lumps of burning\ncharcoal.\n\nThe next things he brought in were a couple of round iron rods about\ntwice the length of an ordinary pencil, together with a cup filled with\na black fluid used as ink and composed, if I mistake not, of a mixture\nof starch and the soot of an oil lamp. The doctor thrust the rods in\nthe glowing charcoal. The fear of being branded bathed my brow in\nsweat. The doctor, assuring me that I had no cause to be afraid, cried\nout: \u201cIf we lose heart at the sight of these little rods, how much the\nmore shall we suffer when we feel the weight of the maces of the angels\nof punishment. May God protect you from the fire of hell!\u201d\n\nThe tips of the rods by this time were red-hot. Having dipped them\nin the cup of ink, he closed his eyes, and then raised his voice in\nan incantation that lasted several minutes. Not a single word could I\nunderstand. When it was over he opened his eyes, and, saying the word\n\u201cBismillah,\u201d proceeded to draw with one of the rods on my right temple\nfive perpendicular lines crossed by five horizontal ones, thus forming\nsixteen tiny squares. The same pattern was traced on the left temple\nwith the second rod. Several magic hieroglyphics besides were inscribed\nin the same manner behind my ears and on the nape of my neck.\n\nAfter every operation the good doctor would pause to ask me: \u201cIs the\npain gone now?\u201d Four times did I tell him the truth; then, fearing that\nhe would begin to tattoo my body, I assured the persevering little\nman that I never felt better in my life. His joy knew no bounds.\nRaising his hands to heaven, he cried, \u201cPraise be to God Almighty, who\nhath sent to this poor family a power so miraculous. The secret was\nbequeathed to my father by the Lord God, and when my father died he\nleft it to me as an inheritance. On no account must you wash off the\nsigns until to-morrow morning; for if you do the pain will return to\npunish you. The blight of the Evil Eye was the cause of your headache.\nGo in peace. You are welcome.\u201d\n\nThe following day I set out on my homeward journey, taking Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed\nwith me as far as Jiddah; and when I said good-bye to him I felt that\nI was losing an entertaining companion. That the reader may experience\nthe same feeling of loss in parting from me is my dearest hope on\nbidding him farewell.\n\n[Illustration: AN ARAB SHEYKH OF THE TOWN.]\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX\n\nBy WILFRID SPARROY\n\nSOME REFLECTIONS ON THE EXISTENCE OF A SLAVE MARKET IN MECCA\n\n\nI brought the notes of \u201cH\u00e1j\u00ed R\u00e1z\u201d to a conclusion in the last chapter;\nand he himself has bidden the reader farewell. It now remains for me\nto say a few words on what I conceive to be the greatest weakness in\nthe Mussulman faith as interpreted by the Mullahs; and in so doing I\nwish it to be understood, particularly by my Eastern readers, that\nI am solely responsible for the opinions I am about to express on\nthe subject of the Mussulman\u2019s attitude to slavery, the existence of\nwhich, in the fourteenth century of the Hegira, must be a source of\nsome misgiving on the part of those who sympathise with so much in the\nMuslim creed. And I appeal throughout to the enlightened laymen of our\nIndian Empire, on whose interpretations of the Prophet\u2019s message the\nwelfare of Isl\u00e1m will, in the future, depend in an ever-increasing\ndegree.\n\nNow, the British are the champions of freedom: under their flag every\nman is born free. Nothing is more hateful, to their way of thinking,\nthan that one human being should be the slave of another. In their\nopinion the quality of slavery is to brutalise both the slave and\nhis master--the slave by depriving him of the self-respect which is\nthe heritage of every man who is free to choose his own career and\nto rule, within the limits of humanity, his own destiny; and the\nmaster, by making him the owner of a human soul--a responsibility so\nawful that it is far more likely to lower him to the level of a beast\nthan it is to raise him to the height of a god. If this, in brief, be\na fair statement of the British attitude towards slavery, it will be\ninteresting and, in a measure, enlightening to the reader to follow, by\nway of contrast, the argument supported by the ordinary Mussulman.