They also deal in written charms, like those current in the
Black countries, such as amulets, and love-receipts, called "Kotob
muhbat o kuboul." They are principally employed by Bedouins, and demand
an exorbitant remuneration.
Winding-sheets (keffen), and other linen washed in the waters of Zemzem,
are constantly seen hanging to dry between the columns. Many hadjys
purchase at Mekka the shroud in which they wish to be buried, and wash
it themselves at the well of Zemzem, supposing that, if the corpse be
wrapped in linen which has been wetted with this holy water, the peace
of the soul after death will be more effectually secured. Some hadjys
make this linen an article of traffic.
Mekka generally, but the mosque in particular, abounds with flocks of
wild pigeons, which are considered to be the inviolable property of the
temple, and are called the Pigeons of the Beitullah. Nobody dares to
kill any of them, even when they enter the private houses. In the square
of the mosque, several small stone basins are regularly filled with
water for their use; here also Arab women expose to sale, upon small
straw mats, corn and durra, which the pilgrims
[p.152] purchase, and throw to the pigeons. I have seen some of the
public women take this mode of exhibiting themselves, and of bargaining
with the pilgrims, under pretence of selling them corn for the sacred
pigeons.
The gates of the mosque are nineteen in number, and are distributed
about it, without any order or symmetry. I subjoin their names, as they
are usually written upon small cards by the Metowefs: in another column
are the names by which they were known in more ancient times,
principally taken from Azraky and Kotoby.
Modern Names. Ancient Names.
Bab-es'-Salam, composed of 3 Bab beni Sheybe.
smaller gates, or arches.
Bab el Neby 2 Bab el Djenaiz,
The dead being
carried through it
to the mosque,
that prayers may
be said over their
bodies.
Bab el Abbas. 3 Bab Sertakat.
Opposite to this the house
of Abbas once stood.
Bab Aly 3 Bab Beni Hashem.
Bab el Zeyt
2 Bab Bazan.
Bab el Ashra
Bab el Baghle 2
Bab el Szafa 5 Bab Beni Makhzoum.
Bab Sherif 2 Bab el Djyad.
Bab Medjahed 2 Bab el Dokhmase
Bab Zoleykha 2 Bab Sherif Adjelan
(who built it.)
Bab Om Hany. 2
So called from the daughter
of Aby Taleb.
Bab el Wodaa. 2 Bab el Hazoura
Through which the pilgrim
passes in taking his final
leave of the temple.
Bab Ibrahim 1 Bab el Kheyatyn,
or Bab Djomah.
[So called, not from
Abraham, but from a
tailor who had his
shop near it.]
[p.153]
