pared..

During the night halt, provisions are cooked; rice or kichri a mixture of pulse and rice, are eaten with chutnee and lime-pickle, varied occasionally by tough mutton and indigestible goat."

Many pilgrims make their journey a question of trade as well as of religious duty. "It shall be no crime in you," says the Koran, "if you seek an increase from the Lord, by trading during the pilgrimage." Some writers have represented the pilgrimage to Mecca as a commercial fair; but on this opinion Burton remarks" that the Meccan pilgrimage is religious essentially, accidentally an affair of commerce."

fifty or sixty Hadjis," he writes, "who came with me from Central Asia to Herat transported with them about forty dozen of silk handkerchiefs from Bokhara, about 2,000 knives, thirty pieces of silk stuff from Namengan, a large quantity of Khokandi dappi (caps upon which the turban is wound), &c. These were Hadjis on one route only. As for the imports, account must also be held of the Hadjis; for it is very easy to understand that the largest part of the European cutlery that finds its way to Central Asia has been introduced by them."

The period of the Mecca pilgrimage varies eleven days each year, the Mohammedan months being lunar, consequently in the course of time it falls in each of the different seasons. In 1865 the Korban Bairam (the feast of sacrifice, the principal act of devotion of the pilgrimage) fell on the 4th May; in the present year it will take place on the 23rd April.

The probable number of pilgrims congregated in Mecca has been discussed elsewhere (sect. 1). The sanitary condition of the city and its immediate vicinity may be surmised from the large addition to the ordinary population, and from the extensive encampments of the different caravans and the great number of animals picketed outside the walls, little additional provision being made for public or private cleanliness. Burckhardt thus describes the state of Mecca, after the departure of the pilgrims, at the time of his visit :-" Rubbish and filth covered all the streets, and nobody appeared disposed to remove it. The streets

of the town were crowded with dead carcasses of camels, the smell from which rendered the air, even in the midst of the town, most offensive, and certainly contributed to the many diseases now prevalent. Several hundreds of these carcasses lay near the reservoirs of the Hadj, and the Arabs inhabiting that part of Mecca never walked out without stuffing into their nostrils small pieces of cotton, which they carried suspended by a thread round the neck. But this was not all. At this time the Mekkans are in the habit of emptying the privies of their houses, and too lazy to carry the contents beyond the precincts of the town, they merely dig a hole in the street, before the door of the dwelling, and there deposit them, covering the spot only with a layer of earth. The consequences of this practice may easily be imagined."

The duties of the pilgrimage are described as follows by Sale :—

"The pilgrims meet at different places near Mecca, according to the different parts from whence they come, during the months of Shawâl and Dhu'lkaada, being obliged to be there by the beginning of Dhu'lhajja, which month, as its name imports, is peculiarly set apart for the celebration of this solemnity.

"At the places above mentioned the pilgrims properly commence such; when the men put on the ihrâm or sacred habit, which consists only of two woollen wrappers, one wrapped about their middle to cover their privates, and the other thrown over their shoulders, having their heads bare, and a kind of slippers which cover neither the heel nor the instep, and so enter the sacred territory in their way to Mecca. While they have this habit on they must neither hunt nor fowl, (though they are allowed to fish), which precept is so punctually observed, that they will not kill even a louse or a flea, if they find them on their bodies; there are some noxious animals, however, which they have permission to kill during the pilgrimage, as kites, ravens, scorpions, mice, and dogs given to bite. During the pilgrimage it behoves a man to have a constant guard over his words and actions, and to avoid all quarrelling or ill language, and all converse with women, and obscene discourse, and to apply his whole attention to the good work he is engaged in.

"The pilgrims being arrived at Mecca, im

mediately visit the temple, and then enter on the performance of the prescribed ceremonies, which consist chiefly in going in procession round the Caaba, in running between the mounts Safa and Merwâ, in making the station on Mount Arafat, and slaying the victims, and shaving their heads in the valley of Mina. These ceremonies have been so particularly described by others, that I may be excused if I but just mention the most material circumstances thereof.

"In compassing the Caaba, which they do seven times, beginning at the corner where the black stone is fixed, they use a short quick pace the three first times they go round it, and a grave ordinary pace the four last, which it is said was ordered by Mohammed, that his followers might show themselves strong and active, to cut off the hopes of the infidels, who gave out that the immoderate heat of Medina had rendered them weak. But the aforesaid quick pace they are not obliged to use every time they perform this piece of devotion, but only at some particular time. So often as they pass the black stone they either kiss it, or touch it with their hand and kiss that.

