"Besbes, hiosi," that is, enough, enough! I will not know more. Then the captain came out and said to us: "See where I wanted to throw away three thousand seraphim!" In the night time, at three o'clock, there came into the camp about ten or twelve of those old men of that sect, for the caravan was encamped near the gate, two stones' cast off, and these old men began to cry out, some in one part and some in another: "Lei la illala, Mahometh resullala; lam Nabi, hia la, hia resullala, stasforla!" that is, God pardon me. "Leilla illala," means, God was, God will be; and “ Mahometh resullala" is, Mahomet, the messenger of God, will rise again; "lam Nabi" signifies, O Prophet! O God! “hia resullala" means, Mahomet will rise again; "stasforla" signifies, God pardon me. Our captain and we, hearing this noise, immediately ran with our arms in our hands, thinking they were Arabs who wanted to rob the caravan, saying to them: "What is this you are crying out?" for they made just such a noise as is heard amongst us Christians when a saint performs a miracle. These old men answered: "Inte mar abser miri igimen elbeit el Naby uramen il sama?” that is, Do you not see the brilliant light which comes out of the sepulchre of the Prophet? Our captain said: "I do to refer to the burial-place of Christ, and justly remarks that in that sense it is incorrect, since no Moslem ever believed that Christ left his body in this world. My own impression is, that it merely conveys the speaker's belief of Christ's inferiority to Muhammed, either locally or in rank, when the question was propounded.

1 Bass, bass. Enough, enough; but I cannot decipher the "hiosi," unless it is a corruption of the vulgar mush 'awaz, I don't want [any more].

La ilah illa Allah; Muhammed Rasûl Allâh. Ya Nabi! Hayya Allah! Hayya Rasûl Allah! Istaghfir lana! There is no god but God. Muhammed is the Prophet of God. O Prophet! Salute God! Salute the Prophet! We invoke forgiveness !

3 Anta ma tabsar en-nûr [alladhi] yaji min beit en-Nabi wara min essama? Do you not see the splendour proceeding from the house of the Prophet beyond the heavens ? The superstition that a supernatural light issues from Muhammed's tomb is still popular among pious Moslems.

not see anything;" and he asked all of us if we had seen. anything, and we answered: "No." One of the old men replied: "Are you slaves?" that is, Mamelukes. The captain said: "Yes, they were slaves." The old man answered: "Oh, sirs! you cannot see these celestial things because you are not well confirmed in our faith." Our captain replied: "Lami ianon ancati telethe elphi seraphi: vualla anemaiati chelp menelchelp," which means, "Oh, fools, I was willing to give you three thousand ducats, by God, but I won't give you them now, you dogs, sons of dogs." You must know that these lights were certain artificial fires which they had cunningly lighted on the top of the said tower to make us believe that they were lights which issued from the sepulchre of Mahomet; wherefore our captain ordered that none of us should on any account enter the said mosque. And you must know (I tell it you for a truth) there is no coffin of iron or steel, nor loadstone, nor any mountain within four miles. We remained there three days in order to give rest to the camels. The people of the said city supply themselves with the provisions which come from Arabia Felix, and from Cairo, and from Ethiopia by sea, for from thence to the sea is four days' journey.

THE CHAPTER CONCERNING THE JOURNEY TO GO FROM MEDINA TO MECCA.

Now we being tired of these things and vanities of Mahomet, prepared ourselves to pass onwards, and with our pilots, great observers of their compasses and charts, neces

1 Ya majnûn! ana 'aïti thalûth elf ashrafi! W' Allâh, ana ma 'aüti. Kelb bin el-kelb. You fool! I give three thousand ducats! By God, I will not give. You dog, son of a dog.

2 E con nostri Piloti delle sue bussole e carte al corso del mare necessarie grandi obseruatori cominciamo a caminare per mezo giorno." The passage is obscure. If it means, as I conclude it does from a similar statement a few lines farther on, that the guides in the Hijâz used such

sary when traversing the sea, began the journey southwards, and we found a very fine well in which there was a great quantity of water, which well, the Moors say, was made by St. Mark the Evangelist, by a miracle of God, on account of the want of water which prevails in that country. This well was dry at our departure.1 [I must not forget to mention our

instruments in order to direct their course between El-Medînah and Meccah, it is unquestionably absurd. Our traveller may have been led into the erroneous inference by seeing the leaders of the caravan consulting small portable compasses, called Kiblah-nûmeh, to ascertain the true Kiblah, or prescribed point to which they should turn during prayer. Nevertheless, the comparison which he here institutes leads to the conjecture that the Arabs who navigated the Red Sea at this period, one year at least before the appearance of the Portuguese in that quarter, were in possession of the mariner's chart and compass, which he expressly tells us in a later chapter were used on board the vessels in which he sailed from Borneo to Java. It is to be regretted that Varthema did not record the name by which the native pilots designated the compass. That of Bushla or Busla, from the Italian Bussola, though common among Arab sailors in the Mediterranean, is very seldom used in the eastern seas. Dairah and Beit el-Ibrah (the Circle, or House of the Needle), are the ordinary appellatives in the Red Sea. In the Persian Gulf, Kiblah-nameh is in more general use.

