230 THE MOHAMTVIEDAN PILGRIMAGE. 



talist might derive interest for his money. As the 

 law rigorously prohibits usury, this source of gain is 

 left wholly in the hands of Jews and Christians, the 

 outcasts of Europe. The produce of the lands around 

 the town is said to be barely sufficient for four 

 month's consumption, which is estimated at the rate 

 of twenty-five or thirty-five camel-loads per day. 

 The rents of fields and gardens, if the crop be good, 

 is very considerable ; the proprietor in ordinary 

 years being able to sell at such a rate as to leave a 

 profit of from twelve to sixteen, and sometimes even 

 forty per cent, upon his capital, after giving up, as 

 is generally done, half the produce to the actual cul- 

 tivators. The middling classes, who have small 

 funds, require exorbitant returns, — none of them are 

 content with less than fifty per cent, annually ; and 

 in general they contrive, by cheating foreigners, to 

 double their fortune in the course of a single pil- 

 grimage. Most of the merchants have trifling capi- 

 tals of 400Z. or 500/. : there are only two or three 

 families that can be considered wealthy, and these 

 are reported to be worth 10,000/. or 12,000/. sterling, 

 half of which perhaps is vested in land, and the rest' 

 in trade. 



The principal support of the place is drawn from 

 the mosque and the hajjis. The former, from con- 

 taining the tomb of Mohammed, is reckoned the 

 precious jewel of Medina ; which on this account is 

 esteemed equal, and even preferred by some wri- 

 ters and sects of the Arabs, to Mecca itself. This 

 venerated edifice is situated towards the eastern ex- 

 tremity of the town. It is built much on the same 

 plan with the Temple at Mecca, forming an open 

 square, which is divided by a partition into two sep- 

 arate compartments, and surrounded on all sides 

 by covered arcades ; but its dimensions are much 

 smaller, being 165 paces in length and 130 in breadth. 

 The colonnades are less regular, being composed of 

 ten rows of piUars behind each other on the south 



