270 THE MOHAMMEDAN PILGRIMAGE. 



business of the mosque,, and of all ecclesiastical af- 

 fairs. Next to him in importance is the cadi, 

 though many of the native sheiks still enjoy great 

 respect and consideration. 



After a stay of three days at the City of the Pro- 

 phet the caravans take their departure, the Syrian 

 returns to Damascus, and the Egyptian to Cairo, 

 by way of Bedr, Akaba, and across the desert to 

 Suez. The entire route of the former from Mecca 

 occupies forty days, that of the latter thirty-seven : 

 the caravan to Sanaa requires forty-three days. 

 Bedr, famous for the battle fought by Mohammed 

 in the second year of the Hejira, contains upwards 

 of five hundred houses, and still boasts many relics 

 of that miraculous engagement. The celebrated field 

 which laid the foundation of the Moslem empire lies 

 south of the town about a mile distant at the foot of 

 the hills. 



Suez, about seventy miles from Cairo, and once 

 a city of considerable wealth and splendour, is now 

 reduced to a paltry half-ruined village; a state 

 of desolation chiefly owing to the ravages commit- 

 ted by the French, who thus avenged the opposi- 

 tion they experienced from the beys of Egypt. The 

 walls and fortifications, which never were of much 

 strength, are rapidly falling into decay. The har- 

 bour is spacious and safe, and near the shore are 

 some well-built khans. The water is brackish and 

 the air bad, occasioned by the extensive salt-marshes, 

 which are filled with stagnant waters.* The in- 

 fluence of this malaria the inhabitants endeavour to 



* A well was discovered in 1831, near Suez, by two English en- 

 gineers, who made several experimental borings before they suc- 

 ceeded. A reservoir containing 1 200 cubic feet of good water is 

 now resorted to by the Bedouin and the pilgrim. By the applica- 



