To
join the main body of the army;” and to his mania for desertion we owe
the following particulars concerning the city of Meccah.
“Exulting in my escape, my mind was in a state to receive very strong
impressions, and I was much struck with all I saw upon entering the
city; for though it is neither large nor beautiful in itself, there is
something in it that is calculated to impress a sort of awe, and it was
the hour of noon when everything is very silent, except the Muezzins
calling from the minarets.
“The principal feature of the city is that celebrated sacred enclosure
which is placed about the centre of it; it is a vast paved court with
doorways opening into it from every side, and with a covered colonnade
carried all round like a cloister, while in the midst of the open space
stands the edifice called the Caaba, whose walls are entirely covered
over on the outside with hangings of rich velvet,[FN#4] on which there
are Arabic inscriptions embroidered in gold.
“Facing one of its angles (for this little edifice is of
[p.394] a square form),[FN#5] there is a well which is called the well
Zemzem, of which the water is considered so peculiarly holy that some
of it is even sent annually to the Sultan at Constantinople; and no
person who comes to Meccah, whether on pilgrimage or for mere worldly
considerations, ever fails both to drink of it and to use it in his
ablutions, since it is supposed to wipe out the stain of all past
transgressions.
“There is a stone also near the bottom of the building itself which all
the visitants kiss as they pass round it, and the multitude of them has
been so prodigious as to have worn the surface quite away.
“Quite detached, but fronting to the Caaba, stand four pavilions
(corresponding to the four sects of the Mahometan religion), adapted
for the pilgrims; and though the concourse had of late years been from
time to time much interrupted, there arrived just when I came to Meccah
two Caravans of them, one Asiatic and one from the African side,
amounting to not less than about 40,000 persons, who all seemed to be
full of reverence towards the holy place.[FN#6]”
After commenting on the crowded state of the city, the lodging of
pilgrims in tents and huts, or on the bare ground outside the
walls,[FN#7] and the extravagant prices of provisions, Haji Mahomet
proceeds with his description.
“Over and above the general ceremonies of the purification at the well,
and of the kissing of the corner-stone,[FN#8]
[p.395]and of the walking round the Caaba a certain number of times in
a devout manner, every one has also his own separate prayers to put up,
and so to fulfil the conditions of his vow and the objects of his
particular pilgrimage.”
We have then an account of the Mosque-pigeons, for whom it is said, “some
pilgrims bring with them even from the most remote countries a small
quantity of grain, with which they may take the opportunity of feeding
these birds.” This may have occurred in times of scarcity; the grain is
now sold in the Mosque.
