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Updated: June 10, 2025
The Mekkawy, it may be generally said, is inferior in strength and size to the Syrian or Egyptian, but far exceeds him in expressive features, and especially in the vivacity and brilliancy of the eye. It consists of three long cuts down both cheeks; and two on the right temple, the scars of which, sometimes three or four lines in breadth, remain through life. It is called Meshale.
The tickets are transferable; the Kadhy and the Sherif must sign the transfer; and the new name, a small compliment being given to the Kadhy's scribe, is registered and sent to Constantinople. In former times a Mekkawy could scarcely be induced to sell his Surra, which he considered an honour as well as the most certain provision for his family. The value, however, of the Surra has much changed.
"O God, O bounteous God!" and if alms are refused, they walk away, without a word except the repetition of "Ya allah, ya kerim." Not so the Yemeny or Mekkawy; "Think of your duty as a pilgrim," he cries; "God does not like the cold-hearted; will you reject the blessings of the faithful?
When a Mekkawy returns home from his shop, or even after a short walk into the town, he immediately undresses, hangs up his clothes over a cord tied across his sitting-room, takes off his turban, changes his shirt, and then seats himself upon his carpet, with a thin under-cap upon his head.
The profession is one of little repute; but many a prosperous Mekkawy has, at some period of his life, been a member of it. From trade, stipends, and the profits afforded by hadjys, the riches which annually flow into Mekka are very considerable, and might have rendered it one of the richest cities in the East, were it not for the dissolute habits of its inhabitants.
During festivals, cashmere shawls are also worn, though seldom seen at other times, except on women, and the warlike Sherifs; but every Mekkawy in easy circumstances has an assortment of them in his wardrobe. After the feast, the fine suit is laid aside, and every one returns to his wonted station.
A Mekkawy, even of the lower class, must have daily on his table meat which costs from one and a half to two piastres the pound; his coffee-pot is never removed from the fire; and himself, his women and children are almost constantly using the nargile, and the tobacco which supplies it cannot be a very trifling expense.
Their outward behaviour is more decent than that of any public women in the East, and it requires the experienced eye of a Mekkawy to ascertain by a particular movement in her gait, that the veiled female passing before him belongs to the venal tribe.
During the months of the pilgrimage, they were of course always at Mekka; and every wealthy Mekkawy family followed the Hadj to Arafat as a tour of pleasure, and encamped for three days at Wady Muna. In the month of Radjeb, which is the seventh after the month of the Hadj, a caravan used always to set out from Mekka for Medina, composed of several hundred merchants, mounted upon dromedaries.
If in the mosque a foreigner is exposed to the sun, the Mekkawy will make room for him in a shady place; if he passes a coffee-shop, he will hear voices calling him to enter and take a cup of coffee; if a Mekkawy takes a jar to drink from any public water-seller, he will offer it, before he sets it to his mouth, to any passenger; and upon the slightest acquaintance, he will say to his new friend, "When will you honour me at home, and take your supper with me?"
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