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• 726 THB LEAP.EB. [No. 279, Satpbday,
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PELGR1MAGE TO EL-MEDINAH AND MECCAH. Per...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The Manhood Of Newton. Memoirs Of The Li...
The reader > nU not expect in-our brief space any exact account of the coaiente ^ ffir ™ avid Biter ' s volumes ; we have endeavoured to indicated natimTof the contents , and we may say m conclusion that the ®* J ® *^® SS ^ l rLerfcory of information on Newton and his discoveries ^ SmSKay lCc ^ ulted by students of the history of Science .
• 726 Thb Leap.Eb. [No. 279, Satpbday,
• 726 THB LEAP . EB . [ No . 279 , Satpbday ,
Pelgr1mage To El-Medinah And Meccah. Per...
PELGR 1 MAGE TO EL-MEDINAH AND MECCAH . Personal Narrative of * Fifyrimqge to JEI-Medinah and Meccah . By Richard F . ^ SuS ^ SS Bombay Army 5 ; Longmans and Co Tbt these days of universal locomotion , when mankind seems to have become oneffreat " tribe of the wandering foot and the weary breast , " it is no easy task to strike out a new line of adventure , and emerge from the circle described by John Murray ' s red-bound radii . This feat , however , has been achieved by Lieutenant Burton , of the Bombay Army , a gentleman already ftvourably known to the British public by his History of Smdh , and ranking deservedly high in the long line of intelligent and enterprising explorers who have reflected so much credit upon the Indian service . At present _ are in possession of his pilgr image to JEl-Medinah , Mahomed s bunalnlace . but we are also promised ere long the narrative of his journey to addition to
Meceab , the birthplace of the Prophet . And a most acceptable Eastern literature will the entire work prove , if we may judge of the whole bytae part actually published . For Mr . Burton is no vulgar tourist . He comprises within himself nearly all the attributes required of an accomplished traveller by the Citizen of the World . Not only are his lingual attainments of an unusually high order , but he is something of a naturalist , chymist , and a physician , apparently well versed in both European and Oriental literature , and gifted with the faculty of acute observation . It would , therefore , have been strange had he not succeeded in producing an intRrestino- work on a subiect so little known as the holy cities of Arabia ,
and the town life of the Arabs . He has done more than this . He has established bis name as the first authority in this country © n all that belongs to the matter he has taken in hand . Assuming a Persian costume and character , he adapted himself with wonderful success to all the usages and conventionalisms of Eastern-life . Never discovered , and seldom even suspected , he was thus enabled to mingle with the crowd , and to survey the interior life of the Orientals from a point of view never before accessible to a European , save to Burckhardt alone . And as we peruse the pages that record his personal experiences , it is hard to disabuse ourselves of the idea that we are reading * » f a different world , of one that existed centuries before Europe arose out of the slime ofthe ocean , and-whose inhabitants'had been fixed
intneir ~ primeval condition by the potent rod of some wayward magician . 'We should be glad enough to linger with our author m Alexandria and Cairo , to join him even in that wearisome ride across the desert to Suez , to share with him the annoyances of the over-crowded pilgrim ship , again to journey in his company across the arid wastes that lie between Yambu and El-AjCedinah ,, and finally to make our orisons at the numerous shrines ¦ sacred to piety or superstition . But this agreeable task would far exceed the limits of a weekly review ; and it therefore only remains to us to select a few brief passages ofa . character to interest that most capricious and tetchy personage * M & e' general : reader . " * At > Cairo > lir . Burton took up his abode in a wakalah—or caravanserai —asit Ssrtrest known to lovers of eastern novels . The following picture , though graphic and true , is not particularly inviting : —
TChe " , wa & flah , " as the caravanserai or khan is called in Egypt , combines the offices 6 F hotel , lodging-house , and store . It is at Cairo , as at Constantinople , a massive pile of buildings surrounding a quadrangular " hosh" or court-yard . On the ground-floor are roams like caverns for merchandise , and shops of different kinds—tailors , cobblers , bakers , tobacconists , fruiterers , and others . A roofless gallery or a covered verandah , into which all the apartments open , runs round the first and sometimes the second story : the latter , however , is usually exposed to the sun and wind . The accommodations consist , of sets of two or three rooms , generally an inner one and an outer ; this contains a hearth for cooking , . a bathing place , and similar necessaries . The staircases are high , narrow , and exceedingly dirty , dark at night and often in bad repair ; a goat
or donkey is tethered upon the different landings \ here and there a fresh ' skin is stretched in process of fanning , and the smell reminds the veteran traveller of those closets in the old Trench inns where cats used to be prepared for playing the part of jugged hare . The interior is unfurnished ; even the pegs upon which clothes are hung have been pulled down for firewood : the walls are bare but for stains , thick cobwebs depend . in . festoons from the blackened rafters of the ceiling , and the stone floor would disgrace a civilised prison : the windows are huge apertures carefully barred with wood or iron , and . in rare places show remains of glass or paper pasted over the framework . In the court-yard the poorer sort of travellers consort with tethered beasts of burden , beggars howl , and the slaves lie basking and scratching themselves upon mountainous heaps of cotton bales and other merchandise .
