it, saw no traces of tombs.”  Yet in another place he, an eye-witness, had declared that the coffin containing the dust of Mohammed was cased with silver.  I repeat these details. [FN#53] Burckhardt has given a full account of this event in his history of the Wahhabis. [FN#54] See Chapter xvi., ante. [FN#55] My predecessor estimates the whole treasury in those days to have been worth 300,000 Riyals,-a small sum, if we consider the length of time during which it was accumulating.  The chiefs of the town appropriated 1 cwt. of golden vessels, worth at most 50,000 dollars, and Sa’ud sold part of the plunder to Ghalib for 100,000 (I was told one-third more), reserving for himself about the same amount of pearls and corals.  Burckhardt supposes that the governors of Al-Madinah, who were often independent chiefs, and sometimes guardians of the tombs, made occasional draughts upon the generosity of the Faithful. [FN#56] I inquired in vain about the substance that covered the dome.  Some told me it was tinfoil; others supposed it to be rivetted with green tiles. [FN#57] The Badawi calls a sound dollar “Kirsh Hajar,” or “Riyal Hajar,” a “stone dollar.” [FN#58] At the same time his account is still carefully copied by our popular and general authors, who, it is presumed, could easily become better informed. [FN#59] The Persians in remote times, as we learn from Herodotus (lib. 6), were waited upon by eunuchs, and some attribute to them the invention.  Ammianus Marcellinus (lib. 14) ascribes the origin to Semiramis.  In Al-Islam, the employment of such persons about the Mosque is a “Bida’ah” or custom unknown in the time of the Prophet.  It is said to have arisen from the following three considerations:  1.  These people are concentrated in their professions; 2.  They must see and touch strange women at the shrines; and 3.  The shrines are “Harim,” or sacred, having adyta which are kept secret from the prying eyes of men, and, therefore, should be served by eunuchs.  It is strange that the Roman Catholic church, as well as the Moslem Mosque, should have admitted such an abomination. [FN#60] One of these gentry, if called “Tawashi,"-his generic name,-would certainly insult a stranger.  The polite form of address to one of them is “Agha"-Master,-in the plural “Aghawat.”  In partibus, they exact the greatest respect from men, and the title of the Eunuch of the Tomb is worth a considerable sum to them.  The eunuchs of Al-Madinah are more numerous and better paid than those of Meccah:  they are generally the slaves of rich men at Constantinople, and prefer this city on account of its climate. [FN#61] The “Sons of the City,” however, are always allowed to do such service gratis; if, indeed, they are not paid for it. [FN#62] Others told me that there were only two muftis at Al-Madinah, namely, those of the Hanafi and Shafe’i schools.  If this be true, it proves the insignificance of the followers of Malik, which personage, like others, is less known in his own town than elsewhere. [FN#63] The Hanbali