1 There are four roads leading from El-Medînah to Meccah; but it is impossible, from Varthema's brief description, to decide with certainty which was taken by his caravan. "St. Mark's well" affords no clue, as the name of that Apostle is utterly unknown to the Mussulmans of the Hijaz at the present day; nevertheless, its occurrence in connexion with this locality is somewhat remarkable. Has the tradition a much earlier origin? Eusebius makes St. Mark the first Bishop of Alexandria, and the patriarchal see of Egypt has borne that title ever since. Ecclesiastical historians further assert that one Pantænus, a teacher of divinity, was sent by Julianus, bishop of Alexandria, to preach the Gospel in Arabia towards the end of the second century. Ibn Khaldûn and the author of the Aghani state that several of the Arab tribes between Egypt and Palestine professed Christianity at the time of Muhammed; and the destruction of an Abyssinian army before Meccah, A.D. 570, is a well authenticated historical fact. Now, as the first introduction of Christianity into Arabia is referrible to the zeal of the patriarchal see of St. Mark in Egypt, to which the Abyssinian church has always been ecclesiastically subject, it is just possible that the occurrence of the Apostle's name, as mentioned by Varthema, may be a traditional relic handed down from the earliest Christians in the Hijâz.

meeting with the sea of sand, which we left before we found the mountain of the Jews, and through which we travelled five days and five nights. Now you must understand all about this. This is a very large level plain, which is full of white sand as fine as meal, where, if unfortunately the wind should blow from the south as you come from the north, all would be dead men, and although we had the wind with us we could not see each other at a distance of ten paces. The men ride on camels in certain wooden boxes, in which they sleep and eat, and the pilots go in advance with their compasses as they do at sea. And here many died from thirst, and a great many died because when they dug and found water they drank so much that they burst; and here mummies are made. When the wind blows from the north this sand collects against a very large mountain, which is a spur

2

1 Burton remarks on this chapter generally, that "It is impossible to distinguish from this description the route taken by the Damascus caravan in 1503. Of one thing only we may be certain, namely, that between El-Medinah and Meccah there are no 'seas of sand.'" Ibid. p. 358. I am of opinion that the passage which I have placed between brackets is retrospective, and refers to a part of the journey between Damascus and El-Medînah, for Varthema describes his having left the sea of sand before he came to the Mountain of the Jews. Burckhardt's brief description of the stages on the present Hajj route does not enable me to identify the precise locality; but I think it should be looked for between El-Akhdar, the sixteenth stage from Damascus, and Hedye or Khaibar (the Mountain of the Jews), three days from El-Medinah; for in a note attached to El-Akhdar, in his enumeration of the caravan halts, Burckhardt says: "Two or three hundred years ago the Hadj route went to the east of the present route, and it is even now called Darb esh-Sharki, the Eastern Road."

2

The Shugduf, the Taktrawan, the Shibriyah, and the Mahaffah, vehicles of different construction, borne by camels, and used by the more wealthy pilgrims in making the Hajj.

3 "Wonderful tales are still told about these same mummies. I was assured by an Arabian physician, that he had broken a fowl's leg, and bound it tightly with a cloth containing man's dried flesh, which caused the bird to walk about, with a sound shank, on the second day."BURTON, ibid. p. 361, n.

D

of Mount Sinai.1 When we were at the top of the said mountain we found a door [or doorway] of the said mountain made by the hand of man. On the left side upon the top of the said mountain there is a grotto to which there is a door of iron. Some say that Mahomet stopped there to pray. At this door

' Burton, having inferred that Varthema was describing a part of the route between El-Medînah and Meccah, supposes this to be Jebel Warkan, on the sea-route to the latter place. For the reason already given, I prefer identifying it with the mountains in the vicinity of Hedjer (more correctly, El-Hijr), which, though with great latitude, may be styled an offshoot of Sinai. I am confirmed in this opinion by our author's somewhat romantic account of the ancient remains existing there, and the traditions with which they are associated. Burckhardt's description of them is as follows: "The most interesting spot on the caravan route between Damascus and Medinah, within the limits of Arabia, appears to be Hedjer, or, as it is sometimes called, Medayen Saleh, seven days north of Medinah. This place, according to many passages of the Koran (which has a chapter entitled Hedjer), was inhabited by a gigantic race of men, called Beni Thamoud, whose dwellings were destroyed because they refused to obey the admonitions of the prophet Saleh. In circumference, Hedjer extends several miles; the soil is fertile, watered by many wells, or running streams. ...An inconsiderable mountain bounds this fertile plain on the west, at about four miles' distance from the ground where the pilgrims' caravan usually encamps. In that mountain are large caves cut out of the rock, with sculptured figures of men and various animals, small pillars on both sides of the entrances, and, if I may believe the Bedouins, numerous sculptures over the doors."-Travels in Syria, Appendix vii. According to the Korân, (chap. vii.), the destruction of the Thamudites was accompanied by "a terrible noise from heaven," and Muhammed's own conduct, on the occasion of his expedition against El-Hijr, shortly after his destruction of the Jews at Khaibar, served to perpetuate among his followers a dread of that signal example of the Divine vengeance, for he refused to let them drink at one of the wells in the valley, bidding them flee the accursed spot. The vivid imagination of pious Moslems still attributes supernatural noises, "like violent and repeated claps of thunder," to the desolate abode of those ancient Troglodytes, and it may fairly be presumed that these and similar traditions, and the fact of a chapter of the Korân being entitled "El-Hijr," -subjects which his Muhammedan companions would freely discuss while in that vicinity,-gave rise to the fable with which this part of Varthema's narrative is disfigured.