Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-04-07

one Time IL was the 4mDlLl0n
" Of my life 10 see Mecca. I had
"A been living for some months In
4 \ the African desert among the
simplest and most fervent Of
Moslems. Nightly round the campfires,
daily on the torrid marches, had
heard these men speak of the House
Of Allah and the pilgrimage they hoped
to do. ~
had seen beggars wandering across
the Sahara, barefooted. penniless, sick,
but sustained during a three or four
years trail by the dream of Mecca. !
had seen old men grow young at the
thought Of it, and the swords Of war
riors unsheathed with the cry: Next
year, Allah, / come!" Inspired by
something of the same passion, I de-
termined to attempt the pilgrimage.
At that time the pilgrimage, which
varies 10 days in our year, happened to-
be In August, which, Of course, is the
- at Q moments notice and. owing
70 the intense damp heat. was unable
to find any paint that would stay on
my skin. AS had just come out of
q hospital after an operation, I. had
not time to burn my usual brown. This.
added to the fact that, though my face
with its fiat cheek bones passes muster.
I am much too tall and thin for, the
class Of native easiest to represent,
made success precarious from the start.
A confederate secured me an Egyp-
tan passport and the Slit Khadita---
the name that had brought me good
fortune on several former Journeys
was reborn in a darkened railway car
rage somewhere between Ismailia and
Suez on the hottest of July nights. An
LIB, rTrio
in an embroidered French frock. high.
heeled shoes, and hat that was only
simple to the uninitiated masculine eye.
An Egyptian woman came out Of It..
In the shape1eSs black habbara and
Keelless slippers she seemed to have lost
at least four inches of height. and the
only things that could be seen above her
strip of white 'burwa" were the painted
eyes of the East If they were gray,
they were so heavily kohled that they
looked as dark as the formidable brows
above them.
with beads and straw fan firmly
gripped In black-gloved fingers, she
shufiled along the Suez platform In the
wake Of q porter. Unused to walking,
this Moslem woman moved across a
wide sandy square with the uncertain,
swaying gait peculiar to jewellers In the
harem.
Nk ~ "a
THEREAFTER I was hustled from
l. place to place with a crowd Of
nerve-racked pilgrims, all determined
that they had lost their luggage, or
would lose the boat. Courteous off1cial-
dom finally came to the rescue, saved
me from o cholera incubation II al
ready had had one)-though my pic
turesque handmaiden, Bahia, was
wrathfully forced to suhnit-and ush-
cred us on board the small khedivai
steamer that was to take the last batch
of Egyptian pilgrims south to Jedda. 5,
NY handmaiden, who to the end be-
lieved that I was the much-maligned
sister of a wealthy Cairene. was of Be-
douin origin and must have had .
checkered career, according to the sto-
ries of her life with which she RECALLED
me at the most tropical moments
They were enlightening, and / deter
mined to keep strict eye on the lady.
When the last perspiring pilgrim had
scuttled aboard and the last unwieldy
bundle had been hauled after him, a
muezzin loudly intoned the call to
prayer, and pilgrims on board joined
with their friends on the shore In the
afternoon, prayer. Amid sustained
.Cld0LlnR III nlUIlUVuUUuS ,CduEilGE,
broken by weeping on the wharf from
those who, apparently, would have
liked to come but could not, we drifted
away, but not till Suez had faded to
the north did the rhythmic chant re-
frain from ,praising Allah and his
Prophet. u
Thereafter the day was monotonous,
save when I suddenly came face to face
with a sheik whom had met at silva
on my return from Kufara, He could
not possibly have recognized the blurred
eyes between stiff black and white, yet
my heart missed a. beat at the sound
OF hts grave 'Salaam aleikurn" as he
passed me.
A very cheerful friendliness prevails
among all classes on the pilgrimage
and also a certain laxity. Even the
upper -class women are careless with
their wells, and talk with men almost
on equal terms. It is an extraordinary
mixture Of picnic and religious festival
The pilgrimage may have represented
an almost impossible ideal, handed on
by the father whose savings had not
quite reached the requisite amount Il
| the Woodworking son who sees a vision
| realised when he leaves the quay al
Suez: but It Is also the greatest out.
ing Of the Moslem's life and he Is de.
ternined to enjoy 1t.