26 ARABIA. 



On those mountains are many chapels and cells, possessed by the 

 Greek and Latin monks, who, like the religious at Jerusalem, pretend 

 to show the very spot where every miracle or transaction recorded in 

 Scripture happened. 



Inhabitants, manners, customs, and dress. ...The Arabians, like 

 most of the nations of Asia, are of a middle stature, thin, and of a 

 swarthy complexion, wiih black hair and black eyes. They are swift 

 of foot, excellent horsemen, and are said to be, in general, a martial, 

 brave people, expert at the bow and lance, and, since they became 

 acquainted with fire-arms, good marksmen. The inhabitants of the 

 inland country live in tents, and remove from place to place with their 

 flocks and herds. 



The Arabians, in general, are such thieves, that travellers and pil- 

 grims are struck with terror on approaching the deserts. These 

 robbers, headed by a captain, traverse the country in considerable 

 troops on horseback, and assault and plunder the caravans ; and we 

 are told, so late as the year 1750, a body of 50,000 Arabians attacked 

 a caravan of merchants and pilgrims returning from Mecca, killed 

 about 60,000 persons, and plundered it of every thing valuable, though 

 escorted by a Turkish army. On the sea-coast they are mere pirates, 

 and make prize of every vessel they can master, of whatever nation. 

 The habit of the roving Arabs is a kind of blue shirt, tied about 

 them with a white sash or girdle; and some of them have a vest of 

 furs or sheep-skins over it ; they also wear drawers, and sometimes 

 •slippers, but no stockings ; and have a cap or turban on their head. 

 Many of them go almost naked ; but. as in the eastern countries, the 

 women are so wrapped up that nothing can be discerned but their 

 eyes. Like other Mahommedans, the Arabs eat all manner of flesh, 

 except that of hogs ; and prefer the flesh of camels, as we prefer 

 venison to other meat. They take care to drain the blood from the 

 flesh, as the Jews do, and like them refuse such fish as have no 

 scales. Coffee and tea, water and sherbet made of oranges, water 

 and sugar, is their usual drink : they have no strong liquors. 



Cities, chief towns, edifices. ...Among the cities of Arabia 

 Felix, Mecca and Medina deserve particular notice. At Mecca, the 

 birth-place of Mahommed, is a mosque, the most magnificent of any 

 in the Turkish dominions ; its lofty roof being raised in fashion of a 

 dome, and covered with gold, with two beautiful towers, at the end of 

 extraordinary height and architecture, which make a delightful ap- 

 pearance, and are conspicuous at a great distance. # The mosque has 

 a hundred gates, with a window over each ; and the whole building 

 within is decorated with the finest gildings and tapestry. The number 

 of pilgrims who yearly visit this place is almost incredible, every 

 Mussulman being required, by his religion, to come hither once in 

 his life-time, or send a deputy. At Medina, about fifty miles from the 

 Red Sea, the city to which Mahommed fled when he was driven out 

 of Mecca, and where he was buried, is a stately mosque supported by 

 400 pillars, and furnished with 300 silver lamps, which are continually 

 burning. It is called the "• Most Holy," by the Turks, because in it 

 5s placed the coffin of their prophet Mahommed, covered with cloth 

 of gold, under a canopy of silver tissue, which the pasha of Egypt, by 

 order of the grand seignor, renews every year. The camel which 

 carries it derives a sort of sanctity from it, and is never to be used 

 in any drudgery afterwards. Over the foot of the coffin is a rich 

 golden crescent, curiously wrought, and adorned with precious 



