himself, was formed of rough stones and unbaked bricks, all ornament being strictly forbidden; and was fifty-four cubits from north to south, and sixty-three in breadth. It has been five times rebuilt, with various degrees of magnificence, since that day; and the present building is an open parallelogram four hundred and twenty-feet long and three hundred and forty wide, with a spacious central area surrounded by an elaborate peristyle. The tomb stands in what is called the Hujrah (chamber), the apartment of Ayèsha, the favourite wife of the Prophet; an irregular square of about fifty-five feet, separated on all sides from the walls of the mosque. Within a second enclosure stands the tomb of Mahomet (the existence of which Mr. Burton, very groundlessly as it appears to us, calls into question), together with those of his two immediate successors, Abu Bekr and Omar; and a fourth space is left vacant within for the tomb of Isa Ben Mariam (our Blessed Lord), to be occupied by Him after His second coming on earth. The popular belief of the suspension of the Prophet's coffin unsupported in mid air, has long been set aside; and the belief is attributed with much probability by Niebuhr to the idea suggested to the pilgrims by those rude drawings of the Hujrah which circulate among them as memorials of their visit, and in which all the laws of perspective are so completely violated, as to create this impression regarding the position of the coffin.

In addition to the Prophet's tomb, the enclosure of the Masjid-el-Nabawi contains many other memorials sacred in pilgrim eyes; as the place in which the angel Gabriel made his revelations; the grave of the Prophet's daughter, the lady Fatimah; Fatimah's garden, the dates of which are among the most precious relics carried home by the pilgrims; the tombs of the primitive martyrs of the Koran, and of the fifteen wives of Mahomet, the mothers of the Moslem.' Many particular stations, too, within the precincts are especially venerated; some of them on grounds which have furnished occasion for much speculation among the Moslem doctors; as the Weeping Pillar, the Pillar of Lots, the Pillar of Repentance, &c.

We cannot bring ourselves to record the actual particulars of Mr. Burton's pilgrimage ;-his entering the Rauzah attended by his Muzawwir (cicerone), and taking his place before the Mukabbariyah (a reading desk) fronting Mecca, with his right shoulder opposite to and about twenty feet from the dexter pillar of the Prophet's Pulpit;' then, after he had said the afternoon prayers, performing the two prostrations in 'honour of the temple;' and, at the end of these, reciting the 109th and 112th chapters of the Koran,' also the Kul

Haw Allah or Declaration of Unity;' and concluding with the single sudjah (one prostration) in gratitude to Allah for making it his fate to visit so holy a spot!' We must, therefore, refer to the work itself those who are curious to see how far he brought himself to carry this strange mummery, or who desire to obtain a minute account of all the ceremonies of the Hajj.

It was not till he actually reached the Hujrah, that he learned the full importance of the advice which had been given him at Cairo to renounce the character of a Persian heretic. It is here, in the presence of the tomb of Omar, that the great point of controversy between the Persians and the orthodox Moslem-the memory of this very Omar-comes out most strongly; and the unhappy Shiahs, here in a miserable minority, are exposed to every species of taunt, insult, and worse, from the now triumphant orthodox.

The Pilgrimage of Medina includes a round of several places of reputed sanctity in the environs; all of which Mr. Burton duly visited. He had originally intended to proceed direct from Medina to Muscat, whence a pilgrim caravan formerly passed regularly every year. Finding that this custom had long ceased, he next thought of undertaking the hazardous journey (between 1500 and 1600 miles) with a Bedouin escort; but his endeavours to procure such an escort were unsuccessful, and in the end he was compelled to abandon the idea, and to content himself with the less adventurous route of the ordinary caravan from Medina to Mecca. Of the four great roads which connect these cities, he took the Darb-el-Sharki, or eastern road, and commenced his journey on the 1st of September, 1853. The ceremony of El Ihram (assuming the pilgrim garb) took place at Zaribah. Between the noonday and afternoon prayers, a barber attended to shave his head, cut his nails, and trim his mustachios; and, after bathing and perfuming, he donned the pilgrim dress, which consists simply of two new cotton cloths, each six feet long by three and a half broad, with narrow red stripes and fringes; one cloth thrown over the back (the arm and shoulder being left bare) and knotted at the right side, the other wrapped round the loins, from waist to knee, and knotted or tucked in at the middle. After the toilet, they were placed with their faces in the direction of Mecca, and ordered to say aloud,—

