The Greatest Number Of Hadjys Had Encamped Without Any Order, On The Rocky And Uneven Plain Behind The Village To

The north. The tents of the Mekkans were very neatly fitted up; and this being now the feast, men, women,

And children were dressed in their best apparel. At night, few people ventured to sleep, on account of thieves, who abound at Muna. A hadjy had been robbed, on the preceding night, of three hundred dollars; and at Arafat several dozen of camels were stolen by the Bedouins: two of the thieves had been pursued and seized, and carried before Mohammed Aly at Muna, who ordered them to be beheaded. Their mutilated bodies lay before his tent the whole of the three days, with a guard, to prevent their friends from taking them away. Such exhibitions create neither horror nor disgust in the breast of an Osmanly; their continual recurrence hardens his feelings, and renders him insensible to the emotions of pity. I heard a Bedouin, probably a friend of the slain, who stood near the bodies, exclaim, "God have mercy upon them; but no mercy upon him who killed them!"

The street, which extends the whole length of Muna, was now converted into a market and fair: every inch of ground not built upon,

[p.281] was occupied by sheds or booths, made of mats; or by small tents, fitted up as shops. Provisions, and merchandize of every kind, had been brought here from Mekka; and, contrary to the custom in other Mohammedan countries, where all commerce is laid aside during the feast- days, all the merchants, shopkeepers, and brokers, were busily employed in traffic. The merchants who had arrived with the Syrian caravan, began their bargains for Indian goods, and exhibited samples of the articles which they had themselves brought, and which were lying in the warehouses at Mekka. A number of poor hadjys were crying their small adventures, which they carried along the street on their heads; and as all business was confined to this single street, the mixture of nations, costumes, and merchandize, was still more striking than at Mekka. [This pilgrimage among the Pagan Arabs was, at all times, connected with a large fair held at Mekka. In the month before the pilgrimage, they visited some other neighbouring fairs, namely, those of Okath, the market of the tribe of Kenane; of Medjna and Zou el Medjaz; the markets of the tribe of Hodeyl; and of Hasha, that of the Beni Lazed. After having spent their time in amusements at those fairs, they repaired to the Hadj at Arafat, and then returned to Mekka, where another large fair was held (see Azraky). At Arafat and Muna, on the contrary, they scrupulously abstained from any traffic during the days of their sojourning there, and the performance of the holy rites; but the Koran abrogated this observance, and by a passage in chap. ii. permitted trafficking even in the days of the Hadj; at least it has been so explained.

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Words from 107110 to 107611 of 182297