The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-29
MECCA AND CHOLERA.

bow the R4HRue IS SpEtaA OS VA6
Hundreds of Thousands of Pilgrims
Annually.
Dr.. Ernest Hart, in Popular Science Monthly.
From 7O, 600 to 100000 seems to be the
ordinary average number Of those who
visit Mecca during the festival, and who
are present at Mount Arafat on the 9th
Of Zu'l HiJah. They come from every
quarter Of the compassionate by cara
van from Syria and Persia, Turkey and
Afghanistan; by sea from Red sea ports ;
from Africa. across the whole width Of
which many Of the weary pilgrims have
walked: and from every part OF the world
where the standard of Islam has been
raised.
With no provision for decency or COM
fort they camp around or crowd into lOdg-
iugs in the sacred city. They make ex-
cursiOns chamber UP the mountains, spend
hours in the blazing sun, are sickened
with rotting smells arising from the
thousands Of animals which are sacrificed (;
crush and stifie in the Ka 'ba; and finally,
as if they had not already run sufficient
risk Of catching every possible complaint,
they drink the water Of Fem ZEN. This
is the well from which Hagar is said to
have drawn water for her son Ishmael,
and the drinking of the water is a most
holy rite
The supply, however, is not as great as
could be desired for so large a crowd OF
pilgrims, and the manner Of dealing with
it at the well goes far TO explain the in
tensity of the poison and the fearful NOR
tally which attends any outbreak of
cholera among the Meccan pilgrims. At
given period the pilgrims stand naked
in turn at the place appointed a bucket
of water is poured over each man; he
drinks what he can of it, and the rest falls
back into the holy we'll.
The water from this well has been an
alyzed by DR. FARMLAND, F. K. s, of the
Royal College of Science, London, who
describes it as fearfully polluted with
abominable communications. Imagine,
then. one single member of this enormous
crowd 10 be suffering from the early stage
of cholera to be struggling, as struggle
he would, with his last strength, to get
through the holy rite, and to be allowing
the ChOleric discharges with which his
body would be soiled to be washed back
into this foul well.
What is to happen to the crowd of pill
grims who close in on the spot that he has
left, and who, each in turn, swallow in
rapt fervor the fetid draught in which
these thousands have been washed ?
Can we wonder, then, knowing the his
tory of the Broad street pump, that in
1866, within a few days of the ceremony,
the road leading from Mecca was for
twelve miles thickly strewn with dead
bodies-a holocaust to be added to the ac-
count of perverted religious rites which
has already so deadly recordl
On one occasion at least 150, 900 people
can into Calcutta in the first and second
weeks IN February. Great throngs came
on foot whose numbers were not noted,
% .000 came by boat up the nullah, 10000
came by the Eastern Bengal State Rail-
way and so 600 by the East Indian Rail-
way. Obviously the influence of railways
in intensifying the danger of quick and
wide diffusion of cholera after great festi-
walls must not be neglected.
To describe the crowding which
occurred in the nullah ON the
festival day is difficult. A large
proportion Of the pilgrims would
not drink filtered water. They had
come, they said, to battle in and drink
Gauges water, and they would have none
from the standposts or the carts Hap
PLY, the tube-well near the police station
was not considered unholy, and was in
lively requisition.
Among the large number assembled
there IL was not likely that cholera would
be entirely absent, and if present it was
certain to be spread by the customs OF
the festival, and thus it happened that in
the second week in February nearly two
hundred of the pilgrims died from chol
era. The pilgrims soon had to be dis
persed, and though their dispersal checked
a larger outbreak at Kalighat, which
would only have widened its circle after
ward, it could not prevent those al
ready infected from suffering on theil
way home. Consequently, at some of the
railway stations sick people had to bt
taken out of some of the trans passen
gers by boat died on their voyage, theil
bodies being thrown overheard, Will,
travellers on foot were picked up dying o.
dead on the road.