"The running between Safâ and Merwâ is also performed seven times, partly with a slow pace and partly running, for they walk gravely till they come to a place between two pillars, and there they run, and afterwards walk again, sometimes looking back and sometimes stopping, like one who has lost something, to represent Hagar seeking water for her son, for the ceremony is said to be as ancient as her time.

"On the 9th of Dhu'lhajja, after morning prayer, the pilgrims leave the valley of Mina, whither they come the day before, and proceed in a tumultuous and rushing manner to Mount Arafat, where they stay to perform their devotions till sunset: then they go to Mozdalifa, an oratory between Arafat and Mina, and there spend the night in prayer, and reading the Koran. The next morning by day-break they visit Al Mashèr al Harâm, or the sacred monument, and departing thence before sunrise, haste by Batr Mohasser to the valley of Mina, where they throw seven stones at three marks or pillars, in imitation of Abraham, who meeting the devil in that place, and being by him disturbed in his devotions, or tempted to dis

obedience, when he was going to sacrifice his son, was commanded by God to drive him away by throwing stones at him; though others pretend this rite to be as old as Adam, who also put the devil to flight in the same place and by the same means.

"The ceremony being over, on the same day, the 10th Dhu'lhajja, the pilgrims slay their victims in the said valley of Mina, of which they and their friends eat part, and the rest is given to the poor. These victims must be either sheep, goats, kine, or camels; males, of either of the two former kinds, and females if of either of the latter and of a fit age. The sacrifices being over, they shave their heads and cut their nails, burying them in the same place; after which the pilgrimage is looked on as completed, though they again visit the Caaba to take their leave of that sacred building."

Of the journey to Arafat, Burton writes:"The road was covered with white-robed pil grims, some few wending their way on foot, others riding, and all men bare-footed and bare-headed. . . . Dead animals dotted the ground, and carcasses had been cast into a dry tank, the Birkat el Shami,' which caused every Bedouin to hold his nose and show disgust. . . . Arafat is about six hours' march, or twelve miles on the Taif road, due east of Mecca. We arrived there in a shorter time, but our weary camels during the last third of the way frequently threw themselves upon the ground. Human beings suffered more. Between Muna and Arafat I saw no less than five men fall down and die upon the highway; exhausted and moribund, they had dragged themselves out to give up the ghost where it departs to instant beatitude. The spectacle showed how easy it is to die in these latitudes; each man suddenly staggered, fell as if shot, and after a brief convulsion, lay still as marble.

The corpses were carefully taken up, and carelessly buried that same evening, in a vacant space amongst the crowds encamped upon the Arafat plain."

Muna is situated three miles from Mecca on the road to Arafat. The valley, Burckhardt states, is narrow, extends in a right line from west to east, and is about 1,500 paces in length. It is enclosed on both sides by steep and barren cliffs of granite; and in the middle, ranged on each side of the road which traverses it, are several buildings, mostly ruinous. Burton has the following observations on the "feast of sacrifices" there :

In

"The pilgrims dragged their victims to a smooth rock near the Akabah, above which stands a small open pavilion, whose sides, red with fresh blood, showed that the prince and his attendants had already sacrificed. . . . It is considered meritorious to give away the victim without eating any portion of its flesh. Parties of Takruri might be seen sitting vulturelike, contemplating the sheep and goats; and no sooner was the signal given than they fell upon the bodies, and cut them up without removing them. The surface of the valley soon began to resemble the dirtiest slaughter-house, and my prescient soul drew sad auguries for the future. . . . We returned (next day) to the tent, ere the sun waxed hot, in anticipation of a terrible day. Nor were we far wrong. addition to the heat, we had swarms of flies, and the blood-stained earth began to reek with noisome vapours. Nought moved in the air except kites and vultures, speckling the deep blue sky the denizens of the earth seemed paralyzed. . . . . Literally the land stank. Five or six thousand animals had been slain and cut up in this devil's punch-bowl. I leave the reader to imagine the rest. The evil might be avoided by building abattoirs,' or more easily still, by digging long trenches, and by ordering all pilgrims, under pain of mulct, to sacrifice in the same place. Unhappily, the spirit of El Islam is opposed to these precautions of common sense. 'Inshallah' and 'kismat' take the place of prevention and cure. And at Mecca, the head-quarters of the faith, a desolating attack of cholera is preferred to the impiety of flying in the face of Providence,' and the folly of endeavouring to avert inevitable decrees."