\n\nTo be frank, the present-day followers of the Prophet--those who have\nnot been brought under the influence of European civilisation--have far\nless sympathy with the opinions expressed in the opening paragraph,\nthan had Muhammad himself. Humanly speaking, the British crusade\nagainst slavery is not only beyond their comprehension--it is also\nabove it. Their outlook on life, with its rights, its limitations, and\nits responsibilities, differs fundamentally from that of the followers\nof the Founder of Christianity. The Christian, who speaks of himself as\n\u201ca child of God and an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven,\u201d believes,\nif we misinterpret him not, that the first step is with him, and the\nroad with God. In other words, he holds the inspiriting belief, which\nis, indeed, the source of all his worldly progress and his prosperity,\nthat God has given him the right to act of his own initiative, but\nnot the power--or only a circumscribed power--to foresee whither his\nactions will lead him. Therefore, in calling himself \u201ca child of God,\u201d\nhe has chosen the title that would best express his independence and\nhis limitations. The Muhammadan, on the other hand, cannot admit\nthat he has the power to move of his own free will, much less the\nright to do so. He holds that every true Muslim is, and must be, \u201cthe\nslave of God,\u201d the theory of free-will being to the Muslim trend\nof thought so antagonistic that it has come to bear much the same\nmeaning as lawlessness. Hence his aversion from Europe and all its\nways. \u201cHow,\u201d he asks, \u201ccan morality and law flourish in a continent,\nin which thought is free, in which women are free, in which God\u2019s\nwill is superseded by the will of man? Freedom? I say we are all the\nslaves of God, even when we are the slaves of other men. There is not\none creature who is free to act. Only the Creator is free. It is our\npredestined lot to be submissive to His will.\u201d\n\nI hope the reader is following the thread of my argument. It is the\nfeeling of the East which I would attempt to lay bare. The existence\nof slavery in these days is the natural outcome of that feeling. Many\na child is kept illiterate for no other reason than because its father\nis illiterate. If the father is a pea-parcher or a bean-roaster, the\nson must be a pea-parcher or a bean-roaster; for a son is nothing more\nthan a child of its father. This thraldom, to a lad of originality\nand spirit, is unbearable, but he must either endure it, or else\nrun the risk of being an outcast. Thus the son is the slave of his\nfather. In his turn the father is under the bondage of his spiritual\ndirector, who too often serves no other God than Mammon. The tendency\nof the Muslim, however, is to accept the guidance of his \u201cmaster\u201d with\nunquestioning humility. All might go well with him if his \u201cmaster\u201d--we\nmean his priest--were always a man to be trusted, and the right man\nto lead. Unfortunately the Muslim priest more often than not is more\nunenlightened, more selfish, more avaricious, more unscrupulous than\nmost of his flock, and thus there is a danger of his enslaving the\nwhole fold. Poor sheep, they, believing him to be the shepherd of\nGod, are accustomed to follow him whithersoever he may ensnare them.\nThey are doomed to perish together on the rock of Predestination,\nunless these \u201cmasters\u201d can be brought to revise the interpretation\nthey have put on their Prophet\u2019s teaching. Muhammad, as a matter of\nfact, was careful not to draw a too narrow line between the scope and\nthe limitations of the human will. There is nothing in his message\nwhich need deter a progressive Muslim from accepting the belief that\nthe first step is with him always, and there is no doubt that the\nacceptance of such a belief by the whole Muslim world would go far\nto breathe new life into the body politic. For it would give to the\nimagination an ever-widening vision of human responsibility, of human\nknowledge, and of human destiny. It would emancipate every race that is\nproud to pay allegiance to the Prophet, and would make slavery, in its\nwidest as well as in its literal sense, a curse of the unredeemed past.\n\n\u201cWe know,\u201d says Mr. J. H. Shorthouse, speaking in the words of an\noracular voice, addressing the King of Diamonds in a pack of cards,\n\u201cthat we possess a power by which the fall of the cards is systematised\nand controlled. To a higher intelligence than ours, doubtless,\ncombinations which seem to us inscrutable are as easily analysed\nand controlled. In proportion as intellect advances we know this to\nbe the case, and these two would seem to run side by side into the\ninfinite--law, and intellect, which perceives law, until we arrive\nat the insoluble problem whether law is the result of intellect or\nintellect of law.