Upon This The People Stand, Who Draw Up The Water, In Leathern
Buckets, An Iron Railing Being So Placed As To Prevent Their Falling In.
In El Fasy's Time There Were Eight Marble Basins In This Room, For The
Purpose Of Ablution.
From before dawn till near midnight, the well-room is constantly filled
with visitors.
Every one is at liberty to draw up the water for himself,
but the labour is generally performed by persons placed there on
purpose, and paid by the mosque: they expect also a trifle from those
who come to drink, though they dare not demand it. I have been more than
once in the room a quarter of an hour before I could get a draught of
water, so great was the crowd. Devout hadjys sometimes mount the wall,
and draw the bucket for several hours, in the hope of thus expiating
their evil deeds.
Before the Wahaby invasion, the well Zemzem belonged to the
[p.144] Sherif; and the water becoming thus a monopoly, was only to be
purchased at a high price; but one of Saoud's first orders, on his
arrival at Mekka, was to abolish this traffic, and the holy water is now
dispensed gratis. The Turks consider it a miracle that the water of this
well never diminishes, notwithstanding the continual draught from: it
there certainly is no diminution in its depth; for by an accurate
inspection of the rope by which the buckets are drawn up, I found that
the same length was required both at morning and evening to reach the
surface of the water. Upon inquiry, I learned from one of the persons
who had descended in the time of the Wahabys to repair the masonry, that
the water was flowing at the bottom, and that the well is therefore
supplied by a subterraneous rivulet. The water is heavy to the taste,
and sometimes in its colour resembles milk; but it is perfectly sweet,
and differs very much from that of the brackish wells dispersed over the
town. When first drawn up, it is slightly tepid, resembling, in this
respect, many other fountains of the Hedjaz.
Zemzem supplies the whole town, and there is scarcely one family that
does not daily fill a jar with the water: this only serves, however, for
drinking or for ablution, as it is thought impious to employ water so
sacred for culinary purposes or on common occasions. Almost every hadjy,
when he repairs to the mosque for evening prayer has a jar of the water
placed before him by those who earn their livelihood by performing this
service. The water is distributed in the mosque to all who are thirsty
for a trifling fee, by water-carriers with large jars upon their backs:
these men are also paid by charitable hadjys for supplying the poorer
pilgrims with this holy beverage immediately before or after prayers.
The water is regarded as an infallible cure for all diseases; and the
devotees believe that the more they drink of it, the better their health
will be, and their prayers the more acceptable to the Deity.
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