"It is not you who give it," he said; "it is God
who sends it to me." Finding there was no polite mode of getting rid of
him, I told him plainly, that I no longer wanted his services; language
to which a Mekka delyl is not accustomed.
After three days, however, he
returned, as if nothing had happened, and asked me for a dollar. "God
does not move me to give you any thing," I replied; "if he judged it
right, he would soften my heart, and cause me to give you my whole
purse." "Pull my beard," he exclaimed, "if God does not send you ten
times more hereafter than what I beg at present." "Pull out every hair
of mine," I replied, "if I give you one para, until I am convinced that
God will consider it a meritorious act." On hearing this he jumped up,
and walked away, saying, "We fly for refuge to God, from the hearts of
the proud and the hands of the avaricious." These people never speak ten
words without pronouncing the name of God or Mohammed; they are
constantly seen with the rosary in their hands, and mumble prayers even
during conversation. This character of the metowafs is so applicable to
the people of Mekka in general, that at Cairo they use the following
proverb, to repress the importunity of an insolent beggar: "Thou art
like the Mekkawy, thou sayest 'Give me,' and 'I am thy master.'"
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