\u201d\n\nNow, the Mussulman, in trying to solve this problem, seems to me to\nhave chosen the solution which is more likely than not to paralyse\nthe intellect and clog the wheels of progress. For if he is oppressed\nor poor or ignorant or unhappy, he may say it is God\u2019s will that he\nshould be so; and thus he may remain stationary, making no effort to\nkeep abreast with the march of civilisation. In other words, he may\ncome to be a slave to his god. And so, to make an end of this preamble,\nit is not surprising that in countries where most men are to some\nextent slaves, socially and politically speaking, there should be men\nand women who belong, as purchasable and saleable chattels, to such\nfamilies as can afford to buy them. But--and this is an all-important\npoint--the Prophet wrought his manly utmost to mitigate the ill-effects\nof slavery: it flourished exceedingly, as every schoolboy knows, long\nbefore his time, and in other countries besides his own; but, thanks\nto Muhammad\u2019s laws, the lot of the slaves of Isl\u00e1m was, and is still,\nimmensely happier than was ever that of the slaves of pagan Rome or\nof Christian North America. It is related that Abdullah Ansari went\none day to visit the Prophet, and received from him the following\ninstructions; \u201cOn this the last Friday of Ramaz\u00e1n, you must devote\nyourself \u2018to taking leave\u2019 of the month, and to redeeming as many\nslaves as you can: and these things you must do in order that God\nmay be gracious unto you.\u201d The \u201cleave-taking,\u201d be it known to the\nreader, is practised every year, but the old custom of setting one\u2019s\nslaves free on the last day of the congregation of the Muslim Lent has\ncompletely died out. However, though it was not possible for Muhammad\nto abolish slavery in a lifetime, the system being far too deeply\nrooted in the customs of the country, he fully realised the oppression\nto which the slaves had been subjected, and left nothing undone which\nwould ameliorate their fate.\n\nThus, in S\u00fara xxiv. of the Kur\u00e1n, entitled \u201cLight,\u201d it is written:\n\u201cAnd unto such of your slaves as desire a written instrument allowing\nthem to redeem themselves on the payment of a certain sum, write one,\nif ye know good in them: that is, if ye have found them faithful, and\nhave reason to believe they will fulfil their engagement; and give\nthem likewise of the riches of God which He hath given you, either by\nbestowing on them of your own substance or by abating them a part of\ntheir ransom.\u201d Some commentators believe the last admonition to be\naddressed not only to the masters but to Muslims in general, making\nit an obligation on them all to assist those who have obtained their\nliberty and paid their ransom, either by giving the ransomed slaves of\ntheir own stock, or by admitting them to have a share in the public\nalms. One of the Im\u00e1ms, as we read in a Shi\u2019ah book of traditions,\nput a very generous interpretation on the Prophet\u2019s words; for on\nthe approach of the H\u00e1jj Day he would buy as many slaves as he could\nafford to set free--a signal and heartening proof that Muhammad had not\npreached in vain. But, alas! in these modern days a slave is rarely\nallowed to buy his freedom--unless, indeed, he be utterly worthless\nas a servant--until such time as his master is dead. A good Muslim\neither releases his slaves on his death-bed, having no further use of\ntheir services, or makes provision for their redemption in his will.\nThe money and the belongings which they may have amassed, as well as\nthey themselves, are during his lifetime his inalienable property, and,\ntherefore, on the first day of the moon of Shavv\u00e1l he must, on paying\nhis Zikk\u00e1t (that is, one-tenth of his gross estate), include therein\nthe purchase-price of his slaves and the value of their hoards.