In A Previous Part Of This Volume I
Have Alluded To Similar Evil Presentiments Which Haunt The Mind Of
Al-Islam; And The Christian, Zealous For The Propagation Of His Faith,
May See In Them An Earnest Of Its Still Wider Diffusion In Future Ages.
[FN#6]
Late in the afternoon I used to rise, perform ablution, and repair to
the Harim, or wander about the bazars till sunset.
After this it was
necessary to return home and prepare for supper—dinner it would be called
in the West.
[p.232] The meal concluded, I used to sit for a time outside the
street-door in great dignity, upon a broken-backed black-wood chair,
traditionally said to have been left in the house by one of the princes
of Delhi, smoking a Shishah, and drinking sundry cups of strong green
tea with a slice of lime, a fair substitute for milk. At this hour the
seat was as in a theatre, but the words of the actors were of a nature
somewhat too Fescennine for a respectable public. After nightfall we
either returned to the Harim or retired to rest. Our common dormitory
was the flat roof of the house; under each cot stood a water-gugglet;
and all slept, as must be done in the torrid lands, on and not in bed.
I sojourned at Meccah but a short time, and, as usual with travellers,
did not see the best specimens of the population. The citizens appeared
to me more civilised and more vicious than those of Al-Madinah. They
often leave
“Home, where small experience grows,”
and—qui multum peregrinatur, raro sanctificatur—become a worldly-wise,
God-forgetting, and Mammonish sort of folk. Tuf w’ asaa, w’ aamil
al-saba—“Circumambulate and run (i.e. between Safa and Marwah) and commit
the Seven (deadly sins)”—is a satire popularly levelled against them.
Hence, too, the proverb Al-haram f’ il Haramayn—“Evil (dwelleth) in the two
Holy Cities”; and no wonder, since plenary indulgence is so easily
secured.[FN#7] The pilgrim is forbidden, or rather dissuaded, from
abiding at Meccah after the rites, and wisely. Great emotions must be
followed by a re-action. And he who stands struck by the first aspect
of Allah’s house, after a few months, the marvel waxing stale, sweeps
past with indifference or something worse.
[p.233] There is, however, little at Meccah to offend the eye. As among
certain nations further West, a layer of ashes overspreads the fire:
the mine is concealed by a green turf fair to look upon. It is only
when wandering by starlight through the northern outskirts of the town
that citizens may be seen with light complexions and delicate limbs,
coarse turbands, and Egyptian woollen robes, speaking disguise and the
purpose of disguise. No one within the memory of man has suffered the
penalty of immorality. Spirituous liquors are no longer sold, as in
Burckhardt’s day,[FN#8] in shops; and some Arnaut officers assured me
that they found considerable difficulty in smuggling flasks of Araki
from Jeddah.
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