But A Few Years Before, Dr. Herklots Had
Described The Same Practice In India, Filling Three Goodly Pages; But
He Called His Work "Qanoon-I-Islam," And, Consequently, Despite Its
Excellencies, It Fell Still-Born From The Press.
Lady H. Stanhope
frequently declared "the spell by which the face of an absent person is
thrown upon a mirror to be within the reach of the humblest and most
contemptible of magicians;" but the civilised world did not care to
believe a prophetess.
All, however, were aroused by Mr. Lane's
discovery, and determined to decide the question by the ordeal of
reason. Accordingly, in A.D. 1844, Mr. Lane, aided by Lord Nugent and
others, discovered that a "coarse and stupid fraud" had been
perpetrated upon him by Osman Effendi, the Scotchman. In 1845, Sir G.
Wilkinson remarked of this rationalism, "The explanation lately
offered, that Osman Effendi was in collusion with the magician, is
neither fair on him nor satisfactory, as he was not present when those
cases occurred which were made so much of in Europe," and he proposed
"leading questions and accidents" as the word of the riddle. Eothen
attributed the whole affair to "shots," as schoolboys call them, and
ranked success under the head of Paley's "tentative miracles." A writer
in the Quarterly explained them by suggesting the probability of divers
(impossible) optical combinations, and, lest the part of belief should
have been left unrepresented, Miss Martineau was enabled to see clear
signs of mesmeric action, and by the decisive experiment of self,
discovered the magic to be an "affair of mesmerism." Melancholy to
relate, after all this philosophy, the herd of travellers at Cairo is
still divided in opinion about the magician, some holding his
performance to be "all humbug," others darkly hinting that "there may
be something in it."
[FN#19] They distinguish, however, between the Hijaz "Nasur" and the
"Jurh al-Yamani," or the "Yaman Ulcer."
[FN#20] I afterwards received the following information from Mr.
Charles Cole, H.B.M. Vice-Consul at Jeddah, a gentleman well acquainted
with Western Arabia, and having access to official information: "The
population of Al-Madinah is from 16,000 to 18,000, and the Nizam troops
in garrison 400. Meccah contains about 45,000 inhabitants, Yambu' from
6000 to 7000, Jeddah about 2500 (this I think is too low), and Taif
8000. Most of the troops are stationed at Meccah and at Jeddah. In
Al-Hijaz there is a total force of five battalions, each of which ought
to contain 800 men; they may amount to 3500, with 500 artillery, and
4500 irregulars, though the muster rolls bear 6000. The Government pays
in paper for all supplies, (even for water for the troops,) and the
paper sells at the rate of forty piastres per cent."
[FN#21] The Urtah or battalion here varies from 800 to 1000 men. Of
these, four form one Alai or regiment, and thirty-six Alai an Urdu or
camp. This word Urdu, pronounced "Ordoo," is the origin of our "horde."
[FN#22] One of the traditions, "Between my house and my place of
prayers is a Garden of the Gardens of Paradise," has led divines to
measure the distance: it is said to be 1000 cubits from the Bab Salam
of the Harim to this Musalla.
[p.398]CHAPTER XIX.
A RIDE TO THE MOSQUE OF KUBA.
THE principal places of pious visitation in the vicinity of Al-Madinah
are the Mosques of Kuba, the Cemetery Al-Bakia, and the martyr Hamzah's
tomb, at the foot of Mount Ohod. These the Zair is directed by all the
Olema to visit, and on the holy ground to pray Allah for a blessing
upon himself, and upon his brethren of the faith.
Early one Saturday morning, I started for Kuba with a motley crowd of
devotees. Shaykh Hamid, my Muzawwir, was by my side, mounted upon an
ass more miserable than I had yet seen. The boy Mohammed had procured
for me a Meccan dromedary, with splendid trappings, a saddle with
burnished metal peaks before and behind, covered with a huge sheepskin
died crimson, and girthed over fine saddle-bags, whose enormous tassels
hung almost to the ground. The youth himself, being too grand to ride a
donkey, and unable to borrow a horse, preferred walking. He was proud
as a peacock, being habited in a style somewhat resembling the plume of
that gorgeous bird, in the coat of many colours-yellow, red, and golden
flowers, apparently sewed on a field of bright green silk-which cost me
so dear in the Harim. He was armed, as indeed all of us were, in
readiness for the Badawin, and he anxiously awaited opportunities of
discharging his pistol. Our course lay from Shaykh Hamid's house in the
Manakhah, along and up the
[p.399]Fiumara, "Al-Sayh," and through the Bab Kuba, a little gate in
the suburb wall, where, by-the-bye, my mounted companion was nearly
trampled down by a rush of half-wild camels. Outside the town, in this
direction, Southward, is a plain of clay, mixed with chalk, and here
and there with sand, whence protrude blocks and little ridges of
basalt. As far as Kuba, and the Harrah ridge to the West, the earth is
sweet and makes excellent gugglets.[FN#1] Immediately outside the gate
I saw a kiln, where they were burning tolerable bricks. Shortly after
leaving the suburb, an Indian, who joined our party upon the road,
pointed out on the left of the way what he declared was the place of
the celebrated Khandak, or Moat, the Torres Vedras of Arabian
History.[FN#2] Presently the Nakhil, or palm plantations, began.
Nothing lovelier to the eye, weary with hot red glare, than the rich
green waving crops and the cool shade, the "food of vision," as the
Arabs call it, and "pure water to the parched throat." For hours I
could have sat and looked at it.
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