[2] Vide Burton’s “Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah,” chap. iii.
[3] Ibid., chap. vi.
[4] “Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah,” by Richard F. Burton.
II
THE PILGRIMAGE TO MECCAH
On Wednesday, August 31st, 1853, I embraced my good host, Shaykh Hamid, who had taken great trouble to see me perfectly provided for the journey. Shortly after leaving El Medinah we all halted and turned to take a last farewell. All the pilgrims dismounted and gazed long and wistfully at the venerable minarets and the Prophet’s green dome—spots upon which their memories would ever dwell with a fond and yearning interest.
We hurried after the Damascus caravan, and presently fell into its wake. Our line was called the Darb el Sharki, or eastern road. It owes its existence to the piety of Zubaydah Khatun, wife of the well-known Harun el Rashid. That esteemed princess dug wells, built tanks, and raised, we are told, a wall with occasional towers between Bagdad and Meccah, to guide pilgrims over the shifting sands. Few vestiges of all this labour remained in the year of grace 1853.
Striking is the appearance of the caravan as it draggles its slow length along
The golden desert glittering through