in a repentant hour, he had conceived the idea of a Universal Religious
Brotherhood, with God for its accordant principle; and he was now
returned to present and urge the compromise. In more distinct statement,
he was making the pilgrimage to ascertain from personal observation if
the Mohammedan portion of the world was in a consenting mood. It was not
his first visit to Mecca; but the purpose in mind gave the journey a new
zest; and, as can be imagined, nothing in the least indicative of the
prevalent spirit of the Hajj escaped him. Readers following the
narrative should keep this explanation before them.

From El Derayah the noble pilgrim had taken the longer route by way of
Medina, where he scrupulously performed the observances decreed for the
faithful at the Mosque of the Prophet. Thence he descended with the
caravan from Damascus.

Dawn of the sixth of September broke over the rolling plain known as the
Valley of El Zaribah, disclosing four tents pitched on an eminence to
the right of a road running thence south-west. These tents, connected by
ropes, helped perfect an enclosure occupied by horses, donkeys, camels
and dromedaries, and their cumbrous equipments. Several armed men kept
watch over the camp.

The Valley out to the pink granite hills rimming it round wore a fresh
green tint in charming contrast with the tawny-black complexion of the
region through which the day's journey had stretched. Water at a shallow
depth nourished camel grass in patches, and Theban palms, the latter
much scattered and too small to be termed trees. The water, and the
nearness of the Holy City--only one day distant--had, in a time long
gone, won for El Zaribah its double appointment of meeting place for the
caravans and place of the final ceremony of assumption of the costume