Some Boys
Learn At Least As Much Turkish As Will Enable Them To Cheat The Osmanly
Pilgrims To Whom Their Knowledge Of That Tongue May Recommend Them As
Guides.
The astronomer of the mosque learns to know the exact time of
the Sun's passing the meridian, and occupies himself occasionally with
astrology and horoscopes.
A Persian doctor, the only avowed medical
professor I saw at Mekka, deals in nothing
[p.216] but miraculous balsams and infallible elixirs; his potions are
all sweet and agreeable; and the musk and aloe-wood which he burns,
diffuse through his shop a delicious odour, which has contributed to
establish his reputation. Music, in general so passionately loved among
the Arabs, is less practised at Mekka than in Syria and Egypt. Of
instruments they possess only the rababa, (a kind of guitar,) the nay,
(a species of clarinet,) and the tambour, or tambourine. Few songs are
heard in the evenings, except among the Bedouins in the skirts of the
town. The choral song called Djok, is sometimes sung by the young men at
night in the coffee-houses, its measure being accompanied with the
clapping of hands. In general, the voices of the Hedjazys are harsh, and
not clear: I heard none of those sonorous and harmonious voices which
are so remarkable in Egypt, and still more in Syria, whether giving
utterance to love songs, or chanting the praises of Mohammed from the
minarets, which in the depth of night has a peculiarly grand effect.
Even the Imams of the mosque, and those who chant the anthems, in
repeating the last words of the introductory prayers of the Imam, men
who in other places are chosen for their fine voices, can here be
distinguished only by their hoarseness and dissonance.
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