draw the pilgrims from Mecca, they fe lit it back of their own accord ; at
the fame time bantering its devotees by telling them it was not the
true done: but, as it is faid, it was proved to be no counterfeit by its
peculiar quality of fwimming on water
Another thing obfervable in this temple is the done in Abraham's,
place, wherein they pretend to fhew his footdeps, telling us he dood
on it when he built the Caaba % and that it ferved him for a fcaf-
fold, ridng and falling of itfelf as he had occafion 3; though another
tradition fays he dood upon it while the wife of his fon lfmael,
whom he paid a -vifk to, wafhed his head K It is now enclofed in
an iron ched, out of which the pilgrims drink the water of rLem-
zem s, and are ordered to pray at it by the Kordn 6. The officers of
the temple took care to hide this done when the Karmatians took
the other i. ■ :
The lad thing I fhall take notice of in the temple is the well
Zemzem on thé ead fide of thé Caaba, and which is covered with a
fmall building and cupola. The Mohammedans are perfuaded it is the
very fpring which gufhed out for the relief of lfmael, when Hagar
his mother wandered with him in the defart 8; and fome pretend it
was fo named from her calling to him, when fhe fpied it, in the
Egyptian tongue, Zem, zem, that is, Stay, Jlay 9, though it feems rather
to have had the name from the murmuring of its waters. The
water of this well is reckoned holy, and is highly reverenced; being
not only drank with particular devotion by the pilgrims, but alfo
fent in bottles, as a great rarity, to mod parts of the Mohammedan dominions.
Abd'allah, furnamed al Hafedh, from his great memory,
particularly as to the traditions of Mohammed, gave out that he acquired
that faculty by drinking large draughts of Zemzem water I0,
to which I really believe it as efficacious as that of Helicon to the
infpiring of a poet.
T o this temple every Mohammedan, who has health and means
fufficient ” , ought once, at lead, in his life to go on pilgrimage;
nor are women excufed from the performance of this duty. The
pilgrims meet at different places near Mecca, according to the different
parts from whence they come ” , during the months of Shawl
and Dhulkaada; being obliged to be there by the beginning of
1 Ahmed Ebn Yufef, Abulfeda. V. Poc. Spec, p. 119. 2 Abulfed. 3 V. Hyde, derel.
vet. Perf. p. 35. 4 Ahmed Ebn Yufef, Safio’ddin. f Ahmed Ebn Yufef. 6 Chap. 2.
p. 16. Z V. Poc. Spec. p. 120, &c. 8 Genef. xxi. 19. 9 G. Sionix. & J. Hefr. de
nonnull. urb. Orient, p. 19. IO- D’Herbel. p. 5. * r See Kor. chap. 3. p. 48. and the notes
thereon. 12 V. Bobov, de Peregr. Mecc. p. 12, &c.
Dhu’l-
I Dhulhajja ', which month, as its name' imports; is peculiarly fet
apart for the celebration of thhrfolemnity.
At the places above-mentioned the pilgrims properly commence
I fuch; when the men put on the Ihram or facred habit, which con-
| fids only of two woolen wrappers, one wrapped about their middle
to cover their privities, and the other thrown over their ffioulders,
j having their heads bare, and a kind of flippers which cover neither the
heel nor the indep, and fo enter the facred territory in their way to *
F Mecca. While they have this habit on they mud neither hunt nor
[fowl il (though they are allowed to fifh which precept is fo punctually
oblerved, that they will not kill even a loufe or a flea, i f they
I find them on their bodies:, there are fome noxious animals, how-
[ever, which -they have permiffion to kill during the pilgrimage, as,
kites, ravens, fcorpions, mice, and dogs given to bite 3. During the
pilgrimage it behoves a man to have a condant guard over his
[words and actions, and to avoid all quarrelling, or ill language, and
[all converfe with women, and obfeene difcourfe, and to apply his
jwhole intention to ,the good work he is engaged in.
The pilgrims, being arrived at Mecca, immediately vifit the tem-
jple, and then enter on the performance of the preferibed ceremonies,
üwhich confid chiefly in going in proceffion round the Caaba, in run-
■ ning between the mounts Safa and Mcrwa, in making the dation on
■ mount Arafat, and flaying the. victims, and {having their heads in
[the valley of Mina. Thefe ceremonies have been fo particularly
jdeferibed by others *, that I may be excufed if I but jufl mention the
(mod material circumdances thereof.
In compaffing the Caaba, which they do feven times, beginning
jat the corner where the black done is fixed, they ufe a ffiort quick
pace the three fird times they go round it, and a grave ordinary pace
(the four lad; which, it is faid, was ordered by Mohatnmed, that his
followers Plight fhew themfelves drong and adtive, to cut off the
popes of the infidels, ’who gave out that the immoderate heats of
fdedina had rendred them weak 5. But the atorelaid quick pace they
arc not obliged to ufe every time they perform this piece of devotion,
but only at fome particular times 6. So often as they pafs by
she black done they either kifs it, or touch it with their hand, and
Id's that.
■ 1 Koran, chap. $. p. 95. 2 Ibid. 3 A 3 Beid. 4 Bobov, de Peregr. M e c o p .j 1, &<\
Chardin, Voy. de Perfe, T . 2. p. 440, &c. See alfo Pitts's account of therel.&c. of the Mohame-^
tans, p. 92, &c. Gagnier, Vie de Ma-h. t. 2. p. 258, &c. Abulfed vit. Moh. p. 130, &c. and Re*i
land, de Rel. Moh. p« 113, &c. * Ebn al Athur. 6 V. Poc. Spec. p. 314.