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NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

in less than a hundred days , is performed wholly by land;and as the route lies mostly through sandy deserts, otbarren, uninhabited wilds, which seldom afford any subsist-ence , and where often no sources of water can be found,the pilgrims always undergo much fatigue , and sometimesmust endure incredible hardships. An early and gooddescription of this caravan is published by Hakluyc, vol. ii.p. 20; , &c Maillet has entered into a minute andcurious detail with regard to it; Defcript. de 1 ’Egypte,part. ii. p. 212, &c. Pocock has given, a route, togetherwith the lengths of each day’s march , which he receivedfrom a person who had been fourteen times at Mecca,vol. i. pp. 188. Z6l, &c .—-The caravan from Damascus,composed of pilgrims from almost every province of theTurkish empire , is little inferior to the former in number,and the commerce which it carries on is hardly lessvaluable. Voyage de Volney, torn. ii. p. 251, &c. Thispilgrimage was performed in the year 1741 , by KhojehAbdulkurreem, whom I formerly mentioned, Note IV.p. 196. He gives the usual route from Damascus toAlecca , computed by hours, the common mode ofreckoning a journey in the East through countries littlefrequented. According to the most moderate estimate , thedistance between the two cities, by his account , mustbe above a thousand miles; a great part of the journeyis through a desert, and the pilgrims nor only enduremuch fatigue, but are often exposed to great danger fromthe wild Arabs. Memoirs, p» 114, &c. It is a singularproof of the predatory spirit of the Arabs, that althoughall their independent tribes are zealous Mahomedans, yetthey make no scruple of plundering the caravans ofpilgrims, while engaged in performing one of the mostindispensable duties of their religion. Great as thesecaravans are, we must not suppose that all the pilgrimswho visit Mecca belong ro them ; such considerable additionsare received from the extensive dominions of Persia, fromevery province of Indottan, and the countries to theEast of it, from Abyssinia, from various states on the