of Hadramant; and the date trees, gardens, and holy cities of the Hedjaz, appear to us to be objects of curiosity no less singular than the rank forests and contemptible mud-hovels of the interior of Africa. But even were Arabia nothing more than the rude, barren desert which it is vulgarly supposed to be, still the extraordinary race who inhabit it, with their primitive habits, and strongly marked character, would appear to deserve much more attention than they have hitherto commanded. To Christians, they offer an object of contemplation of peculiar interest; for Abraham himself was a Bedouin of Mesopotamia; several of the tribes of the western desert are descended from his son Ishmael; and it was among the Bedouins that Moses took refuge when flying from the wrath of the Egyptian king.

Arabia is divided into numerous provinces, of which the most celebrated are Yemen, the Arabian Felix of the ancients, and Hedjaz, renowned for the sanctity of its principal cities, Medina and Mekka. As the present work of Mr. Burckhardt relates only to the Hedjaz, we shall also confine ourselves to this province, which the birth of Mohammed has rendered singularly illustrious. In a country like Arabia, the boundaries of provinces are not very nicely defined. We can only state generally that Hedjaz is bounded on the south by Yemen; on the east by Nedjed; on the north by Arabia Petræa; and on the west by the Red Sea. As the province is chiefly remarkable for its principal cities, Mekka, Medina, and Jidda, its natural productions being quite a sécondary object, we shall at once proceed to the description of the capital and its inhabitants, taking the traveller for our guide, and adding such particulars as other writers have supplied.

Though Mekka is dignified by the Arabs with many loftysounding titles, such as Om-el-Kora, "the mother of towns;" El Mosherefe," the noble ;" and Beled el Ameyn, "the region of the faithful;" its principal distinction in the eyes of Europeans is, that of being the birth-place of Mohammed, and the original seat of Islamism. We can only smile at the pious industry of Firuzabádi, who has composed a whole treatise on the different names of this city. Mekka is situated in a narrow sandy valley, surrounded by bare and barren mountains of moderate elevation, between thirty and forty miles east of the Red Sea. In some places the dwellings of the inhabitants encroach upon the sides of the mountains, particularly on the eastern range, where the primitive dwellings of the Koreysh, and the greater portion of the ancient city appear to have stood.

The ancient name of this city was Macoruba, and under this name it was known to Ptolemy, who supposed that a considerable river, which he denominates Betius, flowed by it.-D'Anville, Geographie Ancienne, t. ij. p. 217. Reiske, in his version of Abulfeda, has always the name of this city Macca.'

The streets of Mekka are broader than those of most other eastern cities, the town having generally relied upon its sacred character for defence; the houses, like those of Jidda, are frequently three stories high, and built of stone of a dark grey colour, which is never white-washed; and the principal windows face the street, as in European cities. In remote ages, however, the internal wars cf the country rendered it necessary that even this sacred city should surround itself with vulgar fortifications, and walls were built, which, according to Azraky and Kotobeddyn, soon fell to decay, and though twice repaired were scarcely discoverably a century after.

Notwithstanding that the Arabs, during their dominion in Spain, exhibited a decided passion for architecture, of which the great mosque at Cordova, and the vast and magnificent ruins of the Alhambra, are splendid proofs, they have always been prevented, either by their poverty or their simplicity, from indulging the same taste in their original country. Even at Mekka, no structures distinguished by barbaric grandeur meet the eye; the Beitullah, or "House of God" itself being a building which, though of considerable dimensions, has little architectural beauty; and the Kaaba which it surrounds, nothing more than a plain oblong structure, eighteen paces long, fourteen wide, and about thirty-five or forty feet in height. The Beitullah has an oblong square, two hundred and fifty paces in length, and two hundred in breadth; but it is remarkable that although the whole appears at first to be regular, not one of its sides seems exactly a straight line. On the eastern side of this open square there is a colonnade, consisting of a quadruple row of pillars; but on the other sides they are only three deep, and united by pointed arches, "every four of which support a small dome, plastered and whitened on the outside." Mr. Burckhardt informs us that, according to Kotobeddyn, there are one hundred and fifty-two of these domes: but since he himself spent several months at Mekka, it seems strange, that even in a matter of this nature, he should have trusted to the eyes of another. A row of lamps, suspended from the arches, runs round the whole square. On ordinary occasions, the illumination is but faint and partial; but during the nights of Ramadhan, when the great square is filled by multitudes of the faithful, the whole are lighted up, and cast a glorious radiance on the moving crowds beneath.

