Dhaher Berkouk, king of Egypt, in rebuilding the mosque, which had been destroyed by fire in A. H. 802.

Some parts of the wall and arches are gaudily painted in stripes of yellow, red, and blue, as are also the minarets. Paintings of flowers in the usual Mussulman style are nowhere to be seen; the floors of the colonnades are paved with large stones badly cemented together.

Some paved causeways lead from the colonnades towards the Kaabah, or Holy House, in the centre. They are of sufficient breadth to admit four or five persons to walk abreast, and they are elevated about nine inches above the ground. Between these causeways, which are covered with fine gravel or sand, grass appears growing in several places produced by the Zem Zem water oozing out of the jars which are placed on the ground in long rows during the day. There is a descent of eight or ten steps from the gates on the north side into the platform of the colonnade, and of three or four steps from the gates on the south side.

Towards the middle of this area stands the Kaabah; it is 115 paces from the north colonnade and eighty-eight from the south. For this want of symmetry we may readily account, the Kaabah having existed prior to the mosque, which was built around it and enlarged at different periods.

The Kaabah is an oblong massive structure, eighteen paces in length, fourteen in breadth, and from thirty-five to forty feet in height. It is constructed of the grey Mecca

stone, in large blocks of different sizes joined together, in a very rough manner, with bad cement.' It was entirely rebuilt, as it now stands, in A. D. 1627. The torrent in the preceding year had thrown down three of its sides, and preparatory to its re-erection, the fourth side was, according to Asamy, pulled down, after the Olemas, or learned divines, had been consulted on the question whether mortals might be permitted to destroy any part of the holy edifice without incurring the charge of sacrilege and infidelity.

The Kaabah stands upon a base two feet in height, which presents a sharp inclined plane. Its roof being flat, it has at a distance the appearance of a perfect cube. The only door which affords entrance, and which is opened but two or three times in the year, is on the north side and about seven feet above the ground. In the first periods of Islam, however, when it was rebuilt in A. H. 64 by Ibn Zebeyr, chief of Mecca, it with the ground-floor of the mosque. The present door (which, according to Azraky, was brought hither from Constantinople in A. D. 1633) is wholly coated with silver, and has several gilt ornaments; upon its threshold are placed every night various small lighted wax candles and perfuming pans, filled with musk, aloe-wood, etc.

had two doors even

At the northeast corner of the Kaabah, near the door,

I would alter this sentence thus: "It is built of fine grey granite in horizontal courses of masonry of irregular depth; the stones are tolerably fitted together, and held by excellent mortar like Roman cement." The lines are also straight.—Richard F. Burton.

is the famous "Black Stone";' it forms a part of the sharp angle of the building at four or five feet above the ground. It is an irregular oval, about seven inches in diameter, with an undulating surface, composed of about a dozen smaller stones of different sizes and shapes, well joined together with a small quantity of cement, and perfectly well smoothed; it looks as if the whole had been broken into many pieces by a violent blow, and then united again. It is very difficult to determine accurately the quality of this stone, which has been worn to its present surface by the millions of touches and kisses it has received. It appeared to me like a lava containing several small extraneous particles of a whitish and of a yellowish substance. Its colour is now a deep reddish brown, approaching to black. It is surrounded on all sides by a border composed of a substance which I took to be a close cement of pitch and gravel of a similar, but not quite the same brownish colour. Both the border and the stone itself are encircled by a silver band, broader below than above, and on the two sides, with a considerable swelling below, as if a part of the stone were hidden under it. The lower part of the border is studded with silver nails.

On the north side of the Kaabah, just by its door, and close to the wall, is a slight hollow in the ground, lined with marble and sufficiently large to admit of three persons sitting. Here it is thought meritorious to pray: the spot is

1 It appears to me a common aërolite covered with a thick shaggy coating, glossy and pitch-like, worn and polished.-Richard F. Burton.

called El Maajan, and is supposed to be where Abraham and his son, Ismail, kneaded the chalk and mud which they used in building the Kaabah; and near this Maajan the former is said to have placed the large stone upon which he stood while working at the masonry.

On the west side of the Kaabah, about two feet below its summit, is the famous Myzab, or water spout, through which the rain water collected on the roof of the building is discharged, so as to fall upon the ground; it is about four feet in length and six inches in breadth, as well as I could judge from below, with borders equal in height to its breadth. At the mouth hangs what is called the beard of the Myzab,-a gilt board over which the water flows. This spout was sent hither from Constantinople in A. H. 981, and is reported to be of pure gold. The pavement round the Kaabah, below the Myzab, was laid down in A. H. 826, and consists of various coloured stones, forming a very handsome specimen of mosaic. There are two large slabs of fine verde antico in the centre, which, according to Makrizi, were sent thither as presents from Cairo in A. H. 241. This is the spot where, according to Mohammedan tradition, Ismail, the son of Ibrahim, and his mother Hajirah are buried.

Round the Kaabah is a good pavement of marble, about eight inches below the level of the great square; it was laid in A. H. 981, by order of the sultan, and describes an irregular oval; it is surrounded by thirty-two slender gilt pillars, or rather poles, between every two of which are sus

pended seven glass lamps, always lighted after sunset. Beyond the poles is a second pavement, about eight paces broad, somewhat elevated above the first but of coarser work; then another, six inches higher and eighteen paces broad, upon which stand several small buildings; beyond this is the gravelled ground; so that two broad steps may be said to lead from the square down to the Kaabah. The small buildings just mentioned which surround the Kaabah are the five Makams, with the well of Zem Zem, the arch called Bab es Salam and the Mambar.

The present building which encloses Zem Zem stands close by the Makam Hanbaly, and was erected in a. H. 1072: it is of a square shape, and of massive construction, with an entrance to the north, opening into the room which contains the well. This room is beautifully ornamented with marbles of various colours; and adjoining to it, but having a separate door, is a small room with a stone reservoir, which is always full of Zem Zem water. This the Hadjys get to drink by passing their hand with a cup through an iron grated opening which serves as a window, into the reservoir, without entering the room. The mouth of the well is surrounded by a wall five feet in height and about ten feet in diameter.

A few paces west of Zem Zem and directly opposite to the door of the Kaabah, stands a ladder or staircase, which is moved up to the wall of the Kaabah on days when that building is opened, and by which the visitors ascend to the door. It is of wood, with some carved ornaments, moves