In this Egyptian hotel pur author—^ Abdullah-ibn-Youssouf—practised medicine on a- « mall scale , haA first patient being an Abyssinian girl belonging to > an Arab slave-dealer : ——A tender race , they suffer when first transported to Egypt from many complaints , especially consumption , 'dysentery and varicose veins . I succeeded in curing one girl . As flhe was -worth at least fifteen pounds , the gratitude of her owner waa great , and I bud to dose half a dozen others in order to cure them of the pernicious and pricelowering habit of snoring . Living in rooms opposite these slave girls , and seeing them at all hours of the day-and night , I had frequent opportunities of studying them . They were average specimens * 6 f the steatopygous Abyssinian breed , broad-shouldered , thin-flanked , fine-limbed , and with haunches of a prodigious size . None of them had
handsome features , '' but the short curly hair that stands on end being concealed , under a kerchief , there was something pretty in the brow , eyes and upper part of the nose , coarse and sensual in the'pendent lips , large jowl and projecting mouth , whilst the Whole had a combination-of piquancy "with sweetness . -Their stylo of flirtation was peculiar . "How beautiful thou art , O Mary-amI- —what eyes!—what " " Then why " , " would rospond the 1 lady , " don't you buy mo ?" " Wo are of one faith—of one creed— -formed to form ¦ eaoli other ' s happin « as . " " . Then why don't you buy me ?" •** jG « nceir « , O . Maryani , tha blessing of two hearts " ?' vTbenwhy , don't you buy me ? " And so on . H « TO $ Us 0 tJae endured the fearful infliction of tae . Ramazon , a month , as he
well observes , " for many classes wantonly thrown away . " And assuredly , whatever may be its other good effects , its influence on the temper appears to be the reverse of soothing : — Like the Italian and Greek fasts , the chief effect of the " blessed month" upon truo believers is to darken their tempera into positivo gloom . Their voices , never of tho softest , acquire , especially after noon , a terrible harsh and creaking tone . ^ The men curse one another and beat the women . The women slap and abuse tho children , and these in their turn cruelly entreat and use harsh language to the dogs and cats . You can scarcely spend ten minutes in any populous part of the city without hearing some violent dispute . The •« Karakun , " or station-houses , are filled with lords who have
administered an undue dose of chastisement to their ladies , and with ladies who have scratched , bitten , and otherwise injured the bodies of their lords . The Mosques are crowded with a sulky , grumbling population , making themselves offensive to one another on earth , whilst working their way to heaven ; and in tho shade , under the outer walls , the little boys who havo been expelled the church attempt to forget their miseries in spiritless play . In the bazars and ' streets , pale long-drawn faces , looking for tho most part iutolerably cross , catch your eye , and at this season a stranger -will sometimes meet with positive incivility . The Egyptians profess great contempt for Europeans , though delighted at the idea of French co-operation in the Russian war , " for , somehow or other , the Frenchman is everywhere popular . "
When speaking of England they -were not equally easy : bends were rolled , pious sentences were ejaculated , and finally out came the old Eastern cry , " Of a truth tboy are Shaitans , those English . " The Austrians are despised , because the East knows nothing of them since tlie days when Osmanlic hosts threatened the gates of Yituua . The war itself excites but little enthusiasm . The army is recruited by a . system of kidnapping , which the great . Frederick would have envied . Wherever men gathered together , in the mosques , for instance , or tho coffce-liou . ee !> , the police closed the doors , and made forcible capture of the able-bodied . This proceeding , almost a 3 barbarous as our impressment law , filled the main streets -with
detachments of squalid looking wretches , marching with collars round their necks ami handcuffed to be made soldiers . The dismal impression of the scene was deepened Ly crowds of women , who , habited in mourning , and scattering dust and mud upon their rent garments , followed their sons , brothers , and husbands , with cries and shrieks . The Egyptian soldier is described as being brave , and even reckless when once fairly roused . He is susceptible of disci p line , and learns the drill with as much facility as our own peasants . But his marked superiority over the Turk is his peculiar stubbornness in the field , and his power of enduring hunger and fatigue . At El-Medinah , it was believed that the Holy War had arisen from the Czar ' s refusal to embrace Islamism at the mandate of
