the Prophet was fond of sitting, lies outside the Bab Dar al-Ziyafah, leading to Mount Ohod.  The Kamus gives the word “Bayruha upon the measure of Fayluha.”  Some authorities upon the subject of Ziyarat, write Bayruha, “Bir Ha,"-the well of Ha, and variously suppose “Ha” to be the name of a man, a woman, or a place.  Yahut mentions other pronunciations:  “Bariha,” “Bariha,” “Bayriha,” &c.  The Bir Ihn is in a large garden E. of Kuba.  Little is said in books about this well, and the people of Al-Madinah do not know the name.

[p.416]Chapter xx.

The visitation of Hamzah’s tomb.

On the morning of Sunday, the twenty-third Zu’l Ka’adah (28th August, 1853), arrived from Al-Sham, or Damascus,[FN#1] the great Caravan popularly called Hajj al-Shami, the “Damascus pilgrimage,” as the Egyptian Cafila is Al-Misri,[FN#2] or the Cairo pilgrimage.  It is the main stream which carries off all the small currents that, at this season of general movement, flow from Central Asia towards the great centre of the Islamitic world, and in 1853 it amounted to about seven thousand souls.  The arrival was anxiously expected by the people for several reasons.  In the first place, it brought with it a new curtain for the Prophet’s Hujrah, the old one being in a tattered condition; secondly, it had charge of the annual stipends and pensions of the citizens; and thirdly, many families expected members returning under its escort to their homes.  The popular anxiety was greatly increased by the disordered state of the country round about; and, moreover, the great caravan had been one day late, generally arriving on the morning of the twenty-second Zu’l Ka’adah.[FN#3]

[p.417]During the night three of Shaykh Hamid’s brothers, who had entered as Muzawwirs with the Hajj, came suddenly to the house:  they leaped off their camels, and lost not a moment in going through the usual scene of kissing, embracing, and weeping bitterly for joy.  I arose in the morning, and looked out from the windows of the Majlis.  The Barr al-Manakhah, from a dusty waste dotted with a few Badawi hair-tents, had assumed all the various shapes and the colours of a kaleidoscope.  The eye was bewildered by the shifting of innumerable details, in all parts totally different from one another, thrown confusedly together in one small field; and, however jaded with sight-seeing, it dwelt with delight upon the variety, the vivacity, and the intense picturesqueness of the scene.  In one night had sprung up a town of tents of every size, colour, and shape; round, square, and oblong; open and closed,-from the shawl-lined and gilt-topped pavilion of the Pasha, with all the luxurious appurtenances of the Harim, to its neighbour the little dirty green “rowtie” of the tobacco-seller.  They were pitched in admirable order:  here ranged in a long line,