towards the trading stalls, now hastening to
perform Tawaf about the temple, he almost wept that such sacrilege
should exist, and a great throb of pity for these erring people whose
spiritual nature was barren as the vast, treeless, verdureless waste
about them, filled his breast.

Amzi directed his attention towards the east, where the blue mountains
of Tayf stood like outposts in the distance.

"There," said he, "at but a three days' journey is the district of
plenty, the Canaan of Mecca, whence come the grapes, melons, cucumbers,
and pomegranates that are to be seen in our markets. There are pleasant
dales and gardens where the camel-thorn gives way to a carpet of
verdure; where the mimosa and acacia give place to the glossy-leaved
fig-tree, to stately palms, and pomegranates of the scarlet fruit; where
rippling streams are heard, and the songs of birds fill the air. There
is a tradition that Adam, when driven out of the Garden of Eden, settled
at Mecca; and there, on the site of the temple yonder, and immediately
beneath a glittering temple of pearly cloud, shimmering dews, and
rainbow lights said to be in Paradise above,--the Bait-el Maamur of
Heaven,--was built, by the help of angels, the first Caaba, a
resplendent temple with pillars of jasper and roof of ruby. Adam then
compassed the temple seven times, as the angels did the Bait above in
perpetual Tawaf. He then prayed for a bit of fertile land, and
immediately a mountain from Syria appeared, performed Tawaf round the
Caaba, and then settled down yonder at Tayf. Hence, Tayf is even yet
called 'Kita min el Sham'--a piece of Syria, the father-land."

"So then, this Caaba, according to tradition, is of early origin?"

"The Arabs believe that when the earthly Bait-el Maamur was taken to
heaven at Adam's death, a third one was built of stone and mud by Seth.
This was swept away by the Deluge, but the Black Stone was kept safe in
Abu Kubays, which is, therefore, called 'El Amin'--the Honest. After the
flood, a fourth House was built by our father Abraham, to whom the angel
Gabriel restored the stone. Abraham's building was repaired and in part
restored by the Amalikah tribe. A sixth Caaba was built by the children
of Kahtan, into whose tribe, say the Arabs, Ismail was married. The
seventh house was built by Kusay bin Kilab, a forefather of Mohammed,
and I have reason to believe that he was the first who filled it with
the idols which now disgrace its walls. Kusay'