\n\nAnother instance of the Prophet\u2019s solicitude for the best welfare\nof the slaves must not be omitted here. In his reverence for virtue\nhe took such steps as would, to a certain extent, guard the female\nslaves from the indelicacy of their masters. If the masters have\ndeteriorated morally, less than one might expect from the burden of\ntheir responsibility and the force of their temptation, dealing as far\nas in them lies with kindness by their slaves, what can be said in\nrespect of morality of the unfortunate slaves themselves? In a play\nmodelled on the European drama, an Oriental writer has chosen for\nhis hero a Negro slave by name Pistachio, to whom he attributes the\nlowest traits of ignorance and cunning. Pistachio is the evil genius\nof the family. He turns the house into a secret gambling hell. He\nbrings about a _liaison_ between his master\u2019s daughter and a suitor\nrejected by her parents; and, by winning his mistress\u2019s favour, excites\nthe apprehension and jealousy of her husband. Every act of treachery\nis committed under the cloak of folly. His perversity has no limit,\nand his ingratitude no end. Making every allowance for reasonable\nexaggeration, we have in Pistachio a type of what an Oriental slave\ntoo often is. For there is no manner of doubt that a man, born and\nbred in slavery, knowing next to nothing of the refining influence of\neducation, is more apt to represent rather the worse, than the better,\nside of human character. Some slaves there are, doubtless, who, like\nArab horses, are surpassingly faithful to their masters, but there\nare others--perhaps more numerous--who, in the effrontery of deceit\nand moral degradation could hardly be matched by the most thankless\nrascal in the sink of hypocrisy. Of the majority connecting the extreme\ntypes whose portraits I have sketched, two things may be said with\nalmost unquestionable certainty. They are self-willed and effeminate\nwhen young, and indolent and self-willed when old. In their youth,\nprovided they be good-looking, they are regarded with suspicion by\ntheir masters, if they are male, and with jealousy by their mistresses\nif they are female. They live, whether they be men or women, in the\nstrength-sapping seclusion of the harems, and hence, for one reason,\ntheir lack of such qualities as go to the making of healthy manhood.\nFor intellect they must be placed not much above the level of the\ndog--in fact, if the dog could speak, he would put in his claim to the\nhigher rank.\n\nI have hardly heard of a single slave in an Oriental house who deserves\nto be noted for his intellectual power. Since he is so cunning and can\nset the whole family by the ears, how comes it that he is so dull of\nunderstanding? Does the cause lie solely in the neglect of education?\nSurely not, for if it did his master\u2019s case would often be no better\nthan his own. Is the reason, then, to be sought beneath the surface of\nhis skin? Scarcely, I think, since, under the British flag in South\nAfrica, his brother blacks are gaining fast in intellectual strength.\nNo; set your slave free; let him have a body he can call his own.\nEducate him that he may develop a mind to rule himself. Give him light,\nand room, and liberty. Do this, you master of Isl\u00e1m\u2019s slave, and your\njesters shall have no cause in the future to satirise the wretched\nvictim who, bought in chains and reared in sloth, is nothing less than\na living stigma cast on your manhood. If anything could emancipate your\nsense of justice, it would be a visit to the Slave Market of Mecca.\nGo there, see for yourself the condition of the human chattels you\npurchase. You will find them, thanks to the vigilance of the British\ncruisers, less numerous, and consequently more expensive, than they\nwere in former years; but there they are, flung pell-mell in the open\nsquare--in crowds that clamour for a recrudescence of Muhammad\u2019s\nattitude towards slavery.\n\nOne group, that of a mother and daughter, excited the sympathy of\nmany pilgrims. The girl, unthinking, giddy, broke every now and then\ninto shrill laughter. In her mirth, more terrible to witness than\ngrief, it seemed as though she would while away the hours of exciting\nexpectation. For the girl was bent on winning a master; slavery had\nfor her no terror, a mother no reclaiming tie. Every time the daughter\nlaughed her mother\u2019s face twitched all over, and then grew rigid. It\nwas plain, to the sympathetic eye, that she had forced herself to\nrejoice in her own anguish--her daughter\u2019s unconcern, telling herself,\nit may be, that, though her own pain would soon be the greater, her\ndaughter\u2019s would be so much the less. The one, dreading the parting,\ndisguised her secret anguish, or found her consolation in her child\u2019s\nheartlessness; the other, who could not conceal her anxiety lest she\nshould be overlooked, was innocent of a qualm. The dealer, standing by,\ncried out: \u201cCome and buy, the first fruits of the season, delicate,\nfresh, and green; come and buy, strong and useful, faithful and honest.