At Last Sleep Began To Weigh Heavily Upon My Eyelids.
I awoke my
companions, and in the dizziness of slumber they walked with me through
the tall narrow street from the Bab al-Ziyadah to our home in the
Shamiyah.
The brilliant moonshine prevented our complaining, as other
travellers have had reason to do, of the darkness and the difficulty of
Meccah’s streets. The town, too, appeared safe; there were no watchmen,
and yet people slept everywhere upon cots placed opposite their open
doors. Arrived at the house, we made some brief preparations for
snatching a few hours’ sleep upon the Mastabah, a place so stifling, that
nothing but utter exhaustion could induce lethargy there.
[FN#1] The Egyptian word is generally pronounced “Zaghrutah,” the plural is
Zagharit, corrupted to Ziraleet. The classical Arabic term is “Tahlil”; the
Persians call the cry “Kil.” It is peculiar to women, and is formed by
raising the voice to its highest pitch, vibrating it at the same time
by rolling the tongue, whose modulations express now joy, now grief. To
my ear it always resembled the brain-piercing notes of a fife. Dr.
Buchanan likens it to a serpent uttering human sounds. The “unsavoury
comparison,” however, may owe its origin to the circumstance that Dr.
Buchanan heard it at the orgies of Jagannath.
[FN#2] As an Indian is called “Miyan,” sir, an elderly Indian becomes “bara
Miyan,” great or ancient sir. I shall have occasion to speak at a future
period of these Indians at Meccah.
[FN#3] “Sitt al-Kabirah,” or simply “Al-Kabirah,” the Great Lady, is the title
given to the mistress of.
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