The pillars of these colonnades are of different colours and sizes, some being of white marble, and others of granite, or porphyry, and the diameter varying from one foot and a half, to one foot and three quarters. An octagonal column, about four feet in diameter, is placed between every three or four round ones. Of the capitals, some are of coarse Saracenic workmanship, and, having been taken from some older structure, have been placed upside down by the ignorance of the workmen. Several bases of exquisite

workmanship, are evidently the spoils of some Grecian edifice. Inscriptions in Arabic and Cufic, are found upon several of the columns; and portions of the walls, minarets, and arches, are painted in gaudy colours, as many of the noblest temples of ancient Greece were.

Seven paved causeways lead from the colonnades towards the Kaaba, or holy house, in the centre. They are of sufficient breadth to admit four or five persons to walk abreast, and they are elevated about nine inches above the ground. Between these causeways, which are covered with fine gravel, or sand, grass appears growing in several places, produced by the Zemzen water oozing out of the jars, which are placed in the ground in long rows during the day. The whole area of the mosque is upon a lower level than any of the streets surrounding. There is a descent of eight or ten steps from the gates on the north side into the platform of the colonnade; and of three or four steps from the gates, on the south side.'-p. 136.

The Kaaba is constructed of large blocks of the grey Mekka stone, roughly joined together with bad cement. It is quite a modern structure, having been overthrown by a torrent in 1626, and re-built during the following year. On this occasion the Arabs displayed, in a curious manner, the veneration they have always cherished for this temple; for, it being necessary to pull down some shattered portion of the walls which had been spared by the flood, in order to their more uniform and solid re-construction, the architect would not venture to perform his awful duty, until it had been ascertained from the Ulemas, or learned divines, that it was lawful for mortals to destroy any portion of the holy edifice. The roof of the Kaaba being flat, the building, says the traveller, has, at a distance, the appearance of a perfect cube. There is but one door to this temple; and this, which is wholly coated with silver, and has several gilt ornaments, was brought from Constantinople in 1633. It is about seven feet from the ground, and when it is opened, which is not above two or three times in the year, it is reached by a small moveable flight of wooden steps. Upon the threshold of this door, wax candles and various perfumes are burned nightly.

The famous Black Stone, which, according to Mohammedan tradition, was brought from heaven by the angel Gabriel, * is at the north-east corner of the Kaaba, near the door.

It forms,' says Mr. Burckhardt, ' a part of the sharp angle of the building, at four or five feet above the ground. It is an irregular oval, about seven inches in diameter, with an undulated surface, composed of about a dozen smaller stones of different sizes and shapes, well joined

"Nous croyons que cette pierre miraculeuse est une jacinthe transparante transportée du ciel á Abraham par l'ange Gabriel, comme un gage de la divinité." Ali Bey, Voyages, t. ij. p. 348. But he adds, "C'est mineralogiquement un bloc de basalte volcanique, parsemé dans sa circonférence de petits cristaux en points," &c. Ibidem.'

together with a small quantity of cement, and perfectly smoothed: it looks as if the whole had been broken into many pieces by a violent blow, and then united again. It is very difficult to determine accurately the quality of this stone, which has been worn to its present surface by the millions of touches and kisses it has received. It appeared to me like a lava, containing several small extraneous particles, of a whitish and of a yellowish substance. Its colour is now a deep reddish brown, approaching to black: it is surrounded on all sides by a border, composed of a substance which I took to be a close cement of pitch and gravel, of a similar, but not quite the same brownish colour. This border serves to support its detached pieces; it is two or three inches in breadth, and rises a little above the surface of the stone. Both the border and the stone itself are encircled by a silver band, broader below than above, and on the two sides, with a considerable swelling below, as if a part of the stone were hidden under it. The lower part of the border is studded with silver nails.'

