They Have Now Recovered A Little; But Some Were Lately Sold At
Two Years And A Half Purchase, Which May Afford An Idea Of The Opinion
Current At Mekka As To The Stability Of The Turkish Government, Or The
Probability Of The Return Of The Wahabys.
The idlest, most impudent, and vilest individuals of Mekka adopt the
profession of guides (metowaf or delyl); and as there is no want of
those qualities, and a sufficient demand for guides during the Hadj,
they are very numerous.
Besides the places which I have described in the
town, the metowafs accompany the hadjys to all the other places of
resort in the sacred district, and are ready to perform every kind of
service in the city. But their utility is more than counterbalanced by
their importunity and knavery. They besiege the room of the hadjy from
sun-rise to sun-set; and will not allow him to do any thing without
obtruding their advice: they sit down with him to breakfast, dinner, and
supper; lead him into all possible expenses, that they may pocket a
share of them; suffer no opportunity to pass of asking him for money;
and woe to the poor ignorant Turk who employs them as his interpreter in
any mercantile concern. My first delyl was the man of Medina at whose
house I lodged during the last days of Ramadhan. On returning to Mekka a
second time, I unfortunately met him in the street; and though I was far
from giving him a hearty welcome, having sufficient reason to suspect
his honesty, he eagerly embraced me, and forthwith made my new lodgings
his home. At first he accompanied me every day in my walks round the
Kaaba, to recite the prayers used on that occasion: these, however, I
soon learned
[p.194] by heart, and therefore dispensed with his services on the
occasion. He sat down regularly at dinner with me, and often brought a
small basket, which he ordered my slave to fill with biscuits, meat
vegetables or fruit, and carried away with him. Every third or fourth
day he asked for money: "It is not you who give it," he said; "it is God
who sends it to me." Finding there was no polite mode of getting rid of
him, I told him plainly, that I no longer wanted his services; language
to which a Mekka delyl is not accustomed. After three days, however, he
returned, as if nothing had happened, and asked me for a dollar. "God
does not move me to give you any thing," I replied; "if he judged it
right, he would soften my heart, and cause me to give you my whole
purse." "Pull my beard," he exclaimed, "if God does not send you ten
times more hereafter than what I beg at present." "Pull out every hair
of mine," I replied, "if I give you one para, until I am convinced that
God will consider it a meritorious act." On hearing this he jumped up,
and walked away, saying, "We fly for refuge to God, from the hearts of
the proud and the hands of the avaricious." These people never speak ten
words without pronouncing the name of God or Mohammed; they are
constantly seen with the rosary in their hands, and mumble prayers even
during conversation. This character of the metowafs is so applicable to
the people of Mekka in general, that at Cairo they use the following
proverb, to repress the importunity of an insolent beggar: "Thou art
like the Mekkawy, thou sayest 'Give me,' and 'I am thy master.'"
As I was obliged to have a delyl, I next engaged an old man of Tatar
origin, with whom having made a sort of treaty at the outset, I had
reason to be tolerably satisfied. What I paid at Mekka to the delyls,
and at the places of holy visit, amounted, perhaps, altogether to three
hundred and fifty piastres, or thirty dollars; but I gave no presents,
either to the mosque, or to any of its officers, which is done only by
great hadjys, or by those who wish to be publicly noticed. Some of the
delyls are constantly stationed near the Kaaba, waiting to be hired for
the walks round it; and if they see a pilgrim walking alone, they often,
unasked, take hold of his hand, and begin to recite the prayers. The
charge for this service is about half a piastre; and I
[p.195] have observed them bargaining with the hadjy at the very gate of
the Kaaba, in the hearing of every body. The poorer delyls are contented
with the fourth of a piastre. Many shopkeepers, and people of the third
class, send their sons who know the prayers by heart, to this station,
to learn the profession of delyl. Those who understand the Turkish
language earn great wages. As the Turkish hadjys usually arrive by way
of Djidda, in parties of from eight to twelve, who have quitted their
homes in company, and live together at Mekka, one delyl generally takes
charge of the whole party, and expects a fee in proportion to their
number. It often happens that the hadjys, on returning home, recommend
him to some other party of their countrymen, who, on reaching Djidda,
send him orders to provide lodgings for them in Mekka, to meet them at
Djidda, to superintend their short journey to the holy city, and to
guide them in the prayers that must be recited on first entering it.
Some of these delyls are constantly found at Djidda during the three
months immediately preceding the Hadj: I have seen them on the road to
Mekka, riding at the head of their party, and treated by them with great
respect and politeness. A Turk from Europe, or Asia Minor, who knows not
a word of Arabic, is overjoyed to find a smooth-tongued Arab who speaks
his language, and who promises all kinds of comforts in Mekka, which he
had been taught to consider as a place where nothing awaited him but
danger and fatigue.
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