ble. Indulgences are made for the sick, or individual poverty.
All who have the means at command, whatever may be their distance from the
place, are expected to perform the Hadje themselves if possible; or, if
prevented by any circumstances they cannot control, they are required to
pay the expenses of other persons willing to be their proxies.

Whatever information I have acquired on the subject of this pilgrimage has
been gleaned from frequent conversations with Meer Hadjee Shaah, who, as I
have before remarked, performed the Hadje from Hindoostaun to Mecca, at
three different periods of his eventful life.

If the fatigues, privations, and difficulties of the pilgrimage to Mecca
be considered, the distance from Hindoostaun must indeed render the Hadje
a formidable undertaking; yet, the piously disposed of both sexes yearn
for the opportunity of fulfilling the injunctions of their Lawgiver, and
at the same time, gratifying their laudable feelings of sympathy and
curiosity--their sympathy, as regards the religious veneration for the
place and its purposes; their curiosity, to witness with their own eyes
those places rendered sacred by the words of the Khoraun in one instance,
and also for the deposits contained in the several tombs of prophets, whom
they have been taught to reverence and respect as the servants of God.

Every year may be witnessed in India the Mussulmauns of both sexes forming
themselves into Kauflaahs[1] (parties of pilgrims) to pursue their march
on this joyous expedition, believing, as they do, that they are fulfilling
a sacred duty. The number of women is comparatively few, and those chiefly
from the middling and lower classes of the people, whose expenses are
generally paid by the rich females. The great obstacle to the higher
classes performing the pilgrimage themselves is, that the person must at
times be necessarily exposed to the view of the males. The lower orders
are less scrupulous in this respect, who, whilst on the pilgrimage, wear a
hooded cloak[2] of white calico, by which the person is tolerably well
secreted, so that the aged and youthful have but one appearance; the
better sort of people, however, cannot reconcile themselves to go abroad,
unless they could be permitted to have their covered conveyances, which in
this case is impossible.

The qualifications necessary for all to possess, ere they can be deemed
fit subjects for the Hadje, are, as I learn, the following:

'They must be