The Arrival Was Anxiously Expected By The People For
Several Reasons.
In the first place, it brought with it a new curtain
for the Prophet's Hujrah, the old one being in a tattered condition;
secondly, it had charge of the annual stipends and pensions of the
citizens; and thirdly, many families expected members returning under
its escort to their homes.
The popular anxiety was greatly increased by
the disordered state of the country round about; and, moreover, the
great caravan had been one day late, generally arriving on the morning
of the twenty-second Zu'l Ka'adah.[FN#3]
[p.417]During the night three of Shaykh Hamid's brothers, who had
entered as Muzawwirs with the Hajj, came suddenly to the house: they
leaped off their camels, and lost not a moment in going through the
usual scene of kissing, embracing, and weeping bitterly for joy. I
arose in the morning, and looked out from the windows of the Majlis.
The Barr al-Manakhah, from a dusty waste dotted with a few Badawi
hair-tents, had assumed all the various shapes and the colours of a
kaleidoscope. The eye was bewildered by the shifting of innumerable
details, in all parts totally different from one another, thrown
confusedly together in one small field; and, however jaded with
sight-seeing, it dwelt with delight upon the variety, the vivacity, and
the intense picturesqueness of the scene. In one night had sprung up a
town of tents of every size, colour, and shape; round, square, and
oblong; open and closed,-from the shawl-lined and gilt-topped pavilion
of the Pasha, with all the luxurious appurtenances of the Harim, to its
neighbour the little dirty green "rowtie" of the tobacco-seller.
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