The Mohammedan law
prescribes that no unmarried woman shall perform the pilgrimage; and
that even every married woman must be accompanied by her husband, or at
least a very near relation (the Shafay sect does not even allow the
latter).
Female hadjys sometimes arrive from Turkey for the Hadj; rich
old widows, who wish to see Mekka before they die; or women who set out
with their husbands, and lose them on the road by disease. In such
cases, the female finds at Djidda, delyls (or, as this class is called,
Muhallil) ready to facilitate their progress through the sacred
territory in the character of husbands.
[p.196] The marriage contract is written out before the Kadhy; and the
ladt, accompanied by her delyl, performs the pilgrimage to Mekka,
Arafat, and all the sacred places. This, however, is understood to be
merely a nominal marriage; and the delyl must divorce the woman on his
return to Djidda: if he were to refuse a divorce, the law cannot compel
him to it, and the marriage would be considered binding; but he could no
longer exercise the lucrative profession of delyl; and my informant
could only recollect two examples of the delyl continuing to be the
woman's husband. I believe there is not any exaggeration of the number,
in stating that there are eight hundred full-grown delyls, besides boys
who are learning the profession. Whenever a shopkeeper loses his
customers, or a poor man of letters wishes to gain as much money as will
purchase an Abyssinian slave, he turns delyl. The profession is one of
little repute; but many a prosperous Mekkawy has, at some period of his
life, been a member of it.
From trade, stipends, and the profits afforded by hadjys, the riches
which annually flow into Mekka are very considerable, and might have
rendered it one of the richest cities in the East, were it not for the
dissolute habits of its inhabitants. With the exception of the first
class of merchants, who, though they keep splendid establishments,
generally live below their income, and a great part of the second class,
who hoard up money with the view of attaining the first rank, the
generality of Mekkawys, of all descriptions and professions, are loose
and disorderly spendthrifts. The great gains which they make during
three or four months, are squandered in good living, dress, and the
grossest gratifications; and in proportion as they feel assured of the
profits of the following year, they care little about saving any part of
those of the present. In the month of Moharram, as soon as the Hadj is
over, and the greater part of the pilgrims have departed, it is
customary to celebrate marriage and circumcision feasts. These are
celebrated at Mekka in a very splendid style; and a man that has not
more than three hundred dollars to spend in the year, will then throw
away half that sum in the marriage or the circumcision of his child.
Neither the sanctity of the holy city, nor the solemn injunctions of the
Koran, are able to deter the inhabitants of Mekka from the using of
[p.197] spirituous liquors, and indulging in all the excesses which are
the usual consequences of drunkenness.
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