It Is Related That Mohammed Cured A Bedouin Of
Beni Hareth, And Several Others, Of A Fever By Washing Their Bodies With
Water In Which This Earth Had Been Dissolved; And The Pilgrims Are Eager
To Carry Home A Memorial Of This Miracle.
The earth is taken from a
ditch at a place called El Medshounye, in the neighbourhood of the town.
All the rocky places, as well as the lower ridge of the northern
mountainous chain, are covered by a layer of volcanic rock: it is of a
bluish black colour, very porous, yet heavy, and, hard, not glazed, like
schlacken, and contains frequently small white substances in its pores
of the size of a pin's head, which I never found crystallised. The plain
has a completely black colour from this rock, and the small pieces with
which it is overspread. I met with no lava, although the nature of the
ground seemed strongly to indicate the neighbourhood of a volcano. Had I
enjoyed better health, I should have made some excursions to the more
distant parts of the gardens of Medina, to look for specimens of
minerals; but the first days of my stay were taken up in making out a
plan of the town, and gaining information on its inhabitants; and I was
not afterwards capable of the slightest bodily exertion. It was not till
my return to Cairo, that, in reading the description of Medina, which I
had purchased at the former place, (and of
[p.259] which, and of the descriptions of Mekka, I could never find
copies in the Hedjaz, notwithstanding all my endeavours,) I met with the
account of an earthquake and a volcanic eruption which took place in the
immediate neighbourhood of Medina about the middle of the thirteenth
century; and upon inquiry I learnt from a man of Medina, established at
Cairo, that the place of the stream of lava is still shown, at about one
hour E. of the town. During my stay, I remember to have once made the
observation to my cicerone, in going with him to Djebel Ohod, that the
country appeared as if all burnt by fire; but I received an unmeaning
reply; no hint or information afterwards in the town which could lead me
to suppose that I was near so interesting, a phenomenon of nature.
Some extracts from the work to which I have alluded, describing this
eruption, may be thought worthy of the reader's attention, and are given
in the subjoined note. ["On the first of the month Djomad el Akhyr, in
A.H. 654, a slight earthquake was felt in the town; on the third,
another stronger shock took place, during the day; about two o'clock in
the ensuing morning, repeated violent shocks awakened the inhabitants,
increasing in force during the rest of the morning, and continuing at
intervals till Friday the sixth of the month. Many houses and walls
tumbled down. On Friday morning a thundering noise was heard, and at
mid-day the fire burst forth.
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