The City Is So “Compacted
Together” By Hills, That Even The Samum Can Scarcely Sweep It; The Heat
Reverberated By The Bare Rocks Is Intense, And The Normal Atmosphere Of
An Eastern Town Communicates A Faint Lassitude To The Body And
Irritability To The Mind.
The houses being unusually strong and
well-built, might by some art of thermantidote be rendered cool enough
in the hottest weather:
[P.229] they are now ovens.[FN#3] It was my habit to retire immediately
after the late breakfast to the little room upstairs, to sprinkle it
with water, and to lie down on a mat. In the few precious moments of
privacy notes were committed to paper, but one eye was ever fixed on
the door. Sometimes a patient would interrupt me, but a doctor is far
less popular in Al-Hijaz than in Egypt. The people, being more healthy,
have less faith in physic: Shaykh Mas’ud and his son had never tasted in
their lives aught more medicinal than green dates and camel’s milk.
Occasionally the black slave-girls came into the room, asking if the
pilgrim wanted a pipe or a cup of coffee: they generally retired in a
state of delight, attempting vainly to conceal with a corner of
tattered veil a grand display of ivory consequent upon some small and
innocent facetiousness. The most frequent of my visitors was Abdullah,
the Kabirah’s eldest son. This melancholy Jacques had joined our caravan
at Al-Hamra, on the
[p.230] Yambu’ road, accompanied us to Al-Madinah, lived there, and
journeyed to Meccah with the Syrian pilgrimage; yet he had not once
come to visit me or to see his brother, the boy Mohammed. When gently
reproached for this omission, he declared it to be his way—that he never
called upon strangers until sent for. He was a perfect Saudawi
(melancholist) in mind, manners, and personal appearance, and this
class of humanity in the East is almost as uncomfortable to the
household as the idiot of Europe. I was frequently obliged to share my
meals with him, as his mother—though most filially and reverentially
entreated—would not supply him with breakfast two hours after the proper
time, or with a dinner served up forty minutes before the rest of the
household. Often, too, I had to curb, by polite deprecation, the
impetuosity of the fiery old Kabirah’s tongue. Thus Abdullah and I became
friends, after a fashion. He purchased several little articles
required, and never failed to pass hours in my closet, giving me much
information about the country; deploring the laxity of Meccan morals,
and lamenting that in these evil days his countrymen had forfeited
their name at Cairo and at Constantinople. His curiosity about the
English in India was great, and I satisfied it by praising, as a Moslem
would, their politike, their evenhanded justice, and their good star.
Then he would inquire into the truth of a fable extensively known on
the shores of the Mediterranean and of the Red Sea. The English, it is
said, sent a mission to Mohammed, inquiring into his doctrines, and
begging that the heroic Khalid bin Walid[FN#4] might be sent to
proselytise them. Unfortunately,
[p.231] the envoys arrived too late—the Prophet’s soul had winged its way
to Paradise. An abstract of the Moslem scheme was, however, sent to the
“Ingreez,” who declined, as the Founder of the New Faith was no more, to
abandon their own religion; but the refusal was accompanied with
expressions of regard. For this reason many Moslems in Barbary and
other countries hold the English to be of all “People of the Books” the
best inclined towards them. As regards the Prophet’s tradition concerning
the fall of his birthplace, “and the thin-calved from the Habash
(Abyssinians) shall destroy the Ka’abah,” I was informed that towards the
end of time a host will pass from Africa in such multitudes that a
stone shall be conveyed from hand to hand between Jeddah and Meccah.
This latter condition might easily be accomplished by sixty thousand
men, the distance being only forty-four miles, but the citizens
consider it to express a countless horde. Some pious Moslems have hoped
that in Abdullah bin Zubayr’s re-erection of the Ka’abah the prophecy was
fulfilled[FN#5]: the popular belief, however, remains that the fatal
event is still in the womb of time. In a previous part of this volume I
have alluded to similar evil presentiments which haunt the mind of
Al-Islam; and the Christian, zealous for the propagation of his faith,
may see in them an earnest of its still wider diffusion in future ages.
[FN#6]
Late in the afternoon I used to rise, perform ablution, and repair to
the Harim, or wander about the bazars till sunset. After this it was
necessary to return home and prepare for supper—dinner it would be called
in the West.
[p.232] The meal concluded, I used to sit for a time outside the
street-door in great dignity, upon a broken-backed black-wood chair,
traditionally said to have been left in the house by one of the princes
of Delhi, smoking a Shishah, and drinking sundry cups of strong green
tea with a slice of lime, a fair substitute for milk. At this hour the
seat was as in a theatre, but the words of the actors were of a nature
somewhat too Fescennine for a respectable public. After nightfall we
either returned to the Harim or retired to rest. Our common dormitory
was the flat roof of the house; under each cot stood a water-gugglet;
and all slept, as must be done in the torrid lands, on and not in bed.
I sojourned at Meccah but a short time, and, as usual with travellers,
did not see the best specimens of the population. The citizens appeared
to me more civilised and more vicious than those of Al-Madinah.
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