Night Now Overtook Us, And
The Cloudy Sky Involved Us In Complete Darkness; But After An
Adventurous Walk Of Three
Or four hours, stumbling or falling almost at
every step, we reached the coffee-houses of Arafat, to the great
Satisfaction of my companions, the soldiers, who had entertained
apprehensions for their money-bags. I was not less pleased myself, being
much in want of a fire after such a drenching, with only the scanty
covering of the ihram.
ARRIVAL AT MEKKA
[p.93] The coffee-houses, unfortunately, had also been inundated; we
could not find a dry place on which to sit, and with some difficulty a
fire was lighted in one of the small and more weather-proof huts of the
Arabs, into which the Kadhy, with a few of his people and myself, crept,
and boiled our coffee; in another hut were his women, crying from the
severity of the cold. He not wishing that they should be exposed to the
consequences of such a night's lodging, mounted again, after a stay of
half an hour, and proceeded towards Mekka, leaving me and my party in
possession of the fire, by the side of which, after some time, we
contrived to make ourselves com-fortable.
September 9th. We set out early, and found that the storm of yesterday
had not extended farther than the plain of Arafat. Such storms and
inundations are frequent in this country, where the seasons seem to be
much less regular than in other places under the same latitude.
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of 182297
