I Have Seen
Some Of Them At The Well Swallowing Such A Quantity Of It As I Should
Hardly Have Thought Possible.
A man who lived in the same house with me,
and who was ill of an intermittent fever, repaired every evening to
Zemzem, and drank of the water till he was almost fainting,
[P.145] after which he lay for several hours extended upon his back on
the pavement near the Kaaba, and then returned to renew his draught.
When by this practice he was brought to the verge of death, he declared
himself fully convinced that the increase of his illness proceeded
wholly from his being unable to swallow a sufficient quantity of the
water! Many hadjys, not content with drinking it merely, strip
themselves in the room, and have buckets of it thrown over them, by
which they believe that the heart is purified as well as the outer body.
Few pilgrims quit Mekka without carrying away some of this water in
copper or tin bottles, either for the purpose of making presents, or for
their own use in case of illness, when they drink it, or for ablution
after death. I carried away four small bottles, with the intention of
offering them as presents to the Mohammedan kings in the Black
countries. I have seen it sold at Suez by hadjys returning from Mekka at
the rate of one piastre for the quantity that filled a coffee-cup.
The chief of Zemzem is one of the principal olemas of Mekka.
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