90 MEMOIR OF BrRCKUAl.DT. 



in the dress of a beggar, treated as if he had been 

 superior to their own rulers. 



Had circumstances permitted, Burckhardt in- 

 tended to proceed, not to Jiddah, but to Mocha, 

 and thence to Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, where 

 he expected to join the pilgrim caravan from the 

 south, in their annual route to 3Iecca. It had for 

 some time been a favourite project of his to visit the 

 interior of the Yemen mountains, where the origin 

 of most of the Bedouin tribes in Arabia is to be 

 found, and where their ancient manners are said to 

 subsist in all their primitive simplicity. The per- 

 formance of this journey would have been of con- 

 siderable advantage to Arabian geography, and it 

 might perhaps have led to interesting facts respect- 

 ing Arabian history ; but as the "Wahabi war was 

 then raging on the northern confines of that pro- 

 vince, he was compelled to abandon the idea. 



One of his chief motives for travelling in Arabia 

 was. that he might visit the Hejaz or Holy Land of 

 the 3Ioslems, and perform the Mohammedan pilgri- 

 mage at Mecca ; for it was his firm conviction, that 

 the title of Hajji or pilgrim (held in great venera- 

 tion by all the followers of the Prophet), which this 

 ceremony would give him the right to assume, 

 would prove of the greatest use to him in his travels 

 in the interior of Africa, besides being of some ad- 

 vantage to the cause of science. 



It was fortunate, so far as his personal safety and 

 the facilities of travelling were concerned, that at tlie 

 time of his arrival all the principal towns in the 



