Then We Came In Sight Of A Confused Heap Of Huts
And Dwelling-Houses, Chapels And Towers With Trees Between, And Foul
Lanes, Heaps Of Rubbish, And Barking Dogs,-The Usual Material Of A
Hijazi Village.
Having dismounted, we gave our animals in charge of a
dozen infant Badawin, the produce of the peasant gardeners, who shouted
"Bakhshish" the moment they saw us.
To this they were urged by their
mothers, and I willingly parted with a few paras for the purpose of
establishing an intercourse with fellow-creatures so fearfully and
wonderfully resembling the tailless baboon. Their bodies, unlike those
of Egyptian children, were slim[FN#15] and straight, but their ribs
stood out with curious distinctness; the colour of the skin was that
oily lamp-black seen upon the face of a European sweep; and the
elf-locks, thatching the cocoa-nut heads, had been stained by the sun,
wind, and rain to that reddish-brown hue which Hindu romances have
appropriated to their Rakshasas or demons. Each anatomy carried in his
arms a stark-naked miniature of himself, fierce-looking babies with
faces all eyes, and the strong little wretches were still able to
extend the right hand and exert their lungs with direful clamour. Their
mothers were fit progenitors for such progeny: long, gaunt, with
emaciated limbs, wall-sided, high-shouldered, and straight-backed, with
pendulous bosoms, spider-like arms, and splay feet. Their long
elf-locks, wrinkled faces, and high cheek-bones, their lips darker than
the epidermis, hollow staring eyes, sparkling as if to light up the
extreme
[p.407]ugliness around, and voices screaming as though in a perennial
rage, invested them with all the "charms of Sycorax." These "Houris of
Jahannam" were habited in long night-gowns dyed blue to conceal want of
washing, and the squalid children had about a yard of the same material
wrapped round their waists for all toilette. This is not an overdrawn
portrait of the farmer race of Arabs, the most despised by their
fellow-countrymen, and the most hard-favoured, morally as well as
physically, of all the breed.
Before entering the Mosque of Al-Kuba[FN#16] it will be necessary to
call to mind some passages of its past history. When the Apostle's
she-camel, Al-Kaswa, as he was approaching Al-Madinah after the flight
from Meccah, knelt down here, he desired his companions to mount the
animal. Abu Bakr and Omar[FN#17] did so; still she sat upon the ground;
but when Ali obeyed the order, she arose. The Apostle bade him loose
her halter, for she was directed by Allah, and the Mosque walls were
built upon the line over which she trod. It was the first place of
public prayer in Al-Islam. Mohammed laid the first brick, and with an
"Anzah," or iron-shod javelin, marked out the direction of
prayer[FN#18]: each of his successors followed his example. According
to most historians, the
[p.408]land belonged to Abu Ayyub the Ansari, the Apostle's host; for
which reason the "Bayt Ayyub," his descendants, still perform the
service of the Mosque, keep the key, and share with the Bawwabs, or
porters, the alms and fees here offered by the Faithful.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 280 of 302
Words from 146427 to 146970
of 157964
