where
there were a number of these Fakirs or Dervishes. For every year the
Great Mogul sends two large vessels there to carry pilgrims, who thus
get a free passage. When these vessels are ready to depart the Fakirs
come from all parts of India to embark. The vessels are laden with good
articles of trade, which are disposed of at Mecca, and all the profit
made is given in charity to the poor pilgrims. The principal only is
retained, and it serves for another year, and this principal is, at the
least, 600,000 rupees.1 It is considered a small matter when
30 or 40 per cent, only is made on these goods, for some yield cent,
per cent. Besides this all the principal persons of the Great Mogul's
harem, and other private persons, send considerable donations to Mecca.
I have mentioned at the end of my account of the seraglio of the Grand
Seigneur the rich and magnificent present which the Great Mogul sent to
Mecca in the year 1644, over and above the ordinary presents which he
makes annually.2
One
of these Fakirs returned from Mecca in the year 1642, and on landing at
Suwali he forthwith showed signs of diabolical fury. He had no sooner
said his prayers than he took his dagger and attacked some Dutch
sailors, who were on shore discharging goods from four vessels in the
port. Before they saw him and were able to put themselves on their
defence, this fanatical Fakir wounded seventeen, of whom thirteen died.
The khanjar 3 which he had was a kind of dagger, the upper
part of the blade of which was three fingers wide, and as it is a very
dangerous weapon I give a figure of it here. At length the Dutch
soldier who was on guard at the entrance to the tent where the
Commander and the merchants were seated, shot this madman through the
body, and he fell dead. Forthwith all the other Fakirs in the place,
and even the Musalmans, carried oft the body and buried it, and at the
end of fifteen days a handsome tomb had been built over it. It is
broken each year by the English and Dutch sailors when
1 £67,500.
a
On the embassies from the Grand Sharif of Mecca to Aurangzeb and the
gifts sent by the latter see Manucci, ii. 114 f. : Bernier, 133.
3 Canjare in the original (see vol. i. 82, 246). It is not necessary to reproduce the figure here.