Though the Arabs are in general delighted with the verdure of gardens and groves, they have not been able to rear either plants or trees in their most sacred city. In walking, therefore, through the streets and environs of Mekka, the only objects that enliven the scene, are the numerous shops which are found in every part of the town, and the crowds of Hadjys, or pilgrims, which are seen moving to and from the different holy places.

The inhabitants of Mekka differ greatly in manners from the Bedouins, or genuine Arabs. They are, in fact, foreigners, or the descendants of foreigners, chiefly from Yemen, Hadramant, India, Egypt, Syria, Morocco, and Turkey. This mixed population is the effect of the great confluence of strangers found at Mekka, during the Hadj; numbers of pilgrims being tempted by the polished manners and attractive society of the Mekkawys, to marry and settle in the holy city. The Kareysh, and other ancient and noble tribes, who traced back their genealogy far beyond the times of the Prophet, and flourished here till within these few years, are now nearly extinct; three Koreysh families only remaining, sunk into poverty; the head of the principal house being the Nayb, or keeper of the mosque, and the others occupying offices still meaner. The family of the Prophet, however, is still numerous and flourishing, branching out into different tribes, and spreading widely over other parts of the country. This class of persons are denominated Sherifs, and are supposed to be descended from Mohammed, by his daughter Fatime. They are either soldiers, or professors of learning and religion; and are called, in the former case, Sherifs; in the latter, Seyds.

In other parts of the East, strangers, though settled for life in the country, retain their national costume; and this circumstance renders the appearance of the multitudes which crowd the bazaar, and other public places, peculiarly interesting and picturesque. But in the Hedjaz, foreigners immediately adopt the costume, and, as far as possible, the manners and language of the country,

and hasten to forget their own. Hence, notwithstanding the heterogeneous materials of which the Mekkan population consists, an extraordinary uniformity, both in dress and manners, prevails. One little colony only forms an exception to this rule: it is that of the Indians; that singular people, who appear to aim in every thing at immutability, and to regard change as the worst of evils. These as they move through the streets, or visit the temple of the Hedjaz, appear to diffuse around themselves the atmosphere of Malabar and Bengal, and to view their own palm groves and luxuriant landscapes, even on the barren shores of the Red Sea.

The complexion of the Mekkawys is a yellowish brown, darker in those born of Abyssinian mothers, and lighter when sprung from purely Asiatic parents. In features, the inhabitants of Mekka considerably resemble the Bedouins, having for the most part aquiline noses, expressive countenances, and eyes dark, brilliant, and flashing with intelligence. Owing to the repose and plenty which they generally enjoy, they are loftier in stature, and more robust and muscular in form, than the Arabs of the desert, who are attenuated by their scanty fare, and the inevitable hardships of a wandering life. The higher orders appear to counteract, by vicious habits, the advantages they possess, for they are distinguishable, like those of Indian or Yemen extraction, by their meagre, emaciated forms.

One very extraordinary relic of barbarism is still preserved among the customs of the Mekkawys. We allude to the practice of tattooing, the origin of which neither Aly Bey, Burckhardt, nor any other traveller has yet been able to discover. Every male child, however, born in Mekka or Jidda, as soon as it has reached the age of forty days, is seized by its parents, and disfigured by three long cuts down both cheeks, and two on the right temple, the scars of which, frequently three or four lines in breadth, remain to the latest period of life. Originally, perhaps, parents thus marked their children, that by whatever length of time or calamitous vicissitudes they might be separated, they should always be able on meeting again to recognize their own offspring. For this purpose each family may have tattooed in some particular manner, or imprinted on their bodies some little design or figure peculiar to themselves. A mark of this kind was made by various nations on the bodies of their slaves, that they might discover and reclaim them wherever they might be found. Among the islanders of the South Sea, who go nearly naked, but are not, therefore, insensible to the charms of distinction, the gradations of rank are marked by different species of tattooing; a man being more elaborately disfigured in proportion as his property, or his merit, is greater than ordinary. Among such savages as these, however, it is easily conceivable that artificial ugliness may be a recommendation, since the ignorant are always covetous of excitement of all kinds; but that the intelligent and polished inhabitants of