270 HISTORY OF THE WAIIABEES* 



pilgrim-caravans had ceased, rather than submit to 

 the conditions which the reformers exacted. Only 

 a few succeeded in makings their way, and these 

 were chiefly Moggrebins, Abyssinians, and Indians^ 

 who showed more humility than the other Moslem. 

 For several years this state of matters continued ; 

 but the pilgrimage, so far from being abolished, as 

 some travellers have alleged, might have continued 

 without interruption, had the terms and safe-con- 

 duct of the Wahabees been accepted. Saoud was 

 punctual in his annual visits to Mecca, and was 

 always accompanied with numbers of his followerSj 

 whose enthusiasm, as described by an eyewitness 

 (Ali Bey), must have put laxer ^lussuimans to the 

 blush. Columns of half-naked men, with match- 

 locks on their shoulders and khunjers in their belts, 

 pressed towards the Temple to perform the towaf 

 and kiss the black stone. Impatient of delay, they 

 precipitated themselves upon the spot, some of 

 them opening their way with sticks in their hands. 

 Confusion was soon at its height ; and in the tumult 

 the devotees were prevented from hearing the 

 voices of their guides or the commands of their 

 chiefs. 



In making the seven circuits, their movements 

 were accelerated by mutual impulse, until they re- 

 sembled a swarm of bees flitting in rapid disorder 

 round the Kaaba ; and by their tumultuous pressure 

 breaking all the lamps near it with the muskets 

 which they carried on their shoulders. These cere- 

 monies done, they rushed to the Zemzem Well, but 

 in such crowds, and with such precipitation, that 

 in a few moments, ropes, buckets, and pulleys, were 

 laid in ruins. The servants abandoned their posts ; 

 and in this emergency the Wahabees contrived to 

 obtain the miraculous liquid, by forming a chain of 

 each other's hands, which enabled them to descend 

 to the water. Unfortunately for the numerous char- 

 ities of the mosque the reformers had brought no 



