from the grave of the Prophet, and if the Hajee is the bearer of some _Khaki-Mubarak_ (_i.e._, blessed earth from the grave of Mohammed), or if he is in possession of a small bottle of “Zemzem” (the holy fountain in the precinct of the Kaaba), there is no end and limit to the pressing throng around him. I have seen people kissing the footsteps of such a pilgrim, embracing and petting him, and what struck me most was the scene where Kirghis or Turkoman nomads cried like children on seeing one of these Hajees, and when they began to quarrel, nay, to fight, for the opportunity to bestow hospitality on a returning Hajee, be he even an Uzbeg or a Tajik, whom they otherwise dislike. Yes, the Haj is a most wonderful institution in the interest of the strength, unity and spiritual power of Islam; it is a kind of religious Parliament and a gathering place for the followers of the prophet, where the sacred Hermandad is fostered despite all differences of race and colour, and whereas the temple in Jerusalem does often become the cockpit of different Christian sects, and the arena of bloody fights, which would fatally end without the intercession of the Moslem soldiers of the Padishah, we meet with perfect peace and concord in the court of the Kaaba, where the four sects have got their separate places without interfering with each other, and where Hanefites, Shafaites, Malekites and Hanbalites pay simultaneously their veneration to the founder of their religion. Even the Shiite Persian is not molested as long as he does not offend the believers by an ostentatious exhibition of his schismatic views, what he rarely does, for _dissimulation_ is not prohibited according to the tenets of the Shiites. The foregoing remarks about the Haj have been quoted here with the intention to realise the importance of this religious custom of Islam, and particularly to show how necessary it is to know and to appreciate duly the political, social and ethical qualities of this precept ordained by the prophet. Well, in order to gain full information on this subject, we have been in need of an account of the Haj written by a Mohammedan who is not attracted by curiosity, but by religious piety, who had free access to every place, who is not hampered by fear of being discovered as a Christian, and who is besides a shrewd observer. These essential qualities I find in Mr. Haji Khan, M.R.A.S., the pilgrim, who calls himself also “Haji Raz” (the mystery Haji). It may be well said that Christian travellers like Burkhard, Burton, Maltzan, and others, have exhausted the subject relating to the holy places of Islam, but a Mohammedan sees more and better than any foreigner, and I do not go too far when I say that Mr. Haji Khan, with his thorough English education, would have been more fitted to describe, unaided, the life and the manners of the Haj, than was his Turkish fellow-believer, Emin Effemdi, author of a Turkish account of the same topic.