“ The mosque itself is a great square, with five minarets, containing within a courtyard surrounded on three sides with deep colonnades, the pillars being of all styles and sizes, and in design so irregular that is is more like a museum of second-rate art, a curiosity-shop full of ornaments that are not accessories, and decorated with pauper splendour, than a temple. The well-fed eunuches of the tomb, who alone may look within the curtain which veils it, and who lord it as muich as they can over their fellow-believers, are described as "disconnected with humanity ”

“ The sun bursts up from behind the main - a fierce enemy, that will compel every one to crouch before him. He dyes the sky orange, and the sea 'incarnadine,' where its violet-surface is stained by his rays, and mercilessly puts to flight the mists and haze and the little agate-coloured masses of cloud that were before floating in the firmament. ”

“ There is a deep stillness; men are half-senseless;; they feel as if a few more degrees would be death. Sunset The enemy sinks behind the deep cerulean sea, under a canopy of gigantic rainbow, which covers half the heaven. ”

“ Our pilgrim carries on the stream of criticism, and makes it doubtful whether the Prophet lies in his tomb at all. The mosque is built round a chamber in the house where the Prophet died, and where he was also buried. Two caliphs lie buried by him; and the chamber is said to contain space for one more grave, which the Mahometans believe will be occupied by "Isa ben Maryam", i.e. our Blessed Lord, when, after His second coming before the end of the world, He will pay the debt of nature. ”

“ They are, he tells us, when not spoiled, the most good-humoured and sociable of men; delighting in a jest, and readily managed by kindness and courtesy; but passionate, nice upon points of honour, revengeful, and easily offended where their peculiar prejudices are misunderstood. Then the desert, which sharpens the senses by its very monotony, and makes man attentive to every detail, till, like a shepherd with his flock, he knows the face of every sand-hill and naked rock ”

“ In such places the civilised mind has new sensations; though your throat is parched, you feel no languor; your lungs are lightened, your sight brightens, your memory recovers its tone, and your spirits become exuberant; you are ready for exertion, danger, or strife; you become frank and cordial, hospitable and single-minded, and you put off the hypocrisies of civilised life. ”

“ There are four grates to the enclosure, only one of which is ever opened, and then only to admit the treasurers and the eunuchs who serve the tomb. Above it is the green dome, with its gilt crescent, over which, say the Moslems, the faithful perceive a great pillar of light, which directs, from three days' distance, the pilgrim's steps towards El Medinah. Authorities are not at all agreed about the tombs within the veil; some say there are mere slabs on the pavement, others declare them to be boxes of ebony ”

“ It is only want of space which prevents us from quoting many admirable sketches of his companions; of the Meccan boy Mohammed, with his Egyptian face and cunning acuteness, who suspected our pilgrim's disguise from the first, and even communicated his suspicions to his companions at Suez, but who was summarily declared by them to be a pauper, a " fakir," an owl, a cut-off one, a stranger, and a Wahhabi, for daring to impugn the faith of a brother believer; of the Shaykh Hamid, an inhabitant of El Medinah, at whose house he dwelt while staying in that city ”

“ On the passage he makes acquaintance with an Indian merchant, whose hospitality he enjoyed for a few days at Cairo, till he could enjoy it no longer, when he got a room at the caravanserai. The essence of Oriental hospitality seems to be, never to allow the guest a moment to himself: he must be one of the family, must sit and talk, and sip his sherbet, and smoke with them ; must be ever ready to answer the most puerile question ; must submit to have his friend peering over his shoulder if he takes up a book, or his papers ”

“ At Cairo, as at Alexandria, he practised medicine, which, by the way, does not seem to be a very lucrativeprofession in the East; for the doctor has to cure the poor gratis, and to give them a backshish besides; like the famous Western barber , who professed to shave his customers for nothing, and give them drink also. WIth the rich, he has to bargain for his fees, and he must think himself fortunate if he gets them at last. ”

“ So this book is interesting and valuable, though our author took such unwarrantable means to procure his information. Yet, probably, there are many who will consider him a martyr to science, and will think it even wiser for him to risk his soul to procure his adventures and his information, than for the naturalist to peril his neck to determine the height of a mountain or to procure a specimen of a new plant. The world is now full of people who that that knowledge is to be gained at any price ”

“ A month, which fills the stationshouses with men who have beaten their wives, and wives who have scratched their husbands' faces; which fills the mosques with a sulky, grumbling population, making themselves offensive to one another; which takes all the spirit out of children's play and all the civility from the language of the grown-up people ”

“ Among the half-naked barbarians of the desert, the distinction between latria and dulia, the worship of God and the cultus of the saint, is universally understood, in spite of the protestations of controversialists, that it is a distinction that can only be comprehended by the learned, but which will be altogether misunderstood by the vulgar, who will always confound divinewith human worship. ”

“ He is really well read in Mahometan theology and Oriental literature. He travels for scientific and useful political objects; and all the time he keeps his eyes open for subjects on which he may exercise a power of word-painting as great as is found in any of our modern travellers, and for opportunities for adventure which would rejoice the heart of a hunter in the Himalayas or in the wilds of Central Africa. ”

“ And then, the Western in disguise has to put up with all kinds of remarks most grating to his feelings, especially from an Indian host, who soon puts off his flatteries, and becomes in turn easily friendly, disagreeably familiar, and offensively rude. ”

“ The pilgrim furnishes full details on the plan, the architecture, and the furniture of the great mosque; on the ministers, from the eunuchs who keep the tomb to the farrashin who sweep the steps of the temple. on the sources of the revenues of the temple and its history. On all these subjects we have a mass of information, much of which shows great power of observation. ”

“ He set out from England on the 4th of April 1853, wisely enough commencing his incognito from the beginning, and travelling as a Persian prince; employing his time in practising Oriental manners, exclamations, positions, gait and gravity. On landing at Alexandria, he reaps his reward in being taken by every one for a Moslem; and in spite of the spying propensities of an Armenian dragoman "devilish degage" for a Persian, he found his disguise perfectly successful. ”

“ Such are the people who can worship Allah, and render to their Prophet and saints a relative honour. A distinction which is found to be no difficulty to persons in this low stage of cultivation, is probably, if possible, a less difficulty to the peasantry of Italy, France, or Ireland, however low any self-complacent Saxon controversialist is disposed to place these races in the scale of humanity and civilisation. ”

“ The eunuch's frame is unnaturally long and lean, especially the arms and legs, with high shoulders, protruding joints and a face by contrast extraordinarily large; he is unusually expert in the use of weapons, and rides to admiration ”

“ We have also abundant observations on the physical and political statistics of Medinah and its territory; the diseases of the population, their means of livelihood, the prices of provisions, and the caravans which enliven and support the town. Mr. Burton shows a more than ordinary talent for painting personal characteristics, as ma} r be seen in the following account of the agricultural Arabs who farm the gardens in the neighbourhood of El Medinah. ”