St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1893-02-18

+ A MohAMME0AN TEMPLE.
ne Great Mosqee in Mecca Dur,ne th,
Season Of the Hadj.
The mosque has been SO often de
stroyed and rebuilt and repaired tha,
it contains few traces of remote antiq
nifty. The structure as it stands wa.
mostly built in the seventeenth centu.
~, but repairs have been made down
to our day. As its object was simply
to enclose the Kaaba, the size of the
court has been varied in the successive
rebuildings. The mosque has nineteen
gates. placed Mt irregular distances,
but as some of the gates have three
arches. the number of entrances ID
thirty-nine. The principal Of these are
Bab-es-Salam (gate of peace). by which
every pilgrim makes his first entrance;
Bab-el-Neby, by which Mohammed used
to enter, and through which the bodies
of the dead are carried that prayers
may be said over them. and the Babel
Omra, through which it is necessary
to pass in order to pray before perform
ing the rite of Omra, or the Little Pill
grimage to holy place three miles out
side of the city. AS these gates have
no doors. the mosque is open at oil
times. The exterior is adorned with
seven minarets of the common Moslem
style. The entrances to these are from
the houses, which touch the mosque on
all sides, and from some of these houses
windows are opened in the wall of en-
closure SO that pilgrims lodging in
them can pray at home in sight of the
kaaba. 1t is said that the court of the
mosque will hold thirty-five thousand
people; but it is never full even in the
time of the Hadj. and belief is cur
rent that it never could be filed by any
number OF pilgrims-either the wor-
shippers would be individually dimin-
ished in size or the court would be mi
raculously enlarged for the occasion
The mosque is never deserted, and day
and night presents scenes Of animation
and picturesqueness. Through its open
gates citizens. burden.bearers, and
trafickers constantly pass from one part
OF the city to the other. At sunset,
one OF the hours of prayer, when great
numbers assemble. spread their carpets,
and perform their devotions, the sight
OF seven thousand or eight thousand
persons bending in joint prostrations in
the waning light is awe-inspiring.
Later. when the lamps are lighted.
the devotees, rank outside of
rank circling round the Kaa-
ba, racing, crowding, calculating. the
metowefs loudly reciting the prayers.
idlers clamoring and chatting, and boys
running hither and thither and shout
ing, give the court the appearance of a
place of amusement Every hour of the
day people are seen under the colon |
nades reading the Koran. Indians and
Negroes spread their mats and pass |
the whole period of their Mecca visit |
there, being allowed to bathe, eat and |
sleep, but not to cook in the court |
Men come there to lounge in the cool |
shade at noon and to talk business |
Poor Hadjis, diseased and deformed, lie |
about among the pillars in the midst of |
their miserable baggage. Public
schools are held for young children.
Learned men deliver lectures; ulemas
recite the Koran. At the gates sit |
scribes with inkstands and pa
per for writing letters and con-
tracts, and producing amulets and
Winding-sheets (for
many Hadjis buy at Mecca the
'hrouds in which they wish to be bur-
ed) and other linen washed in the holy
we'll Zem-zem hang drying between
he pillars In the square arc many
'mall stone basins filed with water for
he use of the pigeons which gather
here. and by these basins Arab public
sit in order to exhibit them
elves and make appointments with Wis
itors. and for q pretense sell corn to
eed the birds Burckhardt says that
he holy Kaaba is often the scene of in
practiced with impunity. and
alling forth usually only a laugh from
he spectators. At the end of the Hadj
he mosque presents . sad appearance;
he fatigues of the pilgrimage. the un- ,
ealthy lodgings. the bad water and
ood, caused great mortality, and the
ourt is filed with the bodies of the
cad and those in the last stages of
maciation who are borne there in or.
er to be sprinkled, when dying, with I
he waters of Zem-zem Charles Dud-
y Warner. in Harper's Magazine.