the Sultan . He had u offered tribute and fealty , but the Sultan had exclaimed , ' No , by Allah ! El Islam ! ' " There was no doubt , however , but that the " Moskow" would be soon reduced to subjection , and then the victorious arms of the Moslem would be turned against all the idolatrous nations of Feringistan . " The Bedouins had decided that there was to be an Arab contingent , andjmd been looking forward to the spoils of Europe . " And in the meantime they kept themselves in exercise by constant bloodfeuds with one another . The celebrated Mohammed Ali , it seems , had determined to have a weekly newspaper of his own , which the ^ Europeans pleasantly designated as the Bulah Independent . And when the editor objected that he should find neither readers nor subscribers , the Pacha deducted the subscription " from the pay of all employes , European and Egyptian , whose salary amounted to a certain sum . Upon which the editor accepted the task , but , being paid before his work was published , he , of course , never supplied his subscribers with their copies . "
The Arab mosque Mr . Burton considers as " an unconscious revival of the forms used from the earliest ages to denote by symbolism the worship of the generative and the creative gods . " The Hindoos I believe to have been tho first who symbolised by an equilateral triangle their peculiar cult , the Yoni-Lingam : in their temple architecture it became either a conoid or a perfect pyramid . Egypt denoted it by the obelisk , peculiar to that country ; and the form appeared in different parts of the world : thus in England it was a mere upright stone , and in Ireland a round tower . This we might expect to see . D'llancarville lias succesfully traced tho worship itself , in its different modifications , to all people : the symbol would therefore bo found everywhere . The old Arab minaret is a plain conoid or polygonal tower , without balcony or stages , -widely different from the Turkish , modern Egyptian , and . Hejazi combinations of cylinder and prism , happily compared by a French traveller to " une chandclle coiff ' da d ' ttn eteignoir . " Aud anally the ancient minaret , made solid as all Gothic architecture ta , and provided with a belfry , became the spire and pinnacle of our ancestors .
Some light , is incidentally thrown upon the expression used in the Gospel of St . Matthew , " He went up into a mountain to pray . " In Egypt and Arabia " the mountain" is synonymous with " the jungle" in India , and simpl y means a retired , unpeopled , nnd uncultivated spot . The phrase , * ' I will sit upon tho mountain , " indicates an intention to turn anchorite or magician . Tho Arabs are natiuyilly predisposed to a species of melancholia which inspires a distaste for society , and a longing for solitude . Students and others who work tho brain are peculiarly subject to this affection , and few of their philosophers and literary men cacupo its influence . Tho sound of tho human voice grates upon the nervous system , and they go forth from tho city to enjoy the loneliness aud quietude of some neighbouring
. The crown of thorns placed in mockery upon the Snviour '» head is supposed to have been made from the Nebelc , or Jujube—IUinmnua Nnheca , or Zizyphus spina Ghristi—" a fine large tree with a dark green leaf , roundish , and polished like the olive ; it is armed with a short , curved , and sharp thorn , and bears a pule straw-coloured berry , about tho size of a gooseberry , with red streaks on the side n « xt the sun . " And in a foot-note our author remarks : — There » ro Mimosas in Syria ; but no tree , eavo tho fabled Zuldtuin , could produce tho ; terrible apparatus with which certain French pawteru of tho modern school have attempted to heighten the terrors of tho uceuo .
One more quotation , and-we reluctantly take our leave of Mr . Uurton'ri valuable nnd interesting volumes . In endeavouring to account by the uonsfliuruinity of races fur the marvellous colority with which the Muhouiednn iiiitn , starting from a stuull town in tho desert * of Arabia , overspread no
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 28, 1855, page 726, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/ldr_28071855/page/18/
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