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THE CAABA.

CAABA is the name given to a very ancient temple, in the city of Mecca, the origin of which is lost in the darkness of remote ages. Centuries before Mohammed was born, and while the Arabs were yet pagans, this building was held to possess a peculiar sanctity: pilgrimages were made to it from distant regions; and that tribe or family was accounted the most honourable, who were the keepers of its keys. It is an oblong, massive structure, built of large blocks of different sized stones, joined rudely together, and is about eighteen paces in length, fourteen in breadth, and from thirty-five to forty feet in height. It has but one door, on the north side, seven feet above the ground, wholly plated with silver, and embellished with gilt ornaments. From the

door's being placed, not in the centre, but near to one corner of the building, it appears not to have been originally designed for a sacred use; but at what time, or for what reasons, it became thus appropriated, it is not possible now to determine. Near the door, in the angle of the wall of the north-east corner of the Caaba, about seven spans from the ground, is the celebrated "black stone," so devoutly kissed by every pilgrim visiting the sacred city. It is of an oval shape, about seven inches in diameter, composed of about seven small stones, of different sizes and shapes, well joined together with cement, and perfectly smooth; appearing as if the original stone had been broken into many pieces by a violent blow, and then united again, which indeed is reported to have been the fact. A border of some kind of cement, rising a little above the surface of

the stone, surrounds it, and both this and the stone are encircled by a silver band.

According to the fabulous legends of the Mussulmans, the black stone" was brought down from heaven by Gabriel, at the creation of the world; and was then of a pure white, but has contracted its present sable hue from the guilt of the sins committed by the sons of men. If a conjecture, however, may be hazarded, we should not hesitate to refer its origin to that peculiar trait in the character of the Ishmaelites, which has ever led them to imitate the Israelites. Scarcely a feature in the religious institutions, usages, or traditions of the Jews, but has its spurious counterpart in those of the seed of Hagar. Jacob's pillar of stone, at Bethel, would of course become celebrated among his descendants. In like manner, from causes now unknown, we may imagine this stone to have received a similar sanctity among the Arabs. This is rendered more probable from the circumstance, that one of the names given to the Caaba, in the Arabic language, is Beit-Allah, house of God; a word of the same import and similar sound with Beth-el, from which the Greek term Baitulia was frequently applied to sacred stones or memorial-pillars, like that of Jacob.

The double roof of the Caaba is supported within by three octangular pillars of aloes-wood, between which, on a bar of iron, hang a number of silver lamps. The four sides without are covered with a rich black silk stuff hanging down to the ground, and encircled near the top with an embroidered band of gold, which compasses the whole building. This covering, which is renewed every year, was formerly supplied by the Caliphs, afterward by the Sultans of Egypt; but is now sent from Cairo, at the expense of the Grand Seignior, at the time of the Hadj, when the old one is cut into small pieces and sold to the pilgrims for nearly as much money as the new one costs. This curtain or veil, called

Kesoua, is blazoned all over with the words, "There is no God, but God," &c. in gold letters of great size; and such a sacredness attaches to it, that the camel which transports it to Mecca is ever after exempted from labour. This circumstance of the Caaba being covered in the manner described suggests the probability, that the structure was intended as a rude imitation of the Jewish Tabernacle, which was also enveloped in embroidered curtains without, while within was a golden candlestick, with seven branches, kept constantly burning.

The Caaba, at a slight distance, is surrounded with a circular enclosure of thirty-two slender gilt pillars, between every two of which are suspended seven lamps, upon small bars of silver connecting the pillars towards the top. These lamps are always lighted after sunset. This sacred paling reminds us again of the Tabernacle; the court of which, though of an oblong instead of a circular form, was constructed of pillars, and hung with curtains, with only a single place of entrance. Within this enclosure of the Caaba, and almost contiguous to its base, lies the "white stone," said to be the sepulchre of Ishmael, which receives the rain-water falling off the flat roof of the edifice through a spout, formerly of wood, but now of gold. According to the account of Burckhardt, the effect of the whole scene, the mysterious drapery, the profusion of gold and silver, the blaze of lamps, and the kneeling multitudes, surpasses any thing the imagination could have pictured.

At a small distance from the Caaba, on the east side, is the station or place of Abraham, whom the Arabs affirm to have been the builder of the temple, where there is another stone much respected by the Moslems, as they pretend that the patriarch stood upon it while employed about the building, and profess to show the prints of his footsteps to this day. Just without the circular court, on its south, north,

and west sides, are three buildings designed as oratories, or places of prayer, where the pilgrim worshippers perform their devotions. Besides these there are several small buildings near to the main structure, in one of which is the famous well of Zemzem, said by the Mussulmans to be the very spring which the angel discovered to Hagar in the wilderness, and whose waters of course possess the most miraculous virtues. They cure all diseases, both of body and spirit, and supply the whole town for drinking and oblation. It is said to be the only sweet water in the whole valley; but Pitts, an English traveller, found it brackish, and says, the pilgrims drink it so inordinately, that "they are not only much purged, but their flesh breaks out all in pimples; and this they called the purging of their spiritual corruption." They not only drink, but have buckets of water poured over them, and then think their sins are washed into the well. One of the miracles of Mecca is, that the water of this well never diminishes; but this is not surprising to the true believers, who regard it as having been miraculously created to save the infant Ishmael when dying of thirst in the wilderness. Burckhardt, however,

explains it without a miracle, by supposing that the water flows through the bottom, being supplied by a subterraneous rivulet. The water, he says, is perfectly sweet, but heavy to the taste, slightly tepid, and sometimes in its colour resembles milk. pilgrims frequently destroy the ropes, buckets, and other appendages of the well in their eagerness to quaff its holy water.

The

Surrounding all the objects now described, which occupy the centre of an open space, is the square colonnade or grand piazza, consisting of a quadruple row of columns on one side, and a triple row on the other three sides, united by pointed or Gothic arches, every four of which support a dome, plastered white-the number of these domes amounting

to one hundred and fifty-two, and the pillars to four hundred and forty-eight. From the arches of these colonnades are suspended lamps, some of which are lighted every night, and the whole of them during the nights of the Ramadan. The columns are upwards of twenty feet high, and somewhat more than a foot and a half in diameter; some are of a reddishgray granite, some of red porphyry, and others of white marble. No two capitals or bases are exactly alike; in some cases, by the ignorance of the workmen, the former have been placed upside down on the shafts. The arches and some parts of the walls are gaudily painted in stripes of yellow, red, and blue, which, as we have already seen, are colours peculiar to Mohammedanism. At each of the four corners of this immense quadrangular court, towering above the pillared domes, rises a lofty minaret, surmounted with a gilded crescent, the invariable accompaniment of the Moslem temple.

"The high antiquity of the Caaba," says Mr. Forster,* "is undisputed. The permanent character of its rites is certified by our knowledge of the adherence of the Arabs, in every age, to their ancient customs, But, from the uniform consent of Mahometan writers, it farther appears that the statues of Abraham and Ishmael, which from remote antiquity nad held a conspicuous place in the Caaba, and constituted the principal object of its idol worship, remained to the time of Mahomet, and were there found by the Mussulmans after the capture of Mecca. Mahomet, Abulfeda tells us, when he took Mecca in the eighth year of the Hejira, found and destroyed in the Caaba, on his entering the temple, the image of Abraham holding in his hand seven arrows without heads or feathers, such as the Arabs use in divination, and surrounded with a great number of angels and prophets, as inferior deities, among

* Mahometanism Unveiled, vol. ii. p. 404.

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