[FN#1] Medyq Is Burton’S El-Mazik, The Spelling In Arabic Being [Arabic] Madhyq.

Burckhardt’s account leads us to think that the village now called Madhyq, or Wady Laymun, lies on the

Left bank of the Fiumara, and is identical with Bostan Ibn ’Amir, which is described by Yacut as situated in the fork between the Northern and Southern Nakhlas, and which in ancient times had, like the village Wady Laymun, the name of the valley of which it was the chief place, viz., Batn Nakhla. Burton gives no information of the position of the village, but he says: “On the right bank of the Fiumara stood the Meccan Sharif’s state pavilion.” Unless the pavilion is separated from the village by the Fiumara there is a discrepancy between the two accounts, which leads me to suspect that “right” is an oversight for “left.” Anciently [Arabic] was pronounced Nakhlat, and, if we suppress the guttural, as the Greeks and Romans sometimes did, Nalat. Strabo, p. 782, in his narrative of the retreat of Aelius Gallus, mentions a place which he calls Mal?tha, and of which he says it stood on the bank of a river—a position which few towns in Arabia have. The context leaves no doubt that he means Batn Nakhla, and that Maltha is a mistake for Naltha.

[p.409]APPENDIX VIII.

THE MECCAH PILGRIMAGE.

HAVING resolved to perform the Meccah pilgrimage, I spent a few months at Cairo, and on the 22nd of May embarked in a small steamer at Suez with the “mahmil” or litter, and its military escort, conveying the “kiswah” or covering for the “kabah.” On the 25th the man at the wheel informed us that we were about to pass the village of Rabikh, on the Arabian coast, and that the time had consequently arrived for changing our usual habiliments for the “ihram,” or pilgrim-costume of two towels, and for taking the various interdictory vows involved in its assumption: such as not to tie knots in any portion of our dress, not to oil the body, and not to cut our nails or hair, nor to improve the tints of the latter with the coppery red of henna. Transgression of these and other ceremonial enactments is expiated either by animal sacrifice, or gifts of fruit or cereals to the poor.

After a complete ablution and assuming the ihram, we performed two prayer-flections, and recited the meritorious sentences beginning with the words “Labbaik Allah huma labbaik!” “Here I am, O God, here I am! Here I am, O Unassociated One, here I am, for unto Thee belong praise, grace, and empire, O Unassociated One!”

This prayer was repeated so often, people not unfrequently rushing up to their friends and shrieking the sacred sentence into their ears, that at last it became a signal for merriment rather than an indication of piety.

[p.410]On the 26th we reached Jeddah, where the utter sterility of Arabia, with its dunes and rocky hills, becomes apparent.

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