The Greater Part Of The
Hadjys Bring Their Own Carpets With Them.
The more distant parts of the
area, and the floor under the colonnade, are spread with mats, brought
from Souakin; the latter situation being the usual place for the
performance of the mid-day and afternoon prayers.
Many of these mats are
presented to the mosque by the hadjys, for which they have in return the
satisfaction of seeing their names inscribed on them in large
characters.
At sun-set, great numbers assemble for the first evening prayer: they
form themselves into several wide circles, sometimes as many as
[p.149] twenty, around the Kaaba as a common centre before which every
person makes his prostration; and thus, as the Mohammedan doctors
observe, Mekka is the only spot throughout the world in which the true
believer can, with propriety, turn during his prayers towards any point
of the compass. The Imam takes his post near the gate of the Kaaba, and
his genuflexions are imitated by the whole assembled multitude. The
effect of the joint prostrations of six or eight thousand persons, added
to the recollection of the distance and various quarters from whence
they come, and for what purpose, cannot fail to impress the most cool-
minded spectator with some degree of awe. At night, when the lamps are
lighted, and numbers of devotees are performing the Towaf round the
Kaaba, the sight of the busy crowds - the voices of the Metowefs, intent
upon making themselves heard by those to whom they recite their prayers -
the loud conversation of many idle persons - the running, playing, and
laughing of boys, give to the whole a very different appearance, and one
more resembling that of a place of public amusement.
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