The Floor Of The Beat
Is Marble, And So Is The Inside Of The Walls, On Which There Is Written
Something In Arabick, Which I Had No Time To Read.
The walls, though of
marble on the inside, are hung over with silk, which is pulled
off[FN#25] before the Hagges enter.
Those that go into the Beat tarry
there but a very little while, viz. scarce so much as half a quarter of
an hour, because others wait for the same privilege; and while some go
in, others are going out. After all is over, and all that will have
done this, the Sultan of Mecca, who is Shirreef, i.e. one of the race
of Mahomet, accounts himself not too good to cleanse the Beat; and,
therefore, with some of his favourites, doth wash and cleanse it. And
first of all, they wash it with the holy water, Zem Zem, and after that
with sweet water. The stairs which were brought to enter in at the door
of the Beat being removed, the people crowd under the door to receive
on them the sweepings of the said water. And the besoms wherewith the
Beat is cleansed are broken in pieces, and thrown out amongst the mob;
and he that gets a small stick or twig of it, keeps it as a sacred
relique.
“But to speak something further of the temple of Mecca (for I am willing
to be very particular in matters about it, though in so being, I
should, it may be, speak of things which by some people may be thought
trivial). The compass of ground round the Beat (where the people
exercise themselves in the duty of Towoaf) is paved with marble[FN#26]
about 50 foot in breadth, and round this marble pavement stand pillars
of brass about 15 foot high[FN#27] and
[p.371] 20 foot distant from each other; above the middle part of which
iron bars are fastened, reaching from one to the other, and several
lamps made of glass are hanged to each of the said bars, with
brasswires in the form of a triangle, to give light in the night
season, for they pay their devotions at the Beat-Allah as much by night
as by day, during the Hagges’ stay at Mecca. These glasses are
half-filled with water, and a third part with oil, on which a round
wire of brass buoyed up with three little corks; in the midst of this
wire is made a place to put in the wick or cotton, which burns till the
oil is spent. Every day they are washed clean, and replenished with
fresh water, oil, and cotton.
“On each of the four squares of the Beat is a little room built, and over
every one of them is a little chamber with windows all round it, in
which chambers the Emaums (together with the Mezzins) perform Sallah,
in the audience of all the people which are below. These four chambers
are built one at each square of the Beat, by reason that there are four
sorts of Mahometans. The first are called Hanifee; most of them are
Turks. The second Schafee[FN#28]; whose manners and ways the Arabians
follow. The third Hanbelee; of which there are but few. The fourth
Malakee; of which there are those that live westward of Egypt, even to
the Emperor of Morocco’s country. These all agree in fundamentals, only
there is some small difference between them in the ceremonial part.
“About twelve paces from the Beat is (as they say) the sepulchre of
Abraham,[FN#29] who by God’s immediate command, they tell you, built this
Beat-Allah; which
[p.372] sepulchre is enclosed within iron gates. It is made somewhat
like the tombstones which people of fashion have among us, but with a
very handsome imbroidered covering. Into this persons are apt to gaze.
A small distance from it, on the left-hand, is a well, which they call
Beer el Zem Zem, the water whereof they call holy water ; and as
superstitiously esteem it as the Papists do theirs. In the month of
Ramadan they will be sure to break their fast with it. They report that
it is as sweet as milk; but for my part I could perceive no other taste
in it than in common water, except that it was somewhat brackish. The
Hagges, when they come first to Mecca, drink of it unreasonably; by
which means they are not only much purged, but their flesh breaks out
all in pimples; and this they call the purging of their spiritual
corruptions. There are hundreds of pitchers belonging to the temple,
which in the month of Ramadan are filled with the said water and placed
all along before the people (with cups to drink) as they are kneeling
and waiting for Acsham-nomas, or evening service; and as soon as the
Mezzins or clerks on the tops of the minarets began their bawling to
call them to nomas, they fall a drinking thereof before they begin
their devotions. This Beer or well of Zem Zem is in the midst of one of
the little rooms before mentioned, at each square of the Beat, distant
about twelve or fourteen paces from it, out of which four men are
employed to draw water, without any pay or reward, for any that shall
desire it. Each of these men have two leather buckets tied to a rope on
a small wheel, one of which comes up full, while the other goes down
empty. They do not only drink this water, but oftentimes bathe
themselves with it, at which time they take off their clothes, only
covering their lower parts with thin wrapper, and one of the drawers
pours on each person’s head five or six buckets of water.[FN#30] The
[p.373] person bathing may lawfully wash himself therewith above the
middle, but not his lower parts, because they account they are not
worthy, only letting the water take its way downwards.
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