\nCome and buy.\u201d The day of sacrifice was past, and the richer pilgrims\nin their brightest robes gathered round. One among them singled out the\ngirl. They entered a booth together. The mother was left behind. One\nword she uttered, or was it a moan of inarticulate grief? Soon after,\nthe girl came back. And the dealer, when the bargaining was over, said\nto the purchaser: \u201cI sell to you this property of mine, the female\nslave Narcissus, for the sum of \u00a340.\u201d \u201cAnd I,\u201d replied the pilgrim,\n\u201cagree to pay you \u00a340 for your property, Narcissus.\u201d Thus the bargain\nwas clinched. This time the mother\u2019s despair was voiceless; for it\nmeant to stay with her always.\n\nMost of the slaves, male and female, came from Nubia and from\nAbyssinia, and these are said to be the most faithful. \u201cH\u00e1j\u00ed R\u00e1z\u201d\ntried his best to determine the extent of the traffic at Mecca, but\nin a country where the census is unknown, where every nobleman is an\nindependent ruler, and where the revenue cannot be calculated with\nany degree of accuracy, he found it impossible to form even a working\nhypothesis as to the number of human beings that are sold yearly in the\ncity of God. That the trade by sea is on the decrease is certain; but\nmany a slaver escapes from the clutch of the British cruisers owing\nto the shallow waters of the Red Sea and to the fact that the pursuer\ncannot go ashore. Moreover, the overland route is always open. Thus he\nwas told that the generality of the richer pilgrims commemorated the\nsacramental journey by buying at least one slave, and often two. The\nprice varied. A woman-slave, if she were good to behold, fetched by\nfar the higher price--from \u00a320 to \u00a380. Men slaves could be bought for\nsums varying from \u00a315 to \u00a340. The children-in-arms were sold with their\nmothers, an act of mercy; but those that could feed themselves had to\ntake their chance. More often than not they were separated from their\nmothers, which gave rise to scenes which many a sympathetic pilgrim\nwould willingly forget if he could.\n\nIt is the custom among the Muhammadans to change the names of their\nnewly-acquired property. Thus the slaves that go to Persia and to\nCentral Asia are called by the names of the flowers if they are\nwomen, and by those of the precious stones if they are men. Of the\nprecious stones Turquoise and Cornelian are the most common. Flowers\nand precious stones! Are they not men and women, O children of Isl\u00e1m,\nand if they are, why do you not restore to them, in accordance with\nthe express commands of Muhammad, the Prophet, the breath that would\nreanimate and the light that would redeem them?... \u201cBut zeal outruns\ndiscretion. Here I end.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nINDEX\n\n\n  Aal, 276\n\n  Aaron, 61\n\n  Abbas, 274\n\n  Abdallah Ebn Omm Mact\u00fam, 23\n\n  Abdullah Ansari, 303\n\n  Abdur Rahman Khan, 160\n\n  Abraham, 55, 115, 140, 166, 247\n\n  \u2019Abd Allah Ibu Mas\u2019ud, 261\n\n  Ab\u00fa Amid, 166\n\n  Ab\u00fa Bekr, 69, 113\n\n  Ab\u00fa Ghobais, Mount, 257\n\n  Ab\u00fa Hanifa, 115\n\n  Ab\u00fa-Hurairah, 261\n\n  Ab\u00fa Sa\u2019\u00edd al-Khadr\u00ed, 261\n\n  Ab\u00fa Sophian, 70\n\n  Ab\u00fa Y\u00fas\u00faf, 115\n\n  Abyssinia, 307\n\n  Adam, 131, 166\n\n  Afghan pilgrim, 259\n\n  Aghigheh sacrifice, 47, 272, 273\n\n  Ahia, 53\n\n  Ahmad Ebn Hanbal, 117\n\n  Ahmad Ebn Y\u00fas\u00faf, 93\n\n  Ahmad Muizz-u\u2019d-Dawlat, 69\n\n  Ain\u00e9-Zobeideh, 224, 237\n\n  Albanians, 234, 235\n\n  Al Beyyid, 93\n\n  Alemeyn, 196, 203, 204, 252\n\n  Al-Farra of Bagh, 261\n\n  Algeria, 178\n\n  Al Hadi, 115\n\n  \u2019Al\u00ed, Im\u00e1m, his knighthood, 24, 25\n\n  ----, his injunctions to traders, 45\n\n  ----, traditions concerning him, 61\n\n  ----, his wife, Fatima, Muhammad\u2019s daughter, 69\n\n  ----, his character as Caliph, 69, 70\n\n  ----, as the \u201cLion of God,\u201d 70, 71\n\n  ----, his murder, 71\n\n  ----, his name inscribed on the gates of the Harem, 113\n\n  Al-K\u00e1wthar, 59\n\n  Al-Khal\u00edl, 55\n\n  Al Mutasem, Caliph, 117\n\n  Al Moakkibat, 129\n\n  Al Omreh, 252\n\n  Al Rad\u00ed, Caliph, 117\n\n  Amin-ud-dowleh, 163\n\n  Amin-us-Surreh, 206\n\n  Amir-ul-H\u00e1jj-ul-Mesri, 206\n\n  Amir-ul-H\u00e1jj-ul-Shami, 206\n\n  Arab club, 109\n\n  Arab priest, blind, 88, 89\n\n  Arabs, 22, 24, 95, 96, 97, 98, 101, 104, 105, 108;\n    see also \u201cBedouins\u201d\n\n  Arafat, 27, 56, 102, also Chapters IX., X., XI., Part II.