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.
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