All, Except The Higher Classes Of Mekkawys, Let Out Their Houses During The Hadj, And Demand From Their Under- Tenants As Much For A Few Weeks Or Months As They Pay To The Proprietor For A Whole Year.

I paid for one room with a small kitchen and a by- place for my slave, fifteen dollars for

Six weeks, which equalled the annual rent of the whole house received by the landlord; and I should have been obliged to pay the same price if I had taken it only during the fortnight preceding and following the Hadj. The house in which I hired these rooms was divided into several lodgings, and was let altogether to different hadjys at one hundred and twenty dollars, the owners having retired into apartments so mean that strangers would not occupy them.

Of the numerous pilgrims who arrive at Mekka before the caravan, some are professed merchants; many others bring a few articles for sale, which they dispose of without trouble. They then pass the interval of time before the Hadj very pleasantly; free from cares and apprehensions, and enjoying that supreme happiness of an Asiatic, the dolce far niente[.] Except those of a very high rank, the pilgrims live together in a state of freedom and equality. They keep but few servants: many, indeed, have none, and divide among themselves the various duties of house-keeping, such as bringing the provisions from market and cooking them, although accustomed at home to the

[p.261] services of an attendant.

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