The most recent Christian visitor to Mecca, M. Maltzan, who succeeded in making the pilgrimage in 1860, disguised as a Mograbin, but who was discovered towards the close of his stay in the Holy City, and narrowly escaped with life, states that the number of animals sacrificed in the valley of Muna has been greatly exaggerated. He estimates that 30,000 pilgrims assembled at Arafat in 1860, and of these he believes that not more than 3,000 immolated victims. The expense of animals at Mecca forbids the poorer pilgrims sacrificing on their own account. The flesh of the victims falls to their lot, and they are apt to eat of it immoderately, even when it has become tainted.

At the close of the pilgrimage, according to Burckhardt, numbers of pilgrims, ill from the fatigues of the road or from cold caught while wearing the ihram, are unable to proceed on their journey homewards, and remain in Mecca, in the hope, often vain, of recovering strength.

A sanitary commission has been sent to the Hedjaz by the Turkish Government, to make special inquiry concerning the origin of the recent outbreak of cholera at Mecca, and to collect information respecting previous epidemics of the disease there. The commission is also instructed to investigate the sanitary condition of the holy cities, and to study, particularly during the approaching pilgrimage, the circumstances which chiefly affect the health of the pilgrims, and under which their transit between Jedda and Suez, and dispersion after the pilgrimage, take place. Generally the commission is directed, while giving primary attention to cholera, and to those causes which might give birth to the disease or develope it in case of importation, to report on the sanitary state of the Hedjaz.

During the approaching pilgrimage, the rites of which will commence by the ceremonies at Mount Arafat on the 22nd April, the commission is to take steps for preventing overcrowding of khans and other resting places at Jedda, Mecca, and Medina; to provide by tents for the shelter of the poor and almost naked pilgrims from the burning rays of the sun by day, and the extraordinary humidity, peculiar to the climate of the Hedjaz, by night; to execute necessary measures of local hygiene

in the encampments and cities; and to insist particularly upon the removal of the rubbish with which the wells, prepared according to ancient usage in the valley of Mina for the reception of the blood and offal of animals sacrificed, have long been filled up. From this it would appear that Captain Burton's strictures, just quoted, should be limited to the modern Mohammedans.

In the event of cholera appearing among pilgrims arriving from India at Jedda, the commission is instructed to organize provisionally a system of quarantine, and to cause the infected group of pilgrims to undergo fifteen days detention, after the occurrence of the last reported case. If the disease appears in one of the caravans, measures are to be adopted for the isolation of the body of pilgrims, among whom the malady has shown itself. Further, ships engaged in conveying pilgrims are to be subjected to strict surveillance. Finally, the commission is to report on the measures they would suggest for the sanitary regulation of the holy cities and of the pilgrims and pilgrimage.

Postscript.-A despatch (18th April, 1866) received from her Majesty's ambassador at Constantinople, after the completion of this report, states briefly the results of the investigation made by the Hedjaz Commission as to the origin of the outbreak at Mecca. Previous to the arrival of the pilgrims the city was free from cholera. The disease, it is asserted, "is clearly traced to importation by the Javanese, who conveyed it first to Yemen, Gonfundi, and Sait, before giving it to Mecca." The epidemic, it is added, "broke out at Mina on the second day of the sacrifices, and destroyed from 10,000 to 15,000 persons out of the 100,000, or estimated number of pilgrims assembled there."

JAPANESE CURRENCY.

Copies of Reports made by the late Mr. Arbuthnot to the Lords of the Treasury on the subject of Japanese Currency, and dated respectively December 24th, 1862, February 18th, 1863, May 28th, 1863, and December 2nd, 1863, and of any Memoranda or other Documents referred to and inclosed in the above-mentioned Reports. 7th August, 1866. (513).

REFERRING to the necessity of entering into negotiations with Japan with a view to some modifications in the currency which might meet the convenience of the foreign treaty powers, Mr. Arbuthnot stated that the Japanese had a carefully devised scheme of coinage, with coins well manufactured, and possessing great uniformity. But that system was shaken. by the treaty of 1858.

