The Building, However, Was, In Those
Times, Ornamented With Three Hundred And Sixty Idols, And There Was A
Very Important Difference In The Cere-Mony; For Men And Women Were Then
Obliged To Appear In A State Of Perfect Nudity, That Their Sins Might Be
Thrown Off With Their Garments.
The Mohammedan Hadj or pilgrimage, and
the visit to the Kaaba, are, therefore, nothing more than a continuation
and con-firmation of the ancient custom.
In like manner, Szafa and
Meroua were esteemed by the old Arabians as holy places, which contained
images of the gods Motam and Nehyk; and here the idolaters used to walk
from the one place to the other, after their return from the pilgrimage
to Arafat. Here, if we may believe Mohammedan tradition, Hadjer, the
mother of Ismayl, wandered about in the Desert, after she had been
driven from Abraham's house, that she might not witness the death of her
infant son, whom she had laid down almost expiring from thirst; when the
angel Gabriel appearing, struck the ground with his foot, which caused
the well of Zemzem immediately to spring forth. In commemoration of the
wanderings of Hadjer, who in her affliction had gone seven times between
Szafa and Meroua, the walk from one place to the other is said to have
been instituted.
El Azraky relates that, when the idolatrous Arabs had concluded the
ceremonies of the Hadj at Arafat, all the different tribes that had been
present, assembled, on their return to Mekka, at the holy place called
Szafa, there to extol, in loud and impassioned strains, the glory of
their ancestors, their battles, and the fame of their
[p.99] nation.
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