At The Conclusion Of The Tawaf It Was Deemed Advisable To Attempt To
Kiss The Stone.
For a time I stood
[P.168] looking in despair at the swarming crowd of Badawi and other
pilgrims that besieged it. But the boy Mohammed was equal to the
occasion. During our circuit he had displayed a fiery zeal against
heresy and schism, by foully abusing every Persian in his path[FN#8];
and the inopportune introduction of hard words into his prayers made
the latter a strange patchwork; as “Ave Maria purissima,—arrah, dont ye be
letting the pig at the pot,—sanctissima,” and so forth. He might, for
instance, be repeating “And I take Refuge with Thee from Ignominy in this
World,” when “O thou rejected one, son of the rejected!” would be the
interpolation addressed to some long-bearded Khorasani,—“And in that to come”—“O
hog and brother of a hoggess!” And so he continued till I wondered that
none dared to turn and rend him. After vainly addressing the pilgrims,
of whom nothing could be seen but a mosaic of occupits and
shoulder-blades, the boy Mohammed collected about half a dozen stalwart
Meccans, with whose assistance, by sheer strength, we wedged our way
into the thin and light-legged crowd. The Badawin turned round upon us
like wild-cats, but
[p.169] they had no daggers. The season being autumn, they had not
swelled themselves with milk for six months; and they had become such
living mummies, that I could have managed single-handed half a dozen of
them.
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