"I vow this ihram of hajj (the pilgrimage) and the umrah (the "little pilgrimage) to Allah Almighty." Having thus performed a two-prostration prayer, we repeated, without rising from the sitting position, these words, "O Allah! verily I purpose the hajj and the "umrah, then enable me to accomplish the two, and accept them both

"of me, and make both blessed to me!" Then followed the "Tal

"“Here I am! O Allah, here am I —

No partner hast thou, here am I:

Verily the praise and the beneficence are thine, and the kingdom,

No partner hast thou, here am I!"

And they warned me to repeat these words as often as possible, until the conclusion of the ceremonies. Then Shaykh Abdullah, who acted as the director of our consciences, bade us be good pilgrims, avoiding quarrels, bad language, immorality, and light conversation. We must so reverence life that we should avoid killing game, causing an animal to fly, and even pointing it out for destruction; nor should we scratch ourselves, save with the open palm, lest vermin be destroyed, or a hair uprooted by the nail.' (Vol. iii. pp. 124, 125.)

The journey, about 250 miles, occupied eleven days; the caravan reached Mecca on the 11th of September.

Mr. Burton's narrative adds but little to our knowledge of the great sanctuary of Mecca, the Bait Allah, or, as it is otherwise called, the Kaabah, and its Black Stone.' He has merely transcribed the account given by Burckhardt, with some notes of his own observation. With that strange unconsciousness of his position which pervades the entire book, he declares that of all the 'worshippers who clung weeping to the curtain of the Kaabah, or 'who pressed their beating hearts to the stone, none felt, for the moment, a deeper emotion than did the Haji from the far north;' though he confesses the humbling truth that theirs was the high feeling of religious enthusiasm, his the ecstasy of gratified ' pride.' And then he proceeds with a recital of the ceremonial of the visitation of the Kaabah; how they

6

Then

'Entered through the Bab Beni Shaybah, the "Gate of the Sons of "the Old Woman." There they raised their hands, repeated the Labbayk, the Takbir, and the Tahlil; after which they uttered certain supplications, and drew their hands down their face. they proceeded to the Shafei's place of prayer the open pavement between the Makam Ibrahim and the well Zem Zem, where they performed the usual two prostrations in honour of the mosque. (Pp. 200-1.)

This was followed by a cup of holy water, and a present to the Sakkas, or carriers, who, for the consideration, distributed a large earthen vaseful, in Mr. Burton's name, to poor pilgrims. They then advanced towards the eastern angle of the Kaabah, in which is inserted the Black Stone, and standing about ten yards from it, repeated with upraised hands, There is no God but Allah alone, whose covenant is truth, and whose servant is

victorious. There is no God but Allah; without sharer his is the kingdom; to him be praise, and he over all things is 'potent.' After which they approached as close as they could to the stone.

'A crowd of pilgrims preventing our touching it that time, we raised our hands to our ears in the first position of prayer, and then lowering them, exclaimed, "O Allah (I do this), in thy belief, and in "verification of thy book, and in pursuance of thy Prophet's example “— may Allah bless him and preserve! O Allah, I extend my hand "to thee, and great is my desire to thee! O accept thou my suppli"cation, and diminish my obstacles, and pity my humiliation, and "graciously grant me thy pardon." After which, as we were still unable to reach the stone, we raised our hands to our ears, the palms facing the stone, as if touching it, recited the Takbir, the Tahlil, and the Hamdilah, blessed the Prophet, and kissed the finger-tips of the right hand.' (Vol. iii. pp. 203-4.)

