Volume 1

An account of the manners and customs of the modern Egyptians, written in Egypt during the years 1833, -34, and -35, partly from notes made during a former visit to that country in the years 1825, -26, -27, and -28 / By Edward William Lane.

  • Edward William Lane
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of the manners and customs of the modern Egyptians, written in Egypt during the years 1833, -34, and -35, partly from notes made during a former visit to that country in the years 1825, -26, -27, and -28 / By Edward William Lane. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    390/468 (page 330)
    tomb of the Prophet, water from the sacred well of Zem’zem, in the Temple of Mek’keh, and pieces of the black silk covering of the Ka/abeh*. The water of Zem’zem is much valued for the purpose of sprinkling upon grave-clothes.—An Arab, to whom I had given — some medicine which had been beneficial to him, in the Sa’ee’d, during my former visit to this country, heard me inquire for some Zem/zem-water (as several boats full of pilgrims on their return from Mek’keh were coming down the Nile), and perhaps thought, from my making this inquiry, that I was a pious Moos'lim: ac- cordingly, to show his gratitude to me, he gave me what I was seeking to obtain. Having gone to his house, he returned to my boat, bringing a small bundle, which he opened before me. “ Here,’ said he, ‘‘are some things which, I know, you will value highly. Here are two tin flasks of the water of Zem’zem: one of them you shall have: you may keep it to sprinkle your wind- ing-sheet with it. This is a miswa‘k (a tooth-stick) dipped in the water of Zem’zem: accept it from me: clean your teeth with it, and they will never ache, nor decay. “And here,’? he added (showing me three small, oblong and flat cakes, of a kind of greyish earth; each about-an inch in length, and stamped with Arabic characters, ‘In the name of God! Dust of our land [mixed] with the saliva of some of us’), “these are composed of earth from over the grave of the Prophet (God favour and preserve him!): I purchased them myself in the noble tomb, on my return from the pil- grimage: one of them I give to you: you will find it a * Every year, on the day after the completion of the pilgrim- age, a new covering is hung upon the Ka/abeh. The old one is cut up; and the greater part of it is sold to the pilgrims.