When They Accost Each Other In

[P.201] the streets for the first time in the course of the day, the young man kisses the elder's hand, or the inferior that of his superior in rank, while the latter returns the salute by a kiss upon the forehead.

Individuals of equal rank and age, not of the first class, mutually kiss each other's hands. [In shaking hands, the people of the Hedjaz lay hold of each other's thumbs with the whole hand, pressing it, and again opening the hand three or four times. This is called Mesafeha, and is said to have been a habit of Mohammed.] They say to a stranger, "O faithful," or "brother;" and the saying of the prophet, "that all faithful are brethren," is constantly upon their lips. "Welcome, a thousand times welcome," says a shopkeeper to his foreign customer; "you are the stranger of God, the guest of the holy city; my whole property is at your disposal." When the service of any one is wanted, the applicant says, "Our whole subsistence, after God, is owing to you pilgrims; can we do less than be grateful?" If in the mosque a foreigner is exposed to the sun, the Mekkawy will make room for him in a shady place; if he passes a coffee-shop, he will hear voices calling him to enter and take a cup of coffee; if a Mekkawy takes a jar to drink from any public water-seller, he will offer it, before he sets it to his mouth, to any passenger; and upon the slightest acquaintance, he will say to his new friend, "When will you honour me at home, and take your supper with me?" When they quarrel among themselves, none of those scurrilous names or vile language is heard, so frequently used in Egypt and Syria; blows are only given on very extraordinary occasions, and the arrival of a respectable person puts an immediate stop to any dispute, on his recommending peace: "God has made us great sinners," they will then say, "but he has bestowed upon us, likewise, the virtue of easy repentance."

To these amiable qualities the Mekkawys add another, for which they must also be commended: they are a proud race, and though their pride is not founded upon innate worth, it is infinitely preferable to the cringing servility of the other Levantines, who redeem their slavish deference to superiors by the most overbearing haughtiness towards those below them. The Mekkawys are proud of being

[p.202] natives of the holy city, of being the countrymen of their prophet; of having preserved, in some degree, his manners; of speaking his pure language; of enjoying, in expectation, all the honours in the next world, which are promised to the neighbours of the Kaaba; and of being much freer men than any of the foreigners whom they see crowding to their city. They exhibit this pride to their own superiors, whom they have taught to treat them with great forbearance and circumspection; and they look upon all other Mohammedan nations as people of an inferior order, to whom their kindness and politeness are the effect of their condescension.

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