76 
and at seven we arrived at Mosdelifa, a small chapel 
with a high minaret, situated in a small valley; after 
leaving which, we defiled through a very narrow pas- 
sage between the mountains, and traversed a second 
valley to the south-east, which lay at the foot of Mount 
Arafat, where we arrived at nine. 
Mount Arafat is the principal object of the pil- 
grimage of the Mussulmen; and several doctors assert, 
that if the house of God ceased to exist, the pilgrimage 
to the former would be completely meritorious, and 
would produce the same degree of satisfaction. This 
is my opinion likewise. 
It is here that the grand spectacle of the pilgrimage 
of the Mussulmen must be seen; — an innumerable 
crowd of men from all nations, and of all colours, 
coming from the extremities of the earth, through a 
thousand dangers, and encountering fatigues of every 
description, to adore together the same God, the God 
of nature. The native of Circassia presents his hand in 
a friendly manner to the Ethiopian, or the Negro of 
Guinea; the Indian and the Persian embrace the in- 
habitant of Barbary and Morocco; all looking upon 
each other as brothers, or individuals of the same 
family united by the bands of religion; and the greater 
part speaking or understanding more or less the same 
language, the language of Arabia. No, there is not 
any religion that presents to the senses a spectacle 
more simple, affecting, and majestic! Philosophers of 
the earth! permit me, Ali Bey, to defend my religion, 
as you defend spiritual things from those which are 
material, the plenum against a vacuum, and the neces- 
sary existence of the creation. 
Here, as I remarked in the narrative of my voyage 
to Morocco, is no intermediary between man and the 
