The Door Is Plated All Over With Silver[FN#20] And There Is A Covering Hangs Over It And Reaches To The Ground, Which Is Kept Turned Up All The Week, Except Thursday Night, And Friday, Which Is Their Sabbath.

The said covering of the door is very thick imbroidered with gold, insomuch that it weighs several score pounds.

The top of the Beat is flat, beaten with lime and sand; and there is a long gutter, or spout, to carry off the water when it rains; at which time the people will run, throng, and struggle, to get under the said gutter, that so the water that comes off the Beat may fall upon them, accounting it as the dew of Heaven, and looking on it as a great happiness to have it drop upon them. But if they can recover some of this water to drink, they esteem it to be yet a much greater happiness.

[p.369] Many poor people make it their endeavour to get some of it; and present it to the Hagges, for which they are well rewarded. My Patroon had a present made him of this water, with which he was not a little pleased, and gave him that brought it a good reward.

“This Beat-Allah is opened but two days in the space of six weeks, viz. one day for the men, and the next day for the women.[FN#21] As I was at Mecca about four months, I had the opportunity of entering into it twice; a reputed advantage, which many thousands of the Hagges have not met with, for those that come by land make no longer stay at Mecca than sixteen or seventeen days.

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