They Also Deal In Written Charms, Like Those Current In The
Black Countries, Such As Amulets, And Love-Receipts, Called "Kotob
Muhbat O Kuboul." They Are Principally Employed By Bedouins, And Demand
An Exorbitant Remuneration.
Winding-sheets (keffen), and other linen washed in the waters of Zemzem,
are constantly seen hanging to dry between the columns.
Many hadjys
purchase at Mekka the shroud in which they wish to be buried, and wash
it themselves at the well of Zemzem, supposing that, if the corpse be
wrapped in linen which has been wetted with this holy water, the peace
of the soul after death will be more effectually secured. Some hadjys
make this linen an article of traffic.
Mekka generally, but the mosque in particular, abounds with flocks of
wild pigeons, which are considered to be the inviolable property of the
temple, and are called the Pigeons of the Beitullah. Nobody dares to
kill any of them, even when they enter the private houses. In the square
of the mosque, several small stone basins are regularly filled with
water for their use; here also Arab women expose to sale, upon small
straw mats, corn and durra, which the pilgrims
[p.152] purchase, and throw to the pigeons. I have seen some of the
public women take this mode of exhibiting themselves, and of bargaining
with the pilgrims, under pretence of selling them corn for the sacred
pigeons.
The gates of the mosque are nineteen in number, and are distributed
about it, without any order or symmetry.
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