Dr.
Buchanan Likens It To A Serpent Uttering Human Sounds.
The “unsavoury
comparison,” however, may owe its origin to the circumstance that Dr.
Buchanan heard it at the orgies of Jagannath.
[FN#2] As an Indian is called “Miyan,” sir, an elderly Indian becomes “bara
Miyan,” great or ancient sir.
I shall have occasion to speak at a future
period of these Indians at Meccah.
[FN#3] “Sitt al-Kabirah,” or simply “Al-Kabirah,” the Great Lady, is the title
given to the mistress of. the house.
[FN#4] This hill bounds Meccah on the East. According to many Moslems,
Adam, with his wife and his son Seth, lie buried in a cave here. Others
place his tomb at Muna; the Majority at Najaf. The early Christians had
a tradition that our first parents were interred under Mount Calvary;
the Jews place their grave near Hebron. Habil (Abel), it is well known,
is supposed to be entombed at Damascus; and Kabil (Cain) rests at last
under Jabal Shamsan, the highest wall of the Aden crater, where he and
his progeny, tempted by Iblis, erected the first fire-temple. It
certainly deserves to be the sepulchre of the first murderer. The
worship, however, was probably imported from India, where Agni (the
fire god) was, as the Vedas prove, the object of man’s earliest adoration.
[FN#5] The popular legend of this gate is, that when Abraham and his
son were ordered to rebuild the Ka’abah, they found the spot occupied by
an old woman. She consented to remove her house on condition that the
key of the new temple should be entrusted to her and to her descendants
for ever and ever. The origin of this is, that Benu Shaybah means the
“sons of an old woman” as well as “descendants of Shaybah.” And history tells
us that the Benu Shaybah are derived from one Shaybah (bin Osman, bin
Talhah, bin Shaybah, bin Talhah, bin Abd al-Dar), who was sent by
Mu’awiyah to make some alterations in the Ka’abah. According to others, the
Ka’abah key was committed to the charge of Osman bin Talhah by the
Prophet.
[FN#6] The Moslem in circumambulation presents his left shoulder; the
Hindu’s Pradakshina consists in walking round with the right side towards
the fane or idol. Possibly the former may be a modification of the
latter, which would appear to be the original form of the rite. Its
conjectural significance is an imitation of the procession of the
heavenly bodies, the motions of the spheres, and the dances of the
angels. These are also imitated in the circular whirlings of the
Darwayshes. And Al-Shahristani informs us that the Arab philosophers
believed this sevenfold circumambulation to be symbolical of the motion
of the planets round the sun. It was adopted by the Greeks and Romans,
whose Ambarvalia and Amburbalia appear to be eastern superstitions,
introduced by Numa, or by the priestly line of princes, into their
pantheism.
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