say. The pilgrim had paid largely for this blessed
relic, and it was passed round our circle from hand
to hand, after having first been kissed by the proprietor,
who raised it to the crown of his head,
which he touched with the cloth, and then wiped
both his eyes. Each person who received it went
through a similar performance, and as ophthalmia and
other diseases of the eyes were extremely prevalent,
several of the party had eyes that had not the
brightness of the gazelle’s; nevertheless, these were
supposed to become brighter after having been wiped
by. the holy cloth. How many eyes this same piece
of cloth had wiped it would be impossible to say,
but such facts are sufficient to prove the danger of
holy relics, that are inoculators of all manner of
contagious diseases.
I believe in holy shrines as' the pest spots
of the world. We generally have experienced in
Western Europe that all violent epidemics arrive
from the East. The great breadth of the Atlantic
boundary would naturally protect us from the West,
but infectious disorders, such as, plague, cholera,
small-pox, &c. may be generally tracked throughout
their gradations from their original nests; those
nests are in the East, where the heat of the climate
acting upon the filth of semi-savage communities
engenders pestilence.
The holy places of both Christians and Mahometans
are the receptacles for the masses of people
of all nations and .classes who have arrived from
all points of the compass ; the greater number of
such people are of poor estate ; many, who have
toiled on foot from immense distances, suffering from
hunger and fatigue, and bringing with them not'
only the diseases of their own remote countries, but
arriving in that weak state that courts the attack
of any epidemic. Thus crowded together,' with a
scarcity of provisions, a want of water, and no
possibility of cleanliness ; with clothes that have
been unwashed for wéeks or months p in a camp
of dirty pilgrims, without an attempt at drainage,
an accumulation of filth takes place that generates
either cholera or typhus ; the latter, in its most
malignant form, appears as the dreaded “ plague.”
Should such an epidemic attack the mass of pilgrims'
debilitated by the want of nourishing food, and exhausted
by their fatiguing march, it runs riot like
a fire among combustibles, and the loss of life is
terrific. The survivors radiate'from this common
centre, upon their return to' their respective homes,
to which' they carry the seeds of the pestilence to-
germinate upon new soils in different countries.'
Doubtless the clothes of the dead furnish materials
for innumerable holy relics as vestiges of the ward-
fobé of the Prophet; these are disseminated' by
the pilgrims throughout all countries, pregnant with
diseasé; and, being brought into personal contact
with hosts of true believers, Pandora’s box could
not be more fatal. ’
Hot only aré relics upon a pocket scale conveyed