Some writers liken it to
Florence; but conceive a Florence without beauty! To the South
[p.174] lay Jabal Jiyad the Greater,[FN#16] also partly built over and
crowned with a fort, which at a distance looks less useful than
romantic[FN#17]: a flood of pale light was sparkling upon its stony
surface. Below, the minarets became pillars of silver, and the
cloisters, dimly streaked by oil lamps, bounded the views of the temple
with horizontal lines of shade.
Before nightfall the boy Mohammed rose to feed the Mosque pigeons, for
whom he had brought a pocketful of barley. He went to the place where
these birds flock—the line of pavement leading from the isolated arch to
the Eastern cloisters. During the day women and children are to be seen
sitting here, with small piles of grain upon little plaited trays of
basket-work. For each they demand a copper piece; and religious
pilgrims consider it their duty to provide the reverend blue-rocks with
a plentiful meal.
The Hindu Pandits assert that Shiwa and his spouse, under the forms and
names of Kapot-Eshwara (pigeon god) and Kapotesi, dwelt at Meccah. The
dove was the device of the old Assyrian Empire, because it is supposed
Semiramis was preserved by that bird. The Meccan pigeons, resembling
those of Venice, are held sacred probably in consequence of the wild
traditions of the Arabs about Noah’s dove.
