tle, truly, that with the heavenly sphere
Around the earth revolving, its towers would interfere.
And they who dwell within it must seek the Milky Way;
There is no nearer cistern which win their thirst allay:
Their horses there go browsing, and crop the stars that pass,
As other beasts the blossoms that open in the grass!'

After this flight, I think I can afford to omit the string of quotations
concerning Damascus, which is celebrated with an equal extravagance. Ibn
Batuta gives a very careful account of the great mosque, including its
priests and scholars. During his stay the plague raged with such
violence that the deaths at one time amounted to two thousand a day. He
relates one circumstance which shows that even religious intolerance
vanished in times of distress. 'All the inhabitants of the city, men,
women, large and small, took part in a procession to the Mosque of
El-Akdam, two miles south of Damascus. The Jews came forth with their
Pentateuch, and the Christians with their Gospel, followed by their
women and children. All wept, supplicated, and sought help from God,
through the means of his Word and his prophets. They repaired to the
mosque, where they remained, praying and invoking God, until three
o'clock in the afternoon. Then they returned to the city, made the
prayer of Friday, and the Lord consoled them.'

On the 1st of September, 1326, he left Damascus, with the great caravan
of pilgrims, for Mecca. He enumerates all the stations on the route, and
his itinerary is almost identical with that which the caravan follows at
the present day. Much space is devoted to a description of the religious
observances which he followed; and, singularly enough, if any
confirmation of his fidelity as a narrator were needed, it is furnished
by the work of Captain Burton. The account of the sacred cities of
Medineh and Mecca corresponds in every important particular with that of
the modern traveler. Thus the integrity of Ibn Batuta, like that of
Marco Polo, is established, after the lapse of five hundred years.

In speaking of the chair of Mohammed, which is preserved in the mosque
at Medineh, he relates the following beautiful tradition: 'It is said
that the ambassador of God at first preached near the trunk of a
palm-tree in the mosque, and that after he had constructed the chair and
transported it thither, the trunk of the palm-tree groaned, as the
female camel groans after her young. Mohammed thereupon went