A meal of Oriental dishes, dried fruit and sweetmeats was prepared; and,
when the coolness of evening had come, the two friends proceeded to the
temple.

Entering by a western gate, they found the great quadrangle crowded with
men, women and children, some standing in groups, with sanctimonious
air, at prayers, while others walked or ran about the Caaba, which
loomed huge and somber beneath the solemn light of the stars. A few
solitary torches--for at that time the slender pillars with their
myriads of lamps had not been erected--lit up the scene with a weird,
wavering glare, and threw deep shadows across the white, sanded ground.

A curious crowd it seemed. The wild enthusiasm that marked the conduct
of the followers of Mohammed at a later day was absent, yet every motion
of the motley crowd proclaimed the veneration with which the place
inspired the impressionable and excitable Arabs.

Here stood a wealthy Meccan, with flowing robes, arms crossed and eyes
turned upward; there stalked a tall and gaunt figure whose black robes
and heavy black head-dress proclaimed the wearer a Bedouin woman. Here
ran a group of beggars; and there a number of half-naked pilgrims clung
to the curtained walls. Once a corpse was carried into the enclosure and
borne in solemn Tawaf round the edifice.

"Look!" cried poor Dumah. "The son of the widow of Nain! The son of the
widow of Nain! Oh, why does not he whom Dumah sees in his dreams come to
raise him! But then, there are idols here, and he cannot come where
there are other gods before him."

On surveying the temple, Yusuf discovered that the door of the edifice