The following is a copy of Article X. of the treaty between her Majesty and the Tycoon of Japan, dated 26th August, 1858:

"All foreign coin shall be current in Japan, and shall pass for its corresponding weight in Japanese coin of the same description. British and Japanese subjects may freely use foreign or Japanese coin in making payments to each other. As some time will elapse before the Japanese will become acquainted with the value of foreign coin, the Japanese Government will, for the period of one year after the opening of each port, furnish British subjects with Japanese coin in exchange for theirs, equal weights being given, and no discount taken for recoinage. Coins of all descriptions (with the exception of Japanese copper coin), as well as foreign gold and silver uncoined, may be exported from Japan."

In order to form some estimate, which at best must be an imperfect one, of the motives which led the negotiators to enter into this singular engagement, it is necessary to advert to the previous transactions between the representatives of the United States and the Japanese.

It appears that during the negotiations in 1854 for the first treaty of commerce between the United States and Japan, a question was raised regarding the value at which American coins should be received in payment for goods and supplies. In Hildreth's work on Japan (published in London in 1856), in which these negotiations are related, a description is given

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of the condition of the currency of that country, from which it clearly appears that the silver coins were over-valued in relation both to the gold and copper money, and that this fact was known to both parties to the treaty. endeavour was made by the representatives of the United States to obtain a recognition of their silver coin as of equal nominal value with the silver coin of Japan; but it is stated by the narrator that "the Japanese Commissioners insisted that our (that is, American) coin was but bullion to them, the effect of which is to put our silver dollar, so far as payments in Japan are concerned, on a level with their silver inchebu, which weighs only one-third as much. I cannot refrain from observing here that, in my opinion, the Japanese Commissioners showed a more correct appreciation of the question at issue than their American opponents, and that the argument of the latter involves one of those numerous fallacies which perplex discussions regarding value and prices.

At last the representatives of the United States succeeded in obtaining the concession which was embodied in the treaty concluded by the Earl of Elgin in 1858. But no regulation was made as to the conditions on which foreign coins should be received in exchange for or pass simultaneously with Japanese coin, and the neglect to ascertain this point has been productive of much evil. . . . .

It would be considered preposterous if the Government of France should propose that French silver coins, which represent in exchange a value corresponding with their contents of precious metal, should be allowed to pass current in this country, weight for weight, with our silver token coins, and should be exchangeable for them, so as to allow of shillings. being obtained by the tender of an equal weight of five-franc pieces, and then being exchanged at their nominal value for sovereigns. It would be obvious that the French would gain by such a transaction the difference, amounting to from 8 to 10 per cent., between the nominal current value of our shillings, and the actual value of silver contained in them. Opposed, however, to international principles as such a contract would appear in the case of two European nations, the supposed case in effect represents the character of the engagement which has been enforced on the Japanese, with the diffe

rence only that the anomaly is far greater in degree, and far more injurious in its results.

In order to elucidate this question, I have obtained from the master of the Mint an assay of the coins current in Japan at the date of the treaty, and subsequently issued (of which specimens were furnished to me by Sir Rutherford Alcock); and I annex a full report from him on the subject, accompanied by a memorandum from Messrs. Mocatta and Goldsmid.

For the immediate object, it is only necessary to refer to the three principal coins in use when the treaty was passed, which were, the gold cobang, worth by assay 18s. 44d. in British money; the silver itzeboe, worth intrinsically about 1s. 43d. in British money, but representing by the mint law of Japan onefourth of the cobang; copper cash, passing at its intrinsic value of about 6,400 in reference to the cobang, but passing at an average rate of 1,600 to the itzeboe, that rate varying from day to day according to the price of silver. It will be seen on a comparison of the assay that silver bore in the currency of Japan the relation to gold of hardly 5 to 1, and was overvalued therefore to the extent of two-thirds above the average proportion (viz. 154 to 1) which silver bullion bears to gold in the general market of the world.

The silver money of Japan thus consisted of token coins greatly overrated in reference to their contents of precious metal, and represented in exchange the value of proportions of the two extremes of gold and copper coins, which were current for their worth in metal. The Government, from the control which they possessed over the gold and silver mines, had the power of regulating the supply. This power, together with their peculiar system of government which enters into the concerns of daily life, enabled them to adjust the balance between the token silver coins and the two concurrent measures of value-gold and copper. Although the gold circulation afforded the real ultimate test of the current value of the silver coins, the use of the gold coins was restricted, and copper cash, the medium of exchange, appears to have been popularly estimated according to its relation to the silver currency, without much thought of the fundamental source of value.

We find, then, the existence of a highly