292 THE NEGROES IN MECCA. 



between the leaves of their Korans, they pay their 

 passage across the Red Sea, and tramp it from Jedda 

 to Mecca, feeding as they go on the bodies of the 

 camels that have been left to die, and whose meat is 

 lawful if the throat is cut before the animal expires. 

 As soon as the negroes or Takrouri as they are called, 

 arrive in the Holy City, they at once set to work, some 

 as porters, and some as carriers of water in leather skins ; 

 others manufacture baskets and mats of date leaves ; 

 others establish a market for firewood, which they col- 

 lect in the neighbouriug hills. They inhabit miser- 

 able huts, or ruined houses in the quarter of the lower 

 classes, where the sellers of charcoal dwell, and where 

 locusts are sold by the measure. Some of these poor 

 and industrious creatures spread their mats in the 

 cloisters of the Great Mosque, and stay all the time 

 beneath that sacred and hospitable roof. They are 

 subject to exclamatory fits and pious convulsions so 

 common among the negroes of the Southern States. 

 Often they may be seen prostrate on the pavement, 

 beating their foreheads agaiust the stones, weeping 

 bitterly, and pouring forth the wildest ejaculations. 



The Great Mosque at Mecca is a spacious square, 

 surrounded by a colonnade. In the midst of the 

 quadrangle is the small building which is called the 

 Caaba. It has no windows ; its door, which is seldom 

 opened, is coated with silver ; its padlock, once of pure 

 gold, is now of silver gilt. On its threshold are placed 

 every night various small wax candles and perfuming 

 pans filled with aloeswood and musk. The walls of 

 the building are covered with a veil of black silk, 

 tucked up on one side, so as to leave exposed the 

 famous Black Stone which is niched in the wall out- 

 side. The veil is not fastened close to the building, 



