n mosque, which no doubt
caused men to go up to Jerusalem in Jebusite days, before Israel came
out of Egypt. (It is thought by pious Muhammadans to rest in the air
without support; their tradition being that at the time of Muhammad's
ascension into heaven this stone, which was his point of departure,
sought to accompany him but was detained by an angel. To the Hebrews
it was sacred as the rock on which Abraham was ready to offer Isaac;
and also as a stone which kept down within the earth the receded
waters of the Flood.) Meteoric stones have a sanctity as having fallen
from heaven: for example, the _lingam_ of Jagannath at Puri, and the
famous black stone at Mecca. Wells also, for obvious reasons, tend to
attract worship.

Of places inaccessible to which pilgrims toil, some are the sources of
rivers, like Gangotri, whence springs the Ganges: others are islands,
such as the Iles de Lerins off Cannes, Iona and Lindisfarne, or many
off the West coast of Ireland: or distant headlands, like the Spanish
Finisterre, or Rameshwaram, the extreme southern cape of the Indian
peninsula. More numerous are those which lie high up on mountains or
above precipitous rocks; such as the many peaks of Sinai, the lake on
Haramuk in Kashmir, the cliffs of Rocamadour in Central France, which
Piers Plowman mentions,[33] or the grey cone of Athos. In a mild form
such places may frequently be seen, in the pilgrimage churches and
chapels which crown modest eminences beside many villages and towns of
Catholic Europe: akin no doubt to the high places and hill-altars
where lingered the heathen worship that the Israelite priests and
prophets were continually trying to exterminate.

[33] Right so, if thou be religious, renne thou never ferthere
To Rome ne to Roquemadoure: but as thy rule techeth,
Holde thee to thine obedience: that heighway is to heaven.

The third class of pilgrimage sites is of those which are sanctified
through association with divinities or saints or relics: Gaya in
Bihar, with its pilgrims' way leading pious Buddhists by long flights
of steps up and down the circle of hills, like the great way at
Bologna; Jerusalem, Rome, Canterbury, Treves; and Santiago (St.
James) de Compostella, rendered attractive also by remote distance. Or
a settlement of hermits in a wilderness might become a place of
pilgrimage, especially when death had heightened the fame enjoyed
during their lives: such as Gueremeh in Cappadoci