“After Which, At The Conclusion Of The Whole Ceremony, All The Names Are
Registered By A Scribe Appointed For The Purpose[FN#13]:
And when this
is finished the African
[P.397] and Asiatic Caravans part company and return to their own
several countries, many detachments of the pilgrims visiting Medinah in
the way.”
Being desirous of enrolment in some new division of Mohammed Ali’s army,
Finati overcame the difficulty of personal access to him by getting a
memorial written in Turkish and standing at the window of a house
joined on to the enclosure of the great temple. After the sixth day the
Pasha observed him, and in the “greatest rage imaginable” desired a
detailed account of the defeat at Kunfudah. Finati then received five
hundred piastres and an order to join a corps at Taif, together with a
strict charge of secre[c]y, “since it was of importance that no reverse
or check should be generally talked of.” Before starting our author adds
some “singular particulars” which escaped him in his account of Meccah.
“Many of the pilgrims go through the ceremony of walking the entire
circuit of the city upon the outside; and the order in which this is
performed is as follows. The devoted first goes without the gates, and,
after presenting himself there to the religious officer who presides,
throws off all his clothes, and takes a sort of large wrapping garment
in lieu of them to cover himself; upon which he sets off walking at a
very quick pace, or rather running, to reach the nearest of the four
corners of the city, a sort of guide going with him at the same rate
all the way, who prompts certain ejaculations or prayers, which he
ought to mention at particular spots as he passes; at every angle he
finds a barber, who with wonderful quickness wets and shaves one
quarter of his head, and so on; till he has reached the barber at the
fourth angle, who completes the work.
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