Nothing Can Be More
Picturesque Than The View It Affords Of The Azure Peaks Behind, And The
Vast Encampment Scattered Over The Barren Yellow Plain Below.[FN#23] On
The North Lay The Regularly Pitched Camp Of The Guards That Defend The
Unarmed Pilgrims.
To the Eastward was the Sharif’s encampment, with the
bright Mahmils and
[P.188] the gilt knobs of the grandees’ pavilions; whilst on the Southern
and Western sides the tents of the vulgar crowded the ground, disposed
in Dowar, or circles. After many calculations, I estimated the number
to be not fewer than 50,000 of all ages and sexes; a sad falling off,
it is true, but still considerable.
Ali Bey (A.D. 1807) calculates 83,000 pilgrims; Burckhardt (1814),
70,000. I reduce it, in 1853, to 50,000; and in A.D. 1854, owing to
political causes, it fell to about 25,000. Of these at fewest 10,000
are Meccans, as every one who can leave the city does so at
pilgrimage-time. The Arabs have a superstition that the numbers at
Arafat cannot be counted, and that if fewer than 600,000 mortals stand
upon the hill to hear the sermon, the angels descend and complete the
number. Even this year my Arab friends declared that 150,000 spirits
were present in human shape. It may be observed that when the good old
Bertrand de la Brocquiere, esquire-carver to Philip of Burgundy,
declares that the yearly Caravan from Damascus to Al-Madinah must
always be composed of 700,000 persons, and that this number being
incomplete, Allah sends some of his angels to make it up, he probably
confounds the Caravan with the Arafat multitude.
The Holy Hill owes its name[FN#24] and honours to a well-known legend.
When our first parents forfeited Heaven by eating wheat, which deprived
them of their primeval purity, they were cast down upon earth. The
serpent descended at Ispahan, the peacock at Kabul, Satan at Bilbays
(others say Semnan and Seistan), Eve upon Arafat, and Adam at Ceylon.
The latter, determining to seek his wife, began a journey, to which
earth owes its present mottled appearance. Wherever our first father
[p.189] placed his foot—which was large—a town afterwards arose; between
the strides will always be “country.” Wandering for many years, he came to
the Mountain of Mercy, where our common mother was continually calling
upon his name, and their recognition gave the place the name of Arafat.
Upon its summit, Adam, instructed by the archangel Gabriel, erected a
Mada’a, or place of prayer: and between this spot and the Nimrah Mosque
the couple abode till death. Others declare that after recognition, the
first pair returned to India, whence for 44 years in succession they
visited the Sacred City at pilgrimage-time.
From the Holy Hill I walked down to look at the camp arrangements. The
main street of tents and booths, huts and shops, was bright with
lanterns, and the bazars were crowded with people and stocked with all
manner of Eastern delicacies.
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