BOUND FOR MECCA.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 304, 17 September 1908, Page 7

BOUND FOR MECCA.

JAVA PILGRIMS ROBBED M ARABS. (DV HEIEOBAPE—PRESS ASSOCIATION— COPTRiaiIT.) 'Jeddah, September 15. A-icaravan of Javanese pilgrims, bound to /Mecca, was attacked by Bedouins (nomadio Arabs) near Jeddah, the' Red Sea port.of Mecca. The Bedouin? securod £25,000. THE TOLL ON'JHE FAITHFUL. The East Indies, including Java, send their quota to tlie Mecca.rShrine, no less than 9708 native pilgrims loayfng in 1004. It is recorded that in the same year about 6000 returned. . The Hedjaz railway, which was reoently cariried, Medina, and" wliioh'is to be continued to Mecca, is designed to make safe, for .Mohammedan.'"pilgrims the overland journey from Europe.'aud Turkey-in-Asia to the saored ,oity. But pilgrims coming by sea from Africa, Itidia, and' the East Indies, • and disembarking "at'Jeddalv-'for the joumejf inlar.il to Mecca, will • not hav>' the beueiit oi the Hedjaz railway; and for'their convenience and safety Turkey propose? to construct a • line Jeddah aiid Mecca. ' TJiO length of this proposed line will be, roughly, same GO or 70 miles, and tho cost will 'probably be not excessive if. measured by the • heavy toll which the nomadic tribes now levy "upon the faithful. It' appears from the stories of pilgrims who travelled the roads between Mecca and Medina in..March that,tlie country was, as usual, infested by Bedouin-robbers; while the prices' paid/. for. camel hire wero exorbitant, th« Shereef of Mecca, Ali Pasha, having apparently "made'a successful "corner" of almost all tho animals available.. ;: •