essel, and presently
solicited peace."

The beauties of the sunrise baffled description. The vessel sailed over
a violet sea, and under a sky dappled with agate-coloured clouds.
At noon the heat was terrible and all colour melted away, "with the
canescence from above." The passengers were sympathetic with one
another, notwithstanding their recent factiousness, and were especially
kind to a poor little brown baby, which they handed round and nursed
by turns, but the heat, the filth, and the stench of the ship defied
description. At Mahar, one of the places where they landed, Burton
injured his foot with a poisonous thorn, which made him lame for the
rest of the pilgrimage. Presently the welcome profile of Radhwa came
in view, the mountain of which the unfortunate Antar [119] sang so
plaintively:

"Did Radhwa strive to support my woes,
Radhwa itself would be crushed by the weight,"

and on July 17th, after twelve days of purgatory, Burton sprang on shore
at Yambu.

25. Medina.

He now dressed himself as an Arab, that is to say, he covered his head
with a red kerchief bordered with yellow, his body with a cotton
shirt and a camel's hair cloak, while a red sash, a spear and a dagger
completed the outfit. Then, having hired some camels, he joined a
caravan, consisting of several hundred men and beasts, which was bound
for Medina; but his injured foot still incommoded him. Determined,
however, to allow nobody to exceed him in piety, he thrice a day or
oftener pounded the sand with his forehead like a true Mussulman.

While passing through one of the mountain gorges the pilgrims were
attacked by a number of predatory Bedouin, led by a ferocious chief
named Saad, who fired upon them from the rocks with deadly effect, but,
at last, after a journey of 130 miles, they reached Medina, with the
great sun-scorched Mount Ohod towering behind it--the holy city where,
according to repute, the coffin of Mohammed swung between heaven and
earth. [120] Medina consisted of three parts, a walled town, a large
suburb, with ruinous defences, and a fort. Minarets shot up above the
numerous flat roofs, and above all flashed the pride of the city, the
green dome that covered the tomb of Mohammed. Burton became the guest of
the dilatory and dirty Shaykh Hamid. The children of the household, he
says, ran about in a half nude state, but he never once set eyes upon
the face of woman, "unless the African slave girls be allowed th