The remaining ceremonies of the Mecca pilgrimage are even more complicated and tedious than those of Medina. Mr. Burton complacently tells of his performing the Tawaf, or circumambu'lation of the Bait Allah, partly in the pace called Hurwalah, ' very similar to the French pas gymnastique, or Turammul, that "is to say, "moving the shoulders as if in sand;"' partly in the pace called ‘Taammul, slowly and leisurely; and as, from the crowd of fellow-circumambulators, it was impossible to approach the stone at the end of each Taufah or circuit, he was again compelled to content himself with pointing towards it, raising his hands to his ears, exclaiming, "In the name of Allah, and "Allah is omnipotent!" and kissing his fingers' in place of

the sacred relic.

The ceremonial of the Ramy, or stoning the Devil,' is a still more startling exhibition of the strange facility with which he threw himself into his assumed position; and here, as well as at almost all the various sites of the seventeen places of visitation, which invite the piety of the Mecca pilgrims, he was one of the most prominent and punctilious worshippers. At the close of the Moslem Holy Week,' he left Mecca on his homeward route for Jeddah, the Red Sea port of the Holy City.

Such are the observances of the Hajj. Mr. Burton describes them more in detail than any of those who before him have had the opportunity of witnessing the pilgrimage. The task of taking notes of what he saw was one of no little difficulty and peril. His note book was a bundle of slips of long paper, made to fit unobserved in the breast of his gown; and he was obliged to seize every available moment to commit to writing by piecemeal

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every scrap of information which he desired to preserve, the notes being written in Arabic characters, the better to disarm suspicion if they should chance to be observed.

His account of the manner of the pilgrims, and of their fervour in the discharge of the prescribed forms of the pilgrimage, is substantially the same as that of other writers upon Mahometan life. But he reports a considerable diminution in their numbers in these latter years. The Damascus caravan to Medina, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, when Bartema visited that city, numbered 40,000; Mr. Burton calculates it, in 1853, at not more than 7000. At Mecca, the number of the same caravan, in 1807, was estimated by Ali Bey (a Spaniard, named Badia, who visited El Hejaz, perhaps as a spy in the pay of the French Government, and published an interesting account of his journey) at 83,000. Burckhardt, in 1814, calculated it at about 70,000. Mr. Burton, in, 1853, considered it certainly not more than 50,000; and in the following year (owing, however, most probably, to passing causes) it fell to 25,000. For both cities the pilgrimage forms the main, if not the only, source of traffic and occupation. In Medina, besides a large religious establishment of persons attached to the mosque, who are chiefly eunuchs (although, generally speaking, married), there is a numerous class of free servants, called Farrashin, who, each in turn, discharge the more menial offices of the mosque, as cleansing, lighting, and watching-under the various designations of Jenams, Muezzins, Khatebs, Zemzemis, &c.; and also a sort of literary college, forming, as it were, the theological faculty of El Islam, in which the most eminent Moslem doctors have received their training. The establishment at Mecca resembles that of Medina, but is less numerous and less liberally paid. For these, however, and all other details, we can only refer to Mr. Burton's volumes, which, in addition to the author's own stores, contain a careful résumé of all the best authorities on the entire subject of the Hejaz.

We must add that, with all its minuteness, Mr. Burton's account of the religious life of the Moslems is purely exoterical. Their external ceremonial, their bowings, their prostrations, postures, gesticulations, the very words of their prayers, he details with curious and somewhat wearisome minuteness: but (in this respect presenting a singular contrast to Mr. Stanley) he never goes below the surface; he fails or he avoids to touch what may be called the inner life of Islam, its spiritual destinies, its intellectual tendencies, or its relations to the Jewish, Christian, or Bhuddist systems. On these subjects there is more material for thought in a single chapter of such a work as Döllinger's