Temporary marriages which are a mere cloak for open prostitution are common in Mecca and are indeed one of the chief means of livelihood to the natives[13]. Concubinage and divorce are more universal than in any other part of the Moslem world;[14] sodomy is practiced in the Sacred Mosque itself[15] and the suburbs of the city are the scene of nightly carnivals of iniquity, especially after the pilgrims have left and the natives are rich with the fresh spoils of the traffic.[16] As might be expected, superstition grows rife in such a soil and under such circumstances. All sorts of holy-places, legends, sacred rocks, trees and houses abound. Every Moslem saint who tarried in the city or died there has left something to be remembered and honored. Gross ignorance coupled with equal conceit seems to be the universal characteristic of the people of Mecca. Modern science is laughed at and everything turns, on the Ptolemaic system, around the little world of the Koran. Jinn are exorcised; witches and the evil-eye are avoided by amulets; in short all the superstitious practices of the Moslem world are cultivated in this centre of world-wide pilgrimage. Astrology still usurps the place of astronomy and it is considered blasphemy to profess to know the hour of an eclipse or the day of the new moon before it is revealed from heaven. Alchemy is the science that attracts the Meccan physician more than the marvels of surgery; potions of holy-writ or talismans are still in use for sprains and dislocations. Their ignorance of geography and history beyond the confines of the pilgrim-world is pathetic. One of the chief Mullahs asked Hurgronje “how many days was the caravan journey from Moskop (Russia) to Andalusia (Spain)?” A government printing-press has been opened at Mecca in recent years and an official gazette is published; but even Turkish civilization and learning are considered far from orthodox for their ways partake too much of those of the “infidels” of the rest of Europe. Photography is a forbidden art and money with “images” of queens and emperors is only used with the prayer _istagfir allah_, “I ask pardon of God.” On the other hand many old European coins no longer current are looked upon as being doubly valuable as amulets and charms. One of these, the _Mishkash_ is supposed to have special virtues for newly-married women. “The irony of history,” as Hurgronje remarks, “was not satisfied that at Medina the grave of Mohammed who cursed saint-worship should become a centre of pilgrimage, but added the circumstance that at Mecca, Moslem women, who reject images and Christ-worship, should prize as an amulet the image of Jesus and an Evangelist.” Of course, the women themselves are in total ignorance of the inscription and character of the coin. [Illustration: A CHRISTIAN COIN USED AS AN AMULET BY MECCAN WOMEN.[17]]