One Of
His Arms Was Held Up Straight Over His Head, And So Fixed By Long Habit,
That It Could Not Be Placed In Any Other Situation.
From the curiosity
which he excited, I was led to suppose that such characters seldom find
their way to the Hedjaz.
Dervishes of every sect and order in the Turkish empire are found among
the pilgrims; many of them madmen, or at least assuming the appearance
of insanity, which causes them to be much respected by the hadjys, and
fills their pockets with money. The behaviour of some of them is so
violent, and at the same time so cunning, that even the least charitably
disposed hadjys give willingly something to escape from them. They
mostly come from other countries; for among the Arabians themselves
there are fewer crazy of these people than in other parts of the east.
Egypt chiefly abounds with them; and almost every village in the valley
of the Nile furnishes some Masloub, or
[p.260] reputed madman, whom the inhabitants regard as an inspired
being, and a blessing sent to them from heaven. [In 1813, the Christian
community of Gous, in Upper Egypt, had the honour of possessing an
insane youth, who walked about the bazars quite naked. But the Moslims
of the place growing jealous, seized him one night, and converted him by
circumcision into a Mohammedan saint.]
The arrival of strangers from all parts of the Mohammedan world, from
Tombuctou to Samarkand, and from Georgia to Borneo, would render Djidda
a most desirable residence for an inquisitive European traveller, who,
by affording assistance to poor hadjys, and spending a small sum in
provisions for them, would attract large numbers to his house, and might
thus collect much information respecting the most distant and unknown
parts of Africa and Asia.
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