Besides These Public Occasions, Private Largesses Can Always Turn The Key. [FN#17] I Heard From Good Authority, That The Ka’Abah Is Never Opened Without Several Pilgrims Being Crushed To Death.

Ali Bey (remarks Mr. Bankes) says nothing of the supposed conditions annexed.

In my next volume [Part iii. (“Meccah”) of this work] I shall give them, as I received them from the lips of learned and respectable Moslems. They differ considerably from Finati’s, and no wonder; his account is completely opposed to the strong good sense which pervades the customs of Al-Islam. As regards his sneer at the monastic orders in Italy—that the conditions of entering are stricter and more binding than those of the Ka’abah, yet that numbers are ready to profess in them—it must not be imagined that Arab human nature differs very materially from Italian. Many unworthy feet pass the threshold of the Ka’abah; but there are many Moslems, my friend, Omar Effendi, for instance, who have performed the pilgrimage a dozen times, and would never, from conscientious motives, enter the holy edifice. [FN#18] In 1807, according to Ali Bey, the Wahhabis took the same precaution, says Mr. Bankes. The fact is, some such precautions must always be taken. The pilgrims are forbidden to quarrel, to fight, or to destroy life, except under circumstances duly provided for. Moreover, as I shall explain in another part of this work, it was of old, and still is, the custom of the fiercer kind of Badawin to flock to Arafat—where the victim is sure to be found—for the purpose of revenging their blood-losses. As our authorities at Aden well know, there cannot be a congregation of different Arab tribes without a little murder. After fighting with the common foe, or if unable to fight with him, the wild men invariably turn their swords against their private enemies. [FN#19] So, on the wild and tree-clad heights of the Neilgherry hills, despite the brilliance of the stars, every traveller remarks the darkness of the atmosphere at night. [FN#20] Mohammed Ali gave six dollars for every Arab head, which fact accounts for the heaps that surrounded him. One would suppose that when acting against an ene[m]y, so quick and agile as the Arabs, such an order would be an unwise one. Experience, however, proves the contrary. [FN#21] “Finati’s long disuse of European writing,” says Mr. Bankes, “made him very slow with his pen.” Fortunately, he found in London some person who took down the story in easy, unaffected, and not inelegant Italian. In 1828, Mr. Bankes translated it into English, securing accuracy by consulting the author, when necessary. [FN#22] His translator and editor is obliged to explain that he means Cufic, by “characters that are not now in use,” and the statue of Memnon by “one of two enormous sitting figures in the plain, from which, according to an old story or superstition, a sound proceeds when the sun rises.” When the crew of his Nile-boat “form in circle upon the bank, and perform a sort of religious mummery, shaking their heads and shoulders violently, and uttering a hoarse sobbing or barking noise, till some of them would drop or fall into convulsions,”—a sight likely to excite the curiosity of most men—he “takes his gun in pursuit of wild geese.” He allowed Mr. Bankes’ mare to eat Oleander leaves, and thus to die of the commonest poison.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 267 of 331
Words from 140067 to 140653 of 175520