After A Time, Anxiously Hoping To Hear That The Deed Had
Been Done, Abu Lahab Incautiously Drew Nigh, And Was
Precipitated by
his own bravo into the place of destruction.[FN#21] Hence the
well-known saying in Islam, “Whoso
Diggeth a well for his brother shall
fall into it himself.” We added our quota of stones,[FN#22] and
proceeding, saw the Jeddah road spanning the plain like a white ribbon.
In front of us the highway was now lined with coffee-tents, before
which effeminate dancing-boys performed to admiring Syrians; a small
whitewashed “Bungalow,” the palace of the Emir al-Hajj, lay on the left,
and all around it clustered the motley encampment of his pilgrims.
After cantering about three miles from the city, we reached the
Alamayn, or two pillars that limit the Sanctuary; and a little beyond
it is the small settlement popularly called Al-Umrah.[FN#23]
Dismounting here, we
[p.243] sat down on rugs outside a coffee-tent to enjoy the beauty of
the moonlit night, and an hour of Kayf, in the sweet air of the Desert.
Presently the coffee-tent keeper, after receiving payment, brought us
water for ablution. This preamble over, we entered the principal
chapel; an unpretending building, badly lighted, spread with dirty
rugs, full of pilgrims, and offensively close. Here we prayed the Isha,
or night devotions, and then a two-bow prayer in honour of the
Ihram,[FN#24] after which we distributed gratuities to the guardians,
and alms to the importunate beggars.
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