Their Tent, Coffee, Water, Breakfast,
And Dinner Are Prepared For Them, And They Need Not Take The Slightest
Trouble About Packing And Loading.
If a camel should die, the Mekowem
must find another; and, however great may be the want of provisions on
the road, he must furnish his passengers with their daily meals.
In
1814, the hire of one Mekowem, and the boarding at his table, was one
hundred and fifty dollars from Damascus to Medina, and fifty dollars
more from Medina to Mekka. Out of these two hundred dollars, sixty were
given by the Mekowem to a man who led the camel by the halter during the
night-marches; a precaution necessary in so great a caravan, when the
rider usually sleeps, and the animal might otherwise easily wander from
the path. In addition to the stipulated hire, the Mekowem always
receives some presents from his pilgrims. On the return to Syria, the
sum is something less, as many camels then go unloaded.
Few travellers choose to perform the journey at their own risk, or upon
their own camels; for if they are not particularly protected by the
soldiery, or the chief of the caravan, they find it difficult to escape
the ill-treatment of the Mekowem at watering-places, as well as on the
march; the latter endeavouring to check, by every means in their power,
the practice of traveling independent of them, so that it is rarely done
except by rich hadjys, who have the means of forming a party of their
own amounting to forty or fifty individuals.
At night, torches are lighted, and the daily distance is usually
performed between three o'clock in the afternoon, and an hour or two
after sun-rise on the following day. The Bedouins who carry provisions
for the troops, travel by day only, and in advance of the caravan, the
encampment of which they pass in the morning, and are overtaken in turn,
and passed by the caravan on the following night, at their own resting-
place. The journey with these Bedouins is less fatiguing than with the
great body of the caravan, as a regular night's rest is obtained; but
their bad character deters most pilgrims from joining them.
[p.250] At every watering-place on the route are a small castle and a
large tank, at which the camels water. The castles are garrisoned by a
few persons, who remain during the whole year to guard the provisions
deposited there. It is at these watering-places, which belong to the
Bedouins, that the Sheikhs of the tribes meet the caravan, and receive
the accustomed tribute. Water is plentiful on the route: the stations
are no where more distant than eleven or twelve hours' march; and in
winter, pools of rain-water are frequently found. Those pilgrims who can
travel with a litter, or on commodious camel-saddles, may sleep at
night, and perform the journey with little inconvenience; but of those
whom poverty, or the desire of soon acquiring a large sum of money,
induces to follow the caravan on foot, or to hire themselves as
servants, many die on the road from fatigue.
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