\n\n  Arch of Beni Sheybeh, 130\n\n  Ardebil, 158\n\n  Aryan, 62, 75\n\n  Assyria, 71\n\n  Avicenna, 290\n\n  A\u2019y\u00e1de-Ghadir, 60, 61, 62\n\n  Ayatu\u2019l-K\u00fars\u00ed, translated, 269, 270\n\n  Ayeshah, 55, 69, 70, 221\n\n  Azrail, 131\n\n\n  B\u00e1b\u00e1gh\u00fal\u00ed, 47, 272, 273\n\n  B\u00e1b\u00ed rebellion, 164\n\n  Babylon, 102\n\n  Bagdad, 117\n\n  Baid\u00e1w\u00ed, 261\n\n  Bal\u00e1m, 60\n\n  Balsam of Mecca, 264, 265\n\n  Barbary, 116\n\n  Bashtar, 96\n\n  Baths, Muslim, 41, 50\n\n  Bedouins, 94-96, 103, 104, 189, 192-194, 210, 211, 213, 214, 219,\n        234, 235, 236, 263, 264, 265, 270, 272\n\n  Bedre, 264\n\n  Benares, 102\n\n  Behbehan, 276\n\n  Beni Amere, Bedouin tribe, 264\n\n  Beni Salem, Bedouin tribe, 270\n\n  Beni Shaibeh, gate, 168\n\n  Beni Subh, Bedouin tribe, 263, 264, 265\n\n  Black Stone, 131-135, 140, 167\n\n  Bombay, 180\n\n  Burkhardt, 226\n\n  Burton, Richard, 226\n\n\n  Cairo, 54, 111, 178\n\n  Calvinism, Welsh, 30\n\n  Caucasus, 90\n\n  Cholera, see Preface, also 83, 178, 179, 180, 181, 187, 203, 204,\n        212, 213, 284\n\n  Christ, 76\n\n  Compassing of the Ka\u2019bah, 130-139\n\n  Constantinople, 54\n\n  Cover-design to the present volume, see \u201cB\u00e1b\u00e1gh\u00fal\u00ed\u201d\n\n  Critic, his aim, 21\n\n  ----, his attitude to the Kur\u00e1n, 22\n\n\n  Day of Arafat, see Chapters IX., X, XI., Part II.\n\n  Day of the Repose of the Soul, see Chapter VII., Part II.\n\n  Day of Victims, see Chapter XII., Part II.\n\n  Date-trees, 265\n\n  Delhi, 24\n\n  Demavend, 281\n\n  Devil, see \u201cLapidation\u201d and \u201cEdris\u201d\n\n\n  Edris, 131\n\n  Egyptian Mahmil, 220, 221, 241, 242, 245\n\n  Eshagh-ben-Amar, 44\n\n  Essraf, 245\n\n  Estakhareh, 38, 46, 285, 289, 290\n\n  Esteghfar, 134\n\n  Euphrates, 47, 71\n\n  Eve, 105, 106, 131\n\n\n  Family of the Tent, 72, 73, 75\n\n  Far\u00e1, 263\n\n  Fatihah, translated, 269\n\n  Fatima, 61, 69, 72\n\n  \u201cFot\u00fah\u00fal Haremeyn,\u201d 138\n\n\n  Gabriel, angel of Revelations, 52-55, 60, 62, 76, 131, 166\n\n  Gaem, 106\n\n  Gala, 290\n\n  Gate of Peace, see \u201cSal\u00e1m Gate\u201d\n\n  Gate of Purity, see \u201cSaf\u00e1 Gate\u201d\n\n  Ghadir, 68\n\n  Ghadre-Day, 52, 53, 54\n\n  Gh\u00fal-h\u00fa-Allah, 134\n\n  Gibbon, 72, 73\n\n  Gold Spout, 127, 132, 136\n\n  Granada, 24\n\n\n  Hamadan, 275, 276, 278\n\n  Hamde, 134\n\n  Hanbalites, 116, 117, 118\n\n  Hanefites, 115, 248\n\n  Harb, Bedouin tribe, 104, 263, 264, 265, 270\n\n  Harem of Mecca, 112-120, 123-129, 134-141\n\n  Harem pigeons, 119, 167\n\n  Harun-ur-Rashid, Caliph, 115\n\n  Hasan, eldest son of Im\u00e1m \u2019Al\u00ed, 71\n\n  Hashem, 75\n\n  Hashemites, 69, 75\n\n  Hash\u00edsh, 280, 281\n\n  Heddah, 103, 108\n\n  Hegira, 48\n\n  Hejaz, 91-101, 164, etc.\n\n  Henna, 283, 284\n\n  Hodi, 106\n\n  Hozail, Bedouin tribe, 194, 211\n\n  Hugo, Victor, 82\n\n  Huseyn, Im\u00e1m, younger son of \u2019Al\u00ed, his knighthood, 25\n\n  ----, his rules of etiquette, 34\n\n  ----, his character, 71\n\n  ----, his last stand, 73\n\n  ----, his death, 73\n\n  ----, mourned by the Persians, 74, 75\n\n  ----, hero of the Persian Passion Drama, 76\n\n  ----, receives the key of intercession from Muhammad, 77\n\n\n  Ihr\u00e1m, pilgrims\u2019 habit, 90, 93, 94, 165, 166\n\n  Indian Pilgrims, 198, 200, 222\n\n  Isfah\u00e1n, 160\n\n  Ishmael, 55, 56, 167\n\n  Isl\u00e1m, social, 37, 38, 41-47, see Chap. VI., Part II., and also the\n        chapters of Part III.\n\n  Ismailia, 73\n\n  Israfil, 131\n\n\n  Jafar, Im\u00e1m, 38, 42, 44, 46\n\n  Jamm\u00e9 Sakhra, 237\n\n  Jebel\u00e9-Nur, 182\n\n  Jesus, 55, 61\n\n  Jiddah, 89, 90, 93-101\n\n  Jinns, 276, 277\n\n  Jum\u00e1d\u00e1u-\u2019l-\u00e1khir, 48\n\n  Jum\u00e1d\u00e1u-\u2019l-s\u00e1n\u00ed, 48\n\n  Jum\u00e1d\u00e1u-\u2019l-\u00fal\u00e1, 48\n\n\n  Ka\u2019bah, 28, 56, 60, 111, 112, 114, 115, 131, 134-141, 164-172, 251\n\n  Kadijah, 221\n\n  Karmata, 132\n\n  Karmatians, 132\n\n  Kash\u00e1n, 160\n\n  Kazi of Mecca, 238, 242, 247\n\n  Kerbela, 72, 76, 274\n\n  Kesveh, 221, 222\n\n  Khadasieh, 24\n\n  Khaif, 191, 196, 252\n\n  Khayy\u00e1m, Omar, 33, 159, 286\n\n  Khedevieh, 89\n\n  Kiblah, see \u201cMecca\u201d\n\n  Kirm\u00e1n, 88\n\n  Kitchen of Adam, 222\n\n  