554 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1880- 



contains two rocky eminences between which runs the 

 street connecting the bazaar with the western gate, or 

 hence called Bab el Ree. On the northern eminence 

 stands the citadel ; on the southern is a great rough 

 block of granite, with rounded forms and many cavities, 

 which is traditionally named Al-Lat. The mass is now 

 half-buried in rubbish, from which it stands about twelve 

 feet high ; but it can never have been very remarkable 

 for size in this country of enormous boulders. The 

 etymology of the word Lat proposed by some Arabic 

 writers assumes that it was the custom to move in pro 

 cession round this deity just as was done round the 

 rock at Okatz. If this is historically correct it confirms 

 the Taif tradition. Another granite block of a white 

 colour, with small black grains and finer texture than is 

 common in the district, lies beyond the walls S.W. of 

 the great mosque, and is traditionally named &quot; Uzza.&quot; 

 Uzza, according to Arabic accounts, was worshipped 

 under the form of a Samur tree, and her sanctuary stood 

 at Nakhla, remote from the Thagif country. One might, 

 therefore, be tempted to conjecture that the association 

 of Al-Lat and Uzza in the local tradition of Taif is merely 

 borrowed from the Koran, where the two names occur 

 together. But the common people of Taif still swear 

 by Uzza, without thinking of the meaning of the oath. 

 We had a muleteer with us in crossing Mount Kara who 

 did so, and was very much ashamed when rallied on the 

 subject. It can hardly be questioned, therefore, that 

 the tradition is genuine, and that the same goddess 

 worshipped in one place as a tree was adored in another 

 as a stone. Not many years ago one of the Taif Shereefs 

 proposed to break up Uzza for building purposes, and 

 actually split the rock with a blast of gunpowder, but 

 the High Shereef interfered, and the fragments still lie 

 side by side. A Wady under the eastern walls of Taif, 

 descending from the north, and traversed for a short 

 distance by the Hejaz road, is traditionally associated 



