Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 October 1893 — PILGRIMAGES TO MECCA [ARTICLE]

PILGRIMAGES TO MECCA

Result In Many Deaths from Exhaustion and Starvation. No race has been more enthusiastic in the way of pilgrimage to Mecca, the Holy City of Arabia, than that inhabiting the Malay peninsula and archipelago. It would not, at first, seem that the journey—made principally in well-appointed ships—involved any particular hardships. But the usual conditions of the “pilgrim traffic” are somewhat different from those of ordinary passenger vessels. The Malay pilgrim provides his own provisions while on board ships. The steamers, as a rule, are overcrowded. Should an epidemic break out during the voyage, the death rate becomes fearful. Tne worst hardships, however, commence on landing at the unhealthy port of Jeddah. Few of the pilgrims provide themselves with sufficient food to tramp the greater portion of the 100 miles which separate the city of Mecca from the port. Yet worse is their condition on returning. The price of food is exorbitant, and thousands perish annually of exhaustion >nd insufficient nourishment. The result is that a large number of those who visit Mecca never return to their own country.