It Is A Cubical Structure Of Massive Stone, The
Upper Two-Thirds Of Which Are Mantled By A Black Cloth Embroidered With
Silver, And The Lower Portion Hung With White Linen.
At a distance of
several yards it is surrounded by a balustrade provided with lamps,
which are lighted in the evening, and the space thus enclosed is the
circuit-ground along which, day and night, crowds of pilgrims,
performing the circular ceremony of Tawaf, realize the idea of
perpetual motion.
We at once advanced to the black stone imbedded in an
angle of the Kabah, kissed it, and exclaimed, “Bismillah wa Allahu Akbar,”—“In
God’s name, and God is greatest.” Then we commenced the usual seven rounds,
three at a walking pace, and four at a brisk trot. Next
p.412] followed two prayer-flections at the tomb of Abraham, after
which we drank of the water of Zamzam, said to be the same which
quenched the thirst of Hagar’s exhausted son.
Besides the Kabah, eight minor structures adorn the quadrangle, the
well of Zamzam, the library, the clock-room, the triangular staircase,
and four ornamental resting-places for the orthodox sects of Hanafi,
Shafi, Maliki, and Hanbali.
We terminated our morning duties by walking and running seven times
along the streets of Safa and Marwa, so named from the flight of seven
steps at each of its extremities.
After a few days spent in visiting various places of interest, such as
the slave-market and forts, and the houses of the Prophet and the
Caliphs ’Ali and Abubakr, we started on our six hours’ journey to the
mountain of ’Arifat, an hour’s sojourn at which, even in a state of
insensibility, confers the rank of haji. It is a mountain spur of about
a hundred and fifty feet in height, presenting an artificial appearance
from the wall encircling it and the terrace on its slope, from which
the iman delivers a sermon before the departure of his congregation for
Meccah. His auditors were, indeed, numerous, their tents being
scattered over two or three miles of the country. A great number of
their inmates were fellow-subjects of ours from India. I surprised some
of my Meccah friends by informing them that Queen Victoria numbers
nearly twenty millions of Mohammedans among her subjects.
On the 5th of June, at sunset, commencing our return, we slept at the
village of Muzdalifah, and there gathered and washed seven pebbles of
the size of peas, to be flung at three piles of whitewashed masonry
known as the Shaitans (Satans) of Mun?. We acquitted ourselves
satisfactorily of this duty on the festival of the 6th of [p.413] June,
the 10th day of the Arabian month Zu’lhijah. Each of us then sacrificed a
sheep, had his hair and nails cut, exchanged the ihram for his best
apparel, and, embracing his friends, paid them the compliments of the
season. The two following days the Great, the Middle, and the Little
Satan were again pelted, and, bequeathing to the unfortunate
inhabitants of Muna the unburied and odorous remains of nearly a
hundred thousand animals, we returned, eighty thousand strong, to
Meccah.
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