Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-11-15

In the pavement near tne uOOr Oh liz
Kaaba there is hollow which marks the
spot where Abraham and Ishmaei mad,
the cement to build the original holy
house. A few steps away are the grave
of Hagar and Ishmael, partly encircled by
a wall OF marble. In the same court i:
the we'll Zemzem, believed by the Moslem;
to be the well of Hagar. The water i:
heavy, and promotive of indigestion, but il
is the best to be found in all Contra
Arabia, for most of the water in that coun
try is either brackish or highly charged
with some description of salts. The water
of the Zemzem is believed to have medic
inal qualities, and is highly esteemed by
the Moslems and used in all cases of illness
many of the travellers carrying away with
them bottles filled with it, as presents tt
friends not so fortunate as to make the
pilgrimage, or for the more selfish purpose
OF having their bodies, after death, washed
with this most precious fluid. Burck.
hardt tells a story of his landlord, a Nee
can householder, who became i'll of some
dropsical complaint, and every day crawled
to the we'll and drank al. he could possibly
swallow Of course, he grew worse, and
in few days was at deaths door, when
he declared in solemnly pathetic tones his
conviction that his condition was owing to
the fact that he could not hold enough Of
the sacred water to do him any good.
The holy places near Mecca are numer-
Gus. for it should be understood that
heavy fees are paid by pilgrims on per
forming any duty whatever in mosque or
other holy resort, and the more numerous
the mosques the greater the gains of the
Meccsn residents. Hence the whole coun-
try in the vicinity of Mecca is studded
with little mosques, each hallowed by
some real or fancied association. Here is
the cave of Mohammed where his revela-
tions were received; there the hill from
which he assembled to heaven, and yonder
the valley in which he alighted on his
return. Not far from the city is MaaIa,
where are the graves of his father and
mother, and close to them the burial places
of several of his wives. But about twelve
miles from Mecca is the most holy hill of
Arafat, and no pilgrim can claim that his
pilgrimage has been performed until he
has climbed to the stony summit of this
peak and there listened to a sermon by the
cherif of the Meccan mosque. The hill
is holy, first, from the fact that Adam was
created there; secondly, because he found
Eve there, and thirdly, because, having
lost her after the expulsion from Eden
and sought her in vain during l25 years,
Not far from here she was buried and her
tomb is still place for pilgrimages. The
hill is about 200 feet high, and at the top
is pulpit from which the annual sermon
is delivered.
The difficulties and miseries of pill
grim's life are very great. From the time
he begins his pilgrimage until its conclu-
sion in Mecca he must wear but one gar
ment, and that entirely insufficient for the
inclemencies of the season; but day or
night it must not be changed, nor any adj
dition made to it. He must recite certain
prayers at certain times; must abstain
FROM all but few well-known and simple
articles of food; must observe so many
and so stringent regulations that life dur
ing the period of pilgrimage becomes
little short of burden. Besides these
the cost of pilgrimage is
serious matter, for all along the route from
Jeddah to Mecca and along the principal
caravan roads the people are very greedy,
and as they live on the pilgrims, plumber
them on all occasions. Mecca itself is not
free from thieves and disreputable charac-
tiers; Burckhardt had three pairs of shoes
stolen from the court of the great mosque
during his short stay, and his host charged
him not only for the rooms he occupied
and his board, but, the day before his de-
parture, invited a large party of friends,
made them feast, and sent the bill to the
pilgrim.
Like the populations of all such places,
the Meccans are mixed race, and have
not the highest regard either for Moham-
med or for his birthplace. 1t is said,
however, that the population of the city
has decreased very much during this Gen.
fury. A few years ago an informal census
was taken of the pilgrims, the number be-
ing estimated at about 100000, the larger
part of whom came by caravan from vari-
Gus parts of Arabia, while less than 100,-
600 came by Jeddah or other seaports
from Egypt, the Soudan, the North of
Africa, the Turkish Empire, India and
Persia.
The pilgrim may or may not visit Med
ina, but as, according to Mohammed, one
prayer offered at his tomb is more efica-
cious than 1000 offered at any other place
save Mecca, most of the Meccan pilgrims
go to Medina before returning home. Me-
dina is in the heart of Arabia, about $50
miles from Mecca, and is so sacred that a
circle of twelve miles radius from the great
mosque is a sanctuary for all offenders.
The city has walls and fort in the me-
diaval style, and is defended still further
by fortress on hill above the town.
The great Mosque of the Prophet is the
central attraction. This is APO feet long
by $40 broad, and, like the Mosque of
Mecca, consists of a mass of buildings and
colonnades surrounding central court. In
the courtyard is an inclosed space of
small area believed to have been the
garden of Fatima, the prophets daughter.
Near by is the well where the prophet
rested, when, worn with travel, he arrived
in Medina in the year one of the hegira.
Under the roof of the mosque are the
tombs of Mohammed, Abubekr and Omar.
They are covered by a curtain Of the rich
est black silk, embroidered in the same
color Indeed. the tombs themselves are
never seen by any one, and it is limited by
some of the heretical sects of the Moham-
medans that there are no tombs there
The mosque has several times been par
TALLY or wholly destroyed during wars and
sieges, and rebuilt, and it is said that on
the last occasion, in ITO, when the
mosque was reconstructed for the last time,
the workmen divulged the fact that
beneath the silk canopy were three holes
in the ground filled with rubbish, but
neither bodies nor collins.
Medina was formerly great Moham-
medan university, and there are still thirty
schools remaining, most of which are
conducted in the mosque, for the estates of
Mecca and Medina are very wealthy,
these mosques owning property in almost
every Mohammedan city in the world.