60 Journal of Mr. Burckhardt's 



and Asia Minor, which were not absolutely necessary to the 

 conveyance of the pilgrims to their respective homes ; so that 

 by this despotic measure all the beasts of burthen that had 

 brought goods to Mecca, were seized for the war, and conse- 

 quently there remained but few or none for the re-conveyance 

 of other goods to their respective destinations ; in consequence 

 of which, neither purchases nor sales of heavy or bulky articles, 

 requiring beasts of burden to convey them, could be afterwards 

 effected. 



Jedda, Tuesday, December, 20, 

 We were visited to-day by Othman Agha, the young 

 Scotchman resident here, who brought us information, of our 

 friend Mr. Burckhardt being still at Mecca, from which place 

 he would not be able to depart until the tenth of the moon, a 

 day of consequence with the Mahommedans, either as a religious 

 festival, or as being more than ordinarily auspicious : for until 

 that day, from some fixed period preceding it, the gates of the 

 holy city were shut, and opened only to those who entered : the 

 Pasha himself, with his court, having had his departure retarded 

 until that day, so that it seemed as much an affair of compul- 

 sion, as of choice, in the observance. In a short note which 

 Ibrahim had found an opportunity of writing to him in Arabic, he 

 explained the cause of his unexpected detention to Othman thus. 

 On his arrival there from Jedda, finding the caravan on the point 

 of setting out for Medina, he lost no time in engaging camels 

 for himself, and his slave which he had purchased at Mecca 

 since his supplies of cash had reached him from Egypt, paying, 

 as is usual in such cases, the price of their hire in advance. The 

 beasts being engaged,, he hastened to complete his other neces- 

 sary arrangements, in the mterval of which this Meccan Hadji, 

 who had just completed liis pilgrimage to the place of the Pro- 

 phet's birth, and was now about to perform another to his tomb, 

 gave a striking proof of the inefficacy of holy journeys in improv- 

 ing the morals of those who perform them, by escaping with 

 his camel among the crowd, and boasting to his comrades of his 

 successful deception. It was not without considerable difficulty. 