Kufa, 45, 71, 73, 76\n\n  Kuraish, 23, 24, 53, 115, 118, 166\n\n  Kur\u00e1n, Geo. Robinson\u2019s opinion of it, 21\n\n  ----, refers to the Pilgrimage, 26-29\n\n  ----, used as a talisman, 43\n\n  ----, the third S\u00fara, 54, 55\n\n  ----, Chapter entitled \u201cMan,\u201d 62\n\n  ----, its use in battle, 70\n\n  ----, see \u201cFatihah,\u201d and \u201cAyatu\u2019l-Kurs\u00ed\u201d\n\n  ----, Chapter entitled \u201cLight,\u201d 303\n\n  Kurb, King of Yemen, 221\n\n  Kurds, 234\n\n\n  Laili, 63\n\n  Lapidation of the Devil, 246, 247, 252\n\n  Lascars, 89\n\n  Lesseps, de, 83\n\n  Lote-tree, 41\n\n\n  Magrebis (Moroccans), 214, 217\n\n  Mahmil, 220, 221, 241, 242, 245;\n    see also \u201cSyrian Mahmil\u201d\n\n  Majnun, 63\n\n  Malay pilgrims, 194, 195, 196, 197\n\n  Malek Ebn Ans, 115, 116\n\n  Malekites, 115, 116\n\n  Malik, Guardian of Hell, 52\n\n  Marseilles, 82\n\n  Marshmallow, 41\n\n  Marveh, 142, 148-152, 252\n\n  Maseh (ablution), 34\n\n  Masher al haram, 174\n\n  Mecca, 29, 48, 68, 81, 103;\n    see also chapters of Part III.\n\n  Medina, 23, 48, 52, 68, 70, 72, 178, 227, 232, 233, 263\n\n  Meshireh, 52\n\n  Messiah, 106\n\n  Messina, 82\n\n  Michael, archangel, 131\n\n  Mina, 28, 55, 56, 148, 176;\n    see also Chap. XII., Part II.\n\n  Mizab, see \u201cGold Spout\u201d\n\n  Moalla, 181\n\n  Moawiyah, 70, 71\n\n  Moghavems, 103, 176, 180, 182, 188, 194, 198, 209, 220\n\n  Morocco, 178;\n    see also \u201cMaghrebis\u201d Moses, 61\n\n  Mount Sh\u00edn\u00ed, 110\n\n  Muezzin, 43, 48, 51, 237, 238, 266\n\n  Muhammad, the Prophet,\n\n  ----, his sincerity, 22\n\n  ----, \u201cHe Frowned,\u201d 23\n\n  ----, as a soldier, 24\n\n  ----, his aims as reformer, 25\n\n  ----, his declaration of God\u2019s unity, 25\n\n  ----, his view of Christianity, 25, 26\n\n  ----, the sense he had of his mission, 26\n\n  ----, his charity, 26\n\n  ----, approves of the Pilgrimage, 27, 28, 29\n\n  ----, his cornelian ring, 38\n\n  ----, his reverence for chastity, 46\n\n  ----, his ideal woman, 46\n\n  ----, the festivals which he encouraged, 46, 47\n\n  ----, on the moon of Rajab, 49\n\n  ----, his victory over the Kuraish, 53\n\n  ----, his pond in Paradise, 59\n\n  ----, his secretary, Othm\u00e1n, 69\n\n  ----, his love for his grandson, Im\u00e1m Huseyn, 73\n\n  ----, hands over to Huseyn the key of intercession, 77\n\n  ----, his political aims, 120\n\n  ----, his highest conception of the Hereafter, 120\n\n  ----, catechises Muaz, Governor of Yeman, 123\n\n  ----, his patience, 124\n\n  ----, his respect for knowledge, 124, 290\n\n  ----, on the sevenfold compassing of the Ka\u2019bah, 137\n\n  ----, his loyalty to his first wife, Kadijah, 221\n\n  ----, his flight from Mecca, 232\n\n  ----, his kindness to animals, 287\n\n  ----, his attitude to slavery, see Chap. V., Part III.\n\n  Muhammadan, months or moons, 47-62\n\n  ----, Paradise, 58, 59, 120\n\n  ----, Orthodox Sects, 115-120, 123, etc.\n\n  ----, Mull\u00e1s, 120, 123, 124, 125, etc.\n\n  ----, Prayers, 126-152, 173, 174, 238\n\n  ----, self-sacrifice, 137, 138, etc.\n\n  ----, fortitude, 153, 154\n\n  ----, beggars, 157\n\n  ----, women, 46, 88, 94, 95, 148, 187, 188, 199, 200, 217, 306, 307,\n        308\n\n  ----, musicians, 198, 199, 200\n\n  ----, centralisation, 227\n\n  Muharram, 48, 62, 68, 69, 73\n\n  Munkar, 145, 146, 260, 271\n\n  Mussah-street, Mecca, 153, 257\n\n\n  Nahavend, 24\n\n  Nakhowales, 227, 232, 233\n\n  Nakir, 145, 146, 271\n\n  Napoleon, 23\n\n  Negro slaves, see Chap. V, Part III\n\n  Nessouh, 50, 51\n\n  Niyyat, 34, 133, 134, etc.\n\n  Noah, 44, 51\n\n  Nodbeh, 58\n\n  Nu\u2019man Ibu Bash\u00edr, 261\n\n  N\u00fan, 60\n\n  Nureh, 41\n\n\n  Obeidullah, Governor of Kufa, 71\n\n  Omar, second Caliph, 24, 69, 70, 74, 113\n\n  Ommiyah, 70\n\n  Othman, third Caliph, 69, 113\n\n  Owf, Bedouin tribe, 263\n\n\n  Paris, 82\n\n  Persian Passion-play, 75, 76, 77\n\n  ---- character, at its best, 74, 75\n\n  ---- character, according to Nassir, 108\n\n  ---- character, according to Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed, 108\n\n  ---- witticisms, 109, 110\n\n  ---- mysticism, 62-68, 109, 110\n\n  ---- poem, 141, 142\n\n  ---- story, 176; also Chap. III, Part III\n\n  ---- humour, 186; also Chap. III, Part III\n\n  ---- noblemen, 188, 189\n\n  ---- fable, 205\n\n  ---- Consul-General of Hejaz, 206, 227, 231\n\n  ---- High-Priest of Teher\u00e1n, 206\n\n  ---- tents, 209\n\n  ---- lullaby, 211\n\n  ---- water-pipes, 224\n\n  ---- seal-maker, 260, 261, 262\n\n  ---- character, 272\n\n  ---- parable, 273, 274\n\n  ---- superstition, 275, 276, 277\n\n  ---- satire, 286\n\n  Pilgrimage, conditions, 31, 32\n\n  ----, the whole of the book Pilgrims, their number, 225, 226\n\n  ----, the whole of the book\n\n  Port Said, 82, 83, 84\n\n  Purifications, 33, 34, 35\n\n\n  Queen of Egypt, a, 221\n\n\n  Robegh, 263, 264, 270\n\n  Rab\u00edu-\u2019l-avval, 48, 164, 165\n\n  Rab\u00edu-\u2019l-s\u00e1n\u00e9, 48\n\n  Rajab, 48, 49, 50, 164\n\n  Ramaz\u00e1n, 48, 52, 53, 164\n\n  \u201cRewa,\u201d 82\n\n  Rewards, of Pilgrimage, 51\n\n  Rezvan, Guardian of Paradise, 52\n\n  Robinson, George, 21\n\n  Rome, 303\n\n  Ruk\u00fa, 36\n\n  Russian warships, 83\n\n  ---- Muslim subjects, see Preface, 90\n\n\n  S\u00e1d Vaghas, 24\n\n  Saf\u00e1 Gate, 113, 146, 147, 148, 252\n\n  Safar, 48\n\n  Safav\u00ed kings, 68\n\n  Safr\u00e1, 263\n\n  Sal\u00e1m Gate, 113, 126, 129\n\n  Salim, 49\n\n  Salsabil, 150\n\n  Sandals, 93\n\n  Scorpio, 46\n\n  Sermon, the Kazi\u2019s, 242-244\n\n  Seyyid \u2019Al\u00ed, plays an important part throughout Parts II. and III.\n\n  Seyyid R\u00fas\u00e9 Kh\u00e1ns, 74, 77\n\n  Sha\u2019b\u00e1n, 48, 51, 52, 164\n\n  Sh\u00e1feis, 116, 117, 247\n\n  Shamer, 73\n\n  Shavv\u00e1l, 26, 27, 48, 54\n\n  Sher\u00edf of Mecca, 119, 164, 206, 209, 214, 220, 226, 231, 241, 242\n\n  Sheykh Mahmud, his tomb, 110\n\n  ----, plain of, 181\n\n  Shi\u2019ahs, Keep Ahia, 53\n\n  ----, their marriages, 55\n\n  ----, their Messiah, 55\n\n  ----, their sacrifices, 57, 58\n\n  ----, their superstitions, 60, 61, 62\n\n  ----, their faith and early history, 68-77\n\n  ----, their sacred river, 71\n\n  ----, their emancipation in Mecca, 227, 228\n\n  ----, their medical science, 290, 293\n\n  ----, their funerals, 293, 294\n\n  Shir\u00e1z, 125, 281\n\n  \u201cSiege of Metz,\u201d 21\n\n  Sijdah, 36\n\n  Simon Peter, 61\n\n  Sinai, Mount, 52\n\n  Sinaitic Peninsula, 178\n\n  Shorthouse, J. H., 302\n\n  Slave Market, at Mecca, see Chap. V, Part III\n\n  Smyrna, 278\n\n  \u201cSorrow,\u201d a S\u00faf\u00ed song, 109\n\n  Suez, 84, 85, 86\n\n  S\u00faf\u00edism, 33, 62-68\n\n  Sult\u00e1n, Suleym\u00e1n, 118, 167\n\n  Sultan (Turkey), 119\n\n  Sunnis, see \u201cMuhammadan Orthodox Sects,\u201d also under the separate\n  headings of those Sects\n\n  Sureh s\u00fajdeh, 44, 182\n\n  Syrian caravan, 177, 220\n\n  ---- Mahmil, 181, 220, 221, 241, 242\n\n  ---- pilgrims, 181, 191, 220\n\n  ---- bazaar, in Mecca, 257; see also Chap. II., Part III.\n\n  ---- character, 272\n\n\n  Taghv\u00edm, 38, 289\n\n  Tahlil, 223\n\n  Tai, tribe, 72\n\n  Takbir, 134\n\n  Talbih, 128, 171, 174, 223\n\n  Talh\u2019-tree, 295\n\n  Tamjid, 174\n\n  Tasnim, 150\n\n  Tayef, 131\n\n  Teamol, 137\n\n  Teher\u00e1n, 54\n\n  Telha, 70\n\n  Tennyson, Lionel, 74\n\n  Tewaff, see \u201cCompassing of Ka\u2019bah\u201d\n\n  Tripoli, 178\n\n  Tunis, 178\n\n  Turks, see \u201cOrthodox Sects,\u201d and also under \u201cMuhammadan,\u201d and 226,\n        227, etc.\n\n  Turkist\u00e1n, 278\n\n\n  Ula, 246\n\n  Unitarians, 25, 26\n\n  Usury, 45\n\n\n  Vaghas, S\u00e1d, 24\n\n  Valley of Mina, see \u201cMina\u201d\n\n  Viands, forbidden, 32, 33\n\n  Victims, 56, 57, 58\n\n  Vitr, 36\n\n\n  Wady Fatima, 283, 284\n\n  Wagner, 107\n\n  Wahabis, 236\n\n  Wusta, 246\n\n  Wuz\u00fa\u2019h, 33, 35\n\n\n  Yazid, 71\n\n  Yemen, 71, 123, 165\n\n  Youm-ul-Arafat, Chapters IX., X., XI., Part II.\n\n  Youm-ul-Nahre, Chapter XII., Part II.\n\n  Youm-ul-Tarvih, Chapter VII., Part II.\n\n\n  Zaideh Gate, 114\n\n  Zakani, 88\n\n  Zanzibar, 145\n\n  Zem-Zem well, 116, 142, 145, 165, 257, 259\n\n  Zikat, 54, 304\n\n  Zobeir, 70\n\n  Z\u00fa-\u2019l-hijjah, 26, 27, 28, 48, 55, 56, 60, 62, 173, 174, 175\n\n  Z\u00fa-\u2019l-ka\u2019dah, 26, 27, 48, 55\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber\u2019s Note\n\n\nClear printer\u2019s errors have been corrected by the transcriber; as far\nas possible, however, original spelling, punctuation, and accented\ncharacters have been retained. All changes listed in the errata have\nalso been made.\n\nIn the printed book, images occupied whole pages. In this file, some\nimages have been moved from their original positions to avoid breaking\nparagraphs; the page numbers in the table of illustrations have not\nbeen changed.\n\nIn this file, text in _italics_ is indicated by underscores.","title":"With the pilgrims to Mecca: The great pilgrimage of A.H. 1319; A.D. 1902","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":80914}