Yes, she said, she had a husband and children.
“And are they with you?”
“No, they are in my village.”
“Are the children grown-up then?”
“Oh no, they are quite little.”
“Then who is going to take care of them while you are away?”
“I do not know. There was no time to make arrangements. I had not even time to tell my husband I was going. He was at work. My friends tell me it will be a very great work of merit if I go. What do you think?”
We had a long talk, and I believe she went back the same evening to her home. If so, she would get back within twenty-four hours of having left it.
The Muhammadans themselves generally allow that they are no more agreeable or kind or truthful or good after their pilgrimages—at least those who do not go say so freely. They even have a proverb: “If your friend has been to Mecca, trust him not. If he has been there twice, avoid him. But if he has made the pilgrimage the third time, flee from him as you would from Satan.”
Even dead people make pilgrimages, generally to Qum, or, if they are very important people, to Kerbela. I have not been to Kerbela, but I have been to Qum, and we met quite a number of corpses going to the burying-ground outside the big mosque. Sometimes the relations bring them, but often they cannot afford the journey and pay a muleteer to take them, and to pay the fees, which are very large. Sometimes the muleteers bury the bodies elsewhere and pocket the fees.