In Those Days, Even When I Was Free From Disease, I Felt
Great Lassitude, A Depression Of Spirits, And A Total Want Of Appetite.
During The Five Days Of The Hadj, I Was Luckily In Good
[P.243] health, though I was under great apprehensions from the
consequences of taking the ihram.
My strength was greatly diminished,
and it required much effort, whenever I left my room, to walk about.
I attributed my illness chiefly to bad water, previous experience having
taught me that my constitution is very susceptible of the want of good
light water, that prime article of life in eastern countries. Brackish
water in the Desert is perhaps salutary to travellers: heated as they
are by the journey, and often labouring under obstructions from the
quality of their food on the road, it acts as a gentle aperient, and
thus supplies the place of medicinal draughts; but the contrary is the
case when the same water is used during a continued sedentary residence,
when long habit only can accustom the stomach to receive it. Had I found
myself in better health and spirits, I should probably have visited some
of the neighbouring valleys to the south, or passed a few months among
the Bedouins of the Hedjaz; but the worst effect of ill health upon a
traveller, is the pusillanimity which accompanies it, and the
apprehensions with which it fills the mind, of fatigues and dangers,
that, under other circumstances, would be thought undeserving of notice.
The current price of provisions at Mekka in December, 1814, was as
follows: -
Piastres. Paras.
1 lb. of beef .......................... 2 10
1 lb. of mutton ........................ 20
1 lb. of camel's flesh ................. 10
1 lb. of butter ........................ 5
1 lb. of fresh unsalted cheese ......... 3
A fowl ................................. 6
An egg ................................. 0 8
1 lb. of milk .......................... 2
1 lb. of vegetables, viz. leek, spinach,
turnips, radishes, calabashes, egg-
plants, green onions, petrosiles, &c.... 0 30
[p.244]
Piastres. Paras.
A small, round, flat loaf of bread ..... 0 20
1 lb. of dry biscuits .................. 0 32
1 lb. of raisins from Tayf ............. 1 20
1 lb. of dates ......................... 0 25
1 lb. of sugar (Indian) ................ 2 10
1 lb. of coffee ........................ 2 20
A pomegranate .......................... 0 15
An orange .............................. 0 15
A lemon, (the size of a walnut, the
Same species as the Egyptian lemon) 0 10
1 lb. of good Syrian tobacco ........... 6
1 lb. of common tobacco ................ 1 30
1 lb. of tombac, or tobacco for the
Persian pipe ........................ 3
1 keyle of wheat ....................... 3
1 do. of flour ......................... 3 20
1 do. of Indian rice ................... 3
1 do. Of lentils from Egypt ............ 2 30
1 do. Of dried locusts ................. 1
A skin of water ........................ 1 20
As much wood as will cook two dishes ... 0 20
A labourer for the day ................. 3
A porter for going in town the distance
Of half a mile ...................... 1
Common wages of servants,[FN#1] besides
Clothes and food, per month ........ 30
Wages of craftsmen, as smiths, carpen-
ters, &c. per day, besides food ..........5
N.B. The Spanish dollar was worth from nine to twelve piastres during my
residence at Mekka, changing its value almost daily.
[p.245] One piastre equal to forty paras or diwanys, as they are called
in the Hedjaz. The pound, or rotolo, of Mekka, has a hundred and forty-
four drams. The Egyptian erdeb, equivalent to about fifteen English
bushels, is divided here into fifty keyles or measures. At Medina the
erdeb is divided into ninety-six keyles. The pound of Djidda is nearly
double that of Mekka.
[The Mekkawys have only slaves; but many Egyptians are ready to
enter into the service of hadjys. The most common servants in the
families of Mekka are the younger sons or some poor relations.]
[p.246] THE HADJ, OR PILGRIMAGE.
THE time has passed (and, probably for ever,) when hadjys or pilgrims,
from all regions of the Muselman world, came every year in multitudes,
that they might visit devotionally the sacred places of the Hedjaz. An
increasing indifference to their religion, and an increase of expense
attending the journey, now deter the greater part of the Mohammedans
from complying with that law of the Koran, which enjoins to every Moslim
who can afford it, the performance of a pilgrimage to Mekka, once at
least in his life. To those whom indispensable occupations confine to
their homes, the law permits a substitution of prayers; but even with
this injunction few people now comply, or it is evaded by giving a few
dollars to some hadjy, who, taking from several persons commissions of
the same kind, includes all their names in the addition consequently
made to the prayers recited by him at the places of holy visit. When
Muselman zeal was more ardent, the difficulties of the journey being
held to increase the merit of it, became with many an additional
incitement to join the caravans, and to perform the whole journey by
land; but at present, most of the pilgrims do not join any regular Hadj
caravan, but reach Djidda by sea from Egypt, or the Persian Gulf;
commercial and lucrative speculations being the chief inducements to
this journey.
In 1814, many hadjys had arrived at Mekka, three or four months previous
to the prescribed time of the pilgrimage. To pass the Ramadhan in this
holy city, is a great inducement with such as can afford the expense, to
hasten their arrival, and prolong their residence in it.
[p.247] About the time when the regular caravans were expected, at least
four thousand pilgrims from Turkey, who had come by sea, were already
assembled at Mekka, and perhaps half that number from other distant
quarters of the Mohammedan world. Of the five or six regular caravans
which, formerly, always arrived at Mekka a few days before the Hadj, two
only made their appearance this year; these were from Syria and Egypt;
the latter composed entirely of people belonging to the retinue of the
commander of the Hadj, and his troops; no pilgrims having come by land
from Cairo, though the road was safe.
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