Some sieges.
[FN#18] In the Mandal, or palm-divination, a black slave is considered
the best subject. European travellers have frequently remarked their
nervous sensibility. In Abyssinia the maladies called “bouda” and “tigritiya”
appear to depend upon some obscure connection between a weak
impressionable brain and the strong will of a feared and hated race—the
blacksmiths.
[p.178]CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE CEREMONIES OF THE YAUM AL-TARWIYAH, OR THE FIRST DAY.
AT ten A.M., on the 8th Zu’l Hijjah, A.H. 1269 (Monday, 12th Sept.,
1853), habited in our Ihram, or pilgrim garbs, we mounted the litter.
Shaykh Mas’ud had been standing at the door from dawn-time, impatient to
start before the Damascus and the Egyptian caravans made the road
dangerous. Our delay arose from the tyrannical conduct of the boy
Mohammed, who insisted upon leaving his little nephew behind. It was
long before he yielded. I then placed the poor child, who was crying
bitterly, in the litter between us, and at last we started.
We followed the road by which the Caravans entered Meccah. It was
covered with white-robed pilgrims, some few wending their way on
foot[FN#1]; others riding, and all men barefooted and bareheaded. Most
of the wealthier classes mounted asses.
