As no Moslem, except the Maliki, is bound to pilgrimage without a sum
sufficient to support himself and his family, all who embark at the
different ports of India should be obliged to prove their solvency
before being provided with a permit. Arrived at Jeddah, they should
present the certificate at the British Vice-Consulate, where they would
become entitled to assistance in case of necessity. The Vice-Consul at
Jeddah ought also to be instructed
[p.186] to assist our Indian pilgrims. Mr. Cole, when holding that
appointment, informed me that, though men die of starvation in the
streets, he was unable to relieve them. The highways of Meccah abound
in pathetic Indian beggars, who affect lank bodies, shrinking frames,
whining voices, and all the circumstance of misery, because it supports
them in idleness.
There are no fewer than fifteen hundred Indians at Meccah and Jeddah,
besides seven or eight hundred in Al-Yaman. Such a body requires a
Consul.[FN#21] By the representation of a Vice-Consul when other powers
send an officer of superior rank to Al-Hijaz, we voluntarily place
ourselves in an inferior position. And although the Meccan Sharif might
for a time object to establishing a Moslem agent at the Holy City with
orders to report to the Consul at Jeddah, his opposition would soon
fall to the ground.
With the Indians’ assistance the boy Mohammed removed the handsome
Persian rugs with which he had covered the Shugduf, pitched the tent,
carpeted the ground, disposed a Diwan of silk and satin cushions round
the interior, and strewed the centre with new Chibuks, and highly
polished Shishahs. At the doorway was placed a large copper fire-pan,
with coffee-pots singing a welcome to visitors. In front of us were the
litters, and by divers similar arrangements our establishment was made
to look fine. The youth also insisted upon my removing the Rida, or
upper cotton cloth, which had become way-soiled, and he supplied its
place by a rich cashmere, left with him, some years before, by a son of
the King of Delhi. Little thought I that this bravery of attire would
lose me every word of the Arafat sermon next day.
Arafat, anciently called Jabal Ilal ([Arabic]), “the Mount
[p.187] of Wrestling in Prayer,” and now Jabal al-Rahmah, the “Mount of
Mercy,” is a mass of coarse granite split into large blocks, with a thin
coat of withered thorns. About one mile in circumference, it rises
abruptly to the height of a hundred and eighty or two hundred feet,
from the low gravelly plain—a dwarf wall at the Southern base forming the
line of demarcation. It is separated by Batn Arnah ([Arabic]), a sandy
vale,[FN#22] from the spurs of the Taif hills.
