The Men,
When They See That The Women Have Got The Place, Will Be So Civil As To
Pass By And Give Them Leave To Take Their Fill, As I May Say In Their
Towoaf Or Walking Round, During Which They Are Using Some Formal
Expressions.
When the women are at the stone, then it is esteemed a
very rude and abominable thing to go near them, respecting the time and
place.
[P.365]“I shall now give you a more particular description of Mecca and
the temple there.
“First, as to Mecca. It is a town situated in a barren place (about one
day’s journey from the Red Sea) in a valley, or rather in the midst of
many little hills. It is a place of no force, wanting both walls and
gates. Its buildings are (as I said before) very ordinary, insomuch
that it would be a place of no tolerable entertainment, were it not for
the anniversary resort of so many thousand Hagges, or pilgrims, on
whose coming the whole dependance of the town (in a manner) is; for
many shops are scarcely open all the year besides.
The people here, I observed, are a poor sort of people, very thin,
lean, and swarthy. The town is surrounded for several miles with many
thousands of little hills, which are very near one to the other. I have
been on the top of some of them near Mecca, where I could see some
miles about, yet was not able to see the farthest of the hills. They
are all stony-rock and blackish, and pretty near of a bigness,
appearing at a distance like cocks of hay, but all pointing towards
Mecca. Some of them are half a mile in circumference, but all near of
one height. The people here have an odd and foolish sort of tradition
concerning them, viz.: That when Abraham went about building the
Beat-Allah, God by his wonderful providence did so order it, that every
mountain in the world should contribute something to the building
thereof; and accordingly every one did send its proportion; though
there is a mountain near Algier, which is called Corradog, i.e. Black
Mountain; and the reason of its blackness, they say, is because it did
not send any part of itself towards building the temple at
Mecca.[FN#16] Between
[p.366] these hills is good and plain travelling, though they stand one
to another.
“There is upon the top of one of them a cave, which they term
Hira,[FN#17] i.e. Blessing; into which (they say) Mahomet did usually
retire for his solitary devotions, meditations, and fastings; and here
they believe he had a great part of the Alcoran brought him by the
Angel Gabriel. I have been in this cave, and observed that it is not at
all beautified; at which I admired.
“About half a mile out of Mecca is a very steep hill, and there are
stairs made to go to the top of it, where is a cupola, under which is a
cloven rock; into this, they say, Mahomet, when very young, viz.
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