O open
the Gates of Thy Mercy, and let us pass through them to the Land of
Joy!" and "O Allah, bless the last of Prophets, the Seal of Prophecy,
with Blessings in number
[p.280] as the Stars of Heaven, and the Waves of the Sea, and the Sands
of the Waste-bless him, O Lord of Might and Majesty, as long as the
Corn-field and the Date-grove continue to feed Mankind[FN#22]!" And
again, "Live for ever, O Most Excellent of Prophets!-live in the Shadow
of Happiness during the Hours of Night and the Times of Day, whilst the
Bird of the Tamarisk (the dove) moaneth like the childless Mother,
whilst the West-wind bloweth gently over the Hills of Nijd, and the
Lightning flasheth bright in the Firmament of Al-Hijaz!"
Such were the poetical exclamations that rose all around me, showing
how deeply tinged with imagination becomes the language of the Arab
under the influence of strong passion or religious enthusiasm. I now
understood the full value of a phrase in the Moslem ritual, "And when
his" (the pilgrim's) "eyes shall fall upon the Trees of Al-Madinah, let
him raise his Voice and bless the Apostle with the choicest of
Blessings." In al[l] the fair view before us nothing was more striking,
after the desolation through which we had passed, than the gardens and
orchards about the town. It was impossible not to enter into the spirit
of my companions, and truly I believe that for some minutes my
enthusiasm rose as high as theirs. But presently when we
remounted,[FN#23] the traveller returned strong upon me: I made a rough
sketch of the town, put questions about the principal buildings, and in
fact collected materials for the next chapter.
[p.281] The distance traversed that night was about twenty-two miles in
a direction varying from easterly to north-easterly. We reached
Al-Madinah on the 25th July, thus taking nearly eight days to travel
over little more than 130 miles. This journey is performed with camels
in four days, and a good dromedary will do it without difficulty in
half that time.[FN#24]
[FN#1] The natives of Al-Hijaz assured me that in their Allah-favoured
land, the Samum never kills a man. I "doubt the fact." This Arnaut's
body was swollen and decomposing rapidly, the true diagnostic of death
by the poison-wind. (See Ibn Batuta's voyage, "Kabul.") However, as
troopers drink hard, the Arabs may still be right, the Samum doing half
the work, arrack the rest. I travelled during the months of July,
August, and September, and yet never found myself inconvenienced by the
"poison-wind" sufficiently to make me tie my Kufiyah, Badawi-fashion,
across my mouth. At the same time I can believe that to an invalid it
would be trying, and that a man almost worn out by hunger and fatigue
would receive from it a coup de grace.
