i88i] A JOURNEY IN THE HEjAZ 545 



conditions of a sanctuary round which solemn processions 

 circled, and the other groups of rock that stud the plain 

 are all much less remarkable. Some of them contain 

 individual stones hardly inferior in size. I saw one 

 prostrate column which I estimate as quite 50 feet in 

 length, and about 5 feet in breadth and depth. But a 

 pillar standing erect on a lofty eminence was more likely 

 to be made a god of. Apart from the enormous size of 

 the blocks, the granite masses which strew the plain are 

 noteworthy for the singular cavities they contain bubble- 

 like openings in which a man could hide, and which are 

 not infrequently crossed by a twisted pillar of stone. The 

 effect of weathering on these singular hollows is to produce 

 most fantastic forms which might readily affect a super 

 stitious imagination, and add to the sanctity of the spot. 

 I have never seen the seething and surging of a boiling 

 fluid with all the effects of capillary attraction so perfectly 

 rendered in stone. 



Sprenger, in his book on Arabic Geography, has a 

 very instructive discussion of the way in which religion 

 and commerce went hand in hand in ancient Arabia. 

 Religion was the affair of merchants much more than of 

 the nomads, and the sacred feasts, to which men gathered 

 from far and wide under the security of a religious sanction, 

 afforded the opportunity of holding great fairs without 

 danger from the marauding tribes. Okatz, which in its 

 natural features is so well adapted to appeal to the super 

 stitious imagination, is also an excellent position for a 

 great fair. It is traversed by a great highway, while 

 another road leads off directly to the Nejd. It has on 

 one side a great pastoral country, while on the other it 

 is adjacent to a region of fountains and cultivated land. 

 There are springs and orchards in the valleys, to the right 

 of the road, almost all the way to Taif. The fair was 

 thus a fit meeting place for the agricultural and pastoral 

 population. The trade was largely in leather, which was 

 purchased for export by the capitalists